When I came home from school today after doing my homework I was watching a few videos and I was reminded of something interesting. In some of the games you were able to catch a certain trio of legendary Pokemon, but in order to get to the areas where these Pokemon are you have to go through a few things involving a certain “code”. The interesting thing is that this “code” is in fact braille writing (though written out as the dots so you can visualize them). They were considerate enough to write out the braille alphabet since most people wouldn’t be familiar with the language. Though I understand complaints about how this would be tough for most sighted people because they would be unfamiliar with the system of dogs that make up the language for the blind I find it interesting. It’s a rather remote thing in the games being optional after-game material that you can unlock, but they went through the detail to make the braille spell out what they wanted. Thee is more to the puzzle than that, but being able to read the braille is essential for unlocking the Pokemon. Sign language and braille I find are usually rarely known by people who don’t need them (or in the case of sign language translators). It’s especially unlikely that a fully sighted ten year old would be able to read it (and of course a blind ten year old wouldn’t be playing Pokemon very easily if at all), but it’s almost nice that the Pokemon Company did this. I’m not sure how it’s written out (or if it is) in the Japanese release since I’ve never looked it up, but I know for the English version it’s there. I would assume it’s similar in other versions. I appreciate that they put the time and effort into making it accurate and bringing a language that is a “blind” language to people who can see so they can at least appreciate it to an extent (even if that means looking it up because even us blind people mix up letters, stupid i and e, r and w, d and f and j and h).

I remember when I had to learn braille at around that age and I hated it because it set me apart. It made me different than everyone because I was taken out of class in order to learn it. I was the only one who had to learn how to read it and write it (maybe I would have been happier being the only person who could have told them easily what to do when it came to that part), but I didn’t want it to set me apart. So it is nice to see that it’s used in a way that isn’t solely just so us blind can read

So if I ever look at videos where someone is playing through that part of the game I look at the braille and read it to myself so I know what it’s saying because even though I’m not familiar with contractions I do remember the letters (even though I mixed up i and e on a present I made someone who then told me a helpful trick to remember which one is which). But it’s a nice touch, and despite the frustraton it causes people who have to try and figure out what it’s saying I think it’s a nice homage to a language most sighted people would never come across.