Pokémon's First Generation Hid A Dragon Ball Easter Egg In One Version

Throughout the decades of the "Pokémon" franchise, some fans have surely missed an Easter egg or two — and there's one that only gamers playing in a specific region would've been able to pick up on. The first generation of games, "Pokémon Red" and "Blue," have an Easter egg that hides a "Dragon Ball" reference in-game, but the catch is that it's only in the French version of the game.

Localization is a process that typically serves for changes to be made to a piece of media to better suit it to a specific audience. While these are often benign changes that help stave off potential culture shock, "Pokémon Red" and "Blue" sport some interesting differences in the French version of the game. In the Fuschia City Gym, for instance, there's a reference to the Japanese show "Space Sheriff Gavan" (via DidYouKnowGaming), which was also popular in France at the time.

Though sneaky Easter eggs and references are typical in games, no one expected the French "Pokémon" localizer to add a "Dragon Ball" reference and go on to help rename Pokémon for a French-speaking audience.

According to DidYouKnowGaming, the television at the player's home in Pallet Town alludes to the coming-of-age movie "Stand By Me" in every localization of the game except for the French version. According to the channel, the difference was because the localizer, Julien Bardakoff, just really liked "Dragon Ball," the precursor show to the infamous "Dragon Ball Z." This Easter egg was also later included in the second generation games as well.

Bardakoff made many other changes to the French versions of the games, and he even named the Pokémon in the games to make them more successful in France according to an interview he did with DidYouKnowGaming.

Twitter user reggie_800 showed a translation of some of the "Dragon Ball" text from the beginning of the game. It talked about a "little boy with a monkey tail," which led some commenters to want to work on localization teams. While it doesn't alter anything in the story, the pop culture reference and other touchups Bardakoff provided added a bit of unique character to the French version of the game.