is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's Pokémon franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Unown first appeared in the video games Pokémon Gold and Silver and most of its subsequent sequels. It has also appeared in various merchandise, spin off titles, and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise.
Unown are hieroglyph-like, thin, black ancient Pokémon usually found on walls. There are 28 forms of Unown: one for each of the 26 letters in the Latin alphabet, a question mark, and an exclamation point. Unown is a Psychic-type Pokémon, and is not able to evolve. It was originally conceived as an alien-like creature, but while designing it, the designers noticed its resemblance to letters in the Latin alphabet, and shifted course.
Unown has received generally negative reception, criticized for being weak, useless, and lacking appeal, with writer Kat Bailey criticizing its gimmick as "silly." It was used as part of a research paper, where they used Unown in order to teach classification and phylogeny to students.
Concept and creation
Developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo, the Pokémon series began in Japan in 1996 with the release of the Pokémon Red and Blue video games for the Game Boy. In these games, the player assumes the role of a Pokémon Trainer whose goal is to capture and train creatures called Pokémon. Players use the creatures' special abilities to combat other Pokémon. The ultimate goal of the games is to complete the entries in the Pokémon index (Pokédex), a comprehensive Pokémon encyclopedia, by capturing, evolving, and trading to obtain creatures from all Pokémon species.
While they were designed to resemble aliens at first, the designers noticed that they began to look like letters of the alphabet, leading them to lean into this and make 26 different forms corresponding to the Latin alphabet. Unlike others in the franchise, Unown do not have singular voice actors, but instead are voiced by several at once.
Unown are Psychic-type Pokemon, and are hieroglyph-like, thin, black symbols found on walls. First appearing in Pokémon Gold and Silver, Unown went on to have a total of 28 different forms, with the latter two Unowns meant to look like a question mark and an exclamation point. In the Pokémon universe, it is said that each form has different abilities. It is unknown whether the Unown came first, or the letters they resemble. The in-game Pokédex states that Unown can make telepathic contact with other beings. If multiple Unown come together, their power increases. Unown's only known move in battle is "Hidden Power", an attack whose type depends on the individual values of the user. In the movie, Professor Oak studies a new pair of Unown, which are actually modeled after Cyrillic. It is generally not used in battle due to its low stats and limited move pool.
Appearances
In video games
Unown made its debut appearance in the Pokémon series in Pokémon Gold and Silver. In this game, they can be found in the Ruins of Alph of Johto and are triggered once the player completes the puzzles in the caves found in the Ruins, with a character prompting players to collect all 26 variations of Unown. It also appeared in Pokémon Crystal, where a new story connected to Unown was added. It has appeared in most sequels to Gold and Silver excluding the two pairs of games, Pokémon Sword and Shield and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet due to these two game pairs not having all Pokémon available. Unown also appears in Pokémon Legends Arceus, with the 28 variants found at different points in the game, locations indicated to the player by hints written using Unown-based text.
26 forms of Unown were added to Pokémon Go as part of 80 Pokemon from Gold and Silver, although it is uncommon for a player to find any forms of Unown. It has also appeared in other Pokémon games, such as the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series. Unown has also appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series. It first appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee as something that can be summoned with a Poké Ball to attack a player's opponents. Its F form also appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a collectible.