Talk:Sparkling Skylands

Location in Kanto

There's been some dispute regarding whether the Sparkling Skylands are based on just Saffron City or a combination of it and Celadon City. Personally, I'm of the opinion that the area is based solely on Saffron City, as it houses the ruins of not only Silph Co. (as evidenced by the Silph Co. music CD found in the building and the fountain in its lobby), but also the Saffron Gym (identified by the journal about Sabrina that's found there, the floor color that matches that seen in HG/SS, and the Poké Ball statues) and the Fighting Dojo (referred to as a dojo by Poliwrath in-game), while housing none of Celadon's landmarks. Does this argument/evidence sound sensible? --FinnishPokéFan92 (talk) 18:24, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

Another piece of evidence I wanted to add is that across the skylands, there are ruined streets that are made of asphalt and yellow tiling, which is the same way Saffron's streets are depicted in both HGSS and LGPE. As a matter of fact, the appearance of the building Tinkmaster remodels, the building that Gardevoir leads you to, and the dojo that Poliwrath talks about are all remarkably similar to the designs of Silph Co., the Saffron Gym, and the Fighting Dojo as seen in LGPE. Meanwhile, the color scheme of Celadon City in LGPE is light gray and green, colors which are nowhere to be found in the skylands. Storm Aurora (talk) 19:56, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

Ah, yes, the color of the tiles! Completely forgot to mention that! Thanks for bringing it to the evidence table too! Do more people agree with all this evidence? --FinnishPokéFan92 (talk) 21:22, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

What about the Game Corner/Rocket HQ? The building with the neon floor is almost certainly the Game Corner, which isn't in Saffron City- especially given the basement area with the Team Rocket poster. Additionally, the tall building has too few floors to be Silph Co. It's possible that it might have lost a few but if so I'd expect there to be far more debris and signs of damage in the area. Additionally, there are also journal entries mentioning the Game Corner and Celadon Department Store, too. Either we assume that those buildings are present in the Skylands as well or we can no longer trust the journal entries to have been found in their corresponding buildings. UB00 (talk) 23:38, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

The base is most likely not the one underneath the Game Corner, but one original to this game. Remember that there's also one in Withered Wasteland, aka Fuchsia, which doesn't have a Rocket base in the core series games. As I stated above, the evidence points towards the building the base is underneath of being the Saffron Gym, based on similar floor tiles, the journal, and the statues. As for the journal entries, the game has journal entries about stuff outside their respective areas or even any accessible areas altogether, such as a journal about Misty in the Withered Wasteland. --FinnishPokéFan92 (talk) 23:58, 3 April 2026 (UTC)

True, although on the other hand it means the journal entry in what you suggested was the Saffron Gym cannot be considered verifiable proof of its identity. I suspect that it is unlikely that we will get a definitive answer without directly appealing to the designers themselves. UB00 (talk) 00:30, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

Just because some journal entries aren't in the location that matches their subject doesn't mean that all of them are. Same for discs and such. Like how the S.S. Anne theme CD and a human record mentioning the ship are found on the ship itself. I feel the records that are out of place are the ones that don't have corresponding map areas in the game, such as Cerulean and Celadon. --FinnishPokéFan92 (talk) 01:02, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

Regardless, I feel that right now we are at an impasse. UB00 (talk) 08:10, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

Okay, I discovered something yesterday that puts a small dent in my confidence that the skylands are 100% based on Saffron City. After you complete the Pokédex, you can craft an upgraded Dowsing Machine that leads you to a secret room underneath one of the buildings on the west side of the skylands. This secret room has several computers and other office furniture, as well as a printer that you can use to receive a diploma certifying your completion of the Pokédex. This is obviously a reference to the office that Game Freak uses in the Kanto games...which is located in Celadon City. It's also worth noting that the buildings are slightly different in this part of the skylands, being gray with a blue foundation rather than yellow like the buildings in the rest of the area (and the buildings in Saffron).

However, this blue-and-gray color scheme is not the color scheme of Celadon City, and in fact doesn't resemble the color scheme of any city in LGPE at all. So, I find it hard to say that this part of the area is Celadon specifically. At best, I would say that this secret room and the underground Rocket hideout may be references to the locations in Celadon City, but the area as a whole is based on Saffron. Storm Aurora (talk) 16:31, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

My admittedly not-completely-informed take is that we should perhaps be considering the unique nature of the Sparkling Skylands' terrain. For other areas in the game it's much more reasonable to assume that e.g. the Withered Wasteland almost certainly is not intended to incorporate Cerulean City despite being the location of an article on Misty as mentioned prior, because those two locations are geographically quite far apart, and the Withered Wasteland doesn't give much indication that they could have been brought closer together in any way.

However, the Sparkling Skylands are a set of floating islands held up by mysterious mineral deposits, so the argument that they must be primarily based on solely one area arguably doesn't hold as much weight, especially when one considers that normally Celadon City and Saffron City almost directly border each other, being separated only by the extremely small Route 7. Driftin Soul (talk) 16:44, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

So, with the evidence we have, and given the disputed status of Celadon City's inclusion in this area, can we change the "Celadon Department Store" link on the "Pokémon Pokopia" article back to "Silph Co." and perhaps also remove references of the Sparkling Skylands being partially based on Celadon from the various pages it's mentioned on? --FinnishPokéFan92 (talk) 18:20, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

I'm in favor of that. Storm Aurora (talk) 20:45, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

Thank you. Does that mean I have your permission to do it? --FinnishPokéFan92 (talk) 21:20, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

No, because there are still two other people who were involved in this discussion who haven't had a chance to reply yet. Storm Aurora (talk) 04:52, 5 April 2026 (UTC)

Figured as much. Hence why I asked and wanted to make sure. Let's wait. --FinnishPokéFan92 (talk) 08:58, 5 April 2026 (UTC)

(resetting indent)Wanted to add something else I thought of that seems to indicate the developers' intention: the background music. Once each area is developed enough, the background music for the area begins to incorporate remixes of the background music for the area or areas it's based on. Withered Wasteland remixes the Fuschia/Cerulean City theme; Bleak Beach remixes the themes for Vermilion City and the SS Anne; Rocky Ridges includes the Pewter/Saffron City theme, the Mt. Moon theme, and the Clefairy dance theme; and finally, Sparkling Skylands remixes the Pewter/Saffron City theme exclusively. If the developers intended the area to be a fusion of Celadon City and Saffron City, I would expect the background music to include a remix of the Celadon City theme. Storm Aurora (talk) 21:01, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

Well spotted. I'm not really that good at spotting stuff like that in background music, so that's a nice bit of evidence I myself couldn't have brought up. Thank you very much. --FinnishPokéFan92 (talk) 21:43, 8 April 2026 (UTC)