Castelia City (Japanese: ヒウンシティ Hiun City) is a large seaside city located in south central Unova. Unlike other cities, Castelia is a huge, sprawling metropolis, sporting many towering skyscrapers and other tall buildings. It is the heart of business and economy of the Unova region, as opposed to its sister city, Nimbasa City, which is the heart of leisure and entertainment. Most of its city streets are crowded with different people rushing around, trying to get to work, home, or other places, creating a hustle and bustle scene for city life. The city exists on the bottom of Unova's central peninsula, south of the desert and north of the sea, making for a perfect harbor city.
The city has only two possible entrances on foot, from Route 4, a harsh desert in the north, and from Skyarrow Bridge, a large suspension bridge that connects the southern part of the eastern peninsula to the central peninsula and provides a scenic views of Castelia's vast skyline, which spans off in the east. There are several other ways to enter the city. Tourists and businessmen travel to Castelia City from other regions by boat and stop at Castelia's harbor side.
Castelia City is geographically the largest city in the Unova region and contains many structural elements that have not been seen in cities in other regions. The city's core is a central business district, with huge skyscrapers and other commercial buildings; a series of alleyways lead into this core, where smaller shops are set up among city traffic. The city's outskirts are bounded on all sides by harbor, where ships provide traffic to other regions in the Pokémon world.
Despite its economic encouragement, Castelia also offers a worldly aspect. The city is a melting pot, incorporating cultures and foods from other regions. From across the globe, artists also flock to Castelia to open their art galleries, offering a different sort of entertainment in comparison to Nimbasa City.
Places of interest
Castelia City in the anime
Castelia's wharf
Due to the geography of the central peninsula, Castelia City's wharf is shaped so it extends all the way around the southern half of the city. The wharf is considered the outer layer of the giant city, where many tall skyscrapers and important buildings stand. The Pokémon Center can be found along the eastern side of the wharf, as well as several other company buildings, for example, the Battle Company, and Passerby Analytics HQ.
Battle Company
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Battle Company
Talented Trainers Welcome!
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The Battle Company is a multi-story building located on the corner of Mode Street along the wharf. The company is one of the lead researchers of battle items, and assists in the development of other items such as Poké Balls, as well as goods for Pokémon and Trainers. An essential part of the research the company does is through battling, so most of the employees, who are usually Clerks and Scientists, are looking for a battle when they work. The stronger the employee is, the higher the floor they work on; however, only three floors are accessible to Trainers and visitors—the ground floor, floor 47 and floor 55. The head of the company works on the 55th floor, and disguises himself as a Janitor to trick people. He will give the player an Exp. Share after he is defeated.
There are three floors that can be accessed by Trainers which are all connect by an elevator at the back of the building. The ground floor is reception and the visitors floor, where there are a few tables set up and a television. The 47th floor contains 6 employees, most of which can be battled. There are many office desks and cubicles, as well as computer systems and servers. The 55th floor is very much similar to the 47th floor, where there are several desks, cubicles and meeting places. There are four employees working on this floor as well as the president, who sits at the back of the room behind a desk.
Passerby Analytics HQ
- Main article: Passerby Analytics HQ
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Passerby Analytics HQ
...People pass by as they walk along.
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The Passerby Analytics HQ is located on the corner of the street where Castelia Gym is. This is the place where the player may accept requests to conduct surveys, answer questionnaires or change his or her greeting or thanking phrase.
Ocean Side
There are five piers on the waterfront based on five human fingers[1] where certain ferries are docked. The piers are opposite the street in which the Gym resides is Liberty Pier. The ferry found here will take the player to Liberty Garden if the player has a Liberty Pass. Unity Pier is across from Narrow Street, and its ferry is transport to the Unity Tower, which is only available after making an international trade. Prime Pier is across from Mode Street. Occasionally docked at Prime Pier is the Plasma Ship, a black boat that Team Plasma uses to get to Liberty Garden. A few of the local citizens have noticed the strange black boat and have become concerned. The fourth pier opposite Castelia Street, called Cruise Dock, is where the Royal Unova is docked; however, it is only available after the player defeats the Elite Four. A short, unnamed pier lies directly south of the Skyarrow Bridge gate, where a couple of citizens relax. One of them will give away an evolutionary stone, depending on whether the Trainer wants to evolve a Pansage, Pansear, or Panpour.
Castelia Street
Castelia Street has many people coming and going, especially during the evenings when people are going home from work. This street has many tall skyscrapers and large buildings; however, it features the Game Freak HQ and a building where one Pokémon per day can receive a massage to increase its happiness. The 11th floor of that building, which is the only floor accessible for visitors, is almost empty, expect for a couple of people talking at the meeting table, of which one will give away TM44, which holds the move Rest.
Game Freak
The Game Freak headquarters are located in a large building on Castelia Street's right side. The building has only one accessible floor—the 22nd floor where the Game Freak developers can be found. There a girl on the first floor who will tell a story about a Pokémon that can cause illusions, and then she will show the player a photo of Zorua, thus adding it to the Pokédex, which is where the Zorua event takes place. On the 22nd floor, the office is similar to the other office building in Castelia City, with computers, cubicles, desks and servers around the place. Here is where the Game Freak developers are working on a game called "Pokémon Black and White". The Game Director at the back of the room will give the player a Diploma if they complete the Regional Pokédex, as well as another Diploma if they fill up the National Pokédex. After defeating the Elite Four, another Game Designer, Morimoto, will challenge the player to a battle, and the Sound Director will play a special Rocket Hideout theme.
Mode Street
Mode Street is another commuter-heavy street; however, it is not as large or as busy as Castelia Street. There are many trees and plants along its sides, giving the street a feeling of nature. Along the left side of Mode Street stands the famous Casteliacone, and along the right side of the street is Studio Castelia, a popular art gallery where people go to enjoy local artwork.
Studio Castelia
Studio Castelia is a small art gallery in central Castelia which displays and showcases many painting from artists who live in Castelia; however, it doesn't display any of Burgh's paintings, because he prefers to hang them in the Castelia Gym. Many artists from around Unova come to Castelia to get inspiration from Burgh, and their paintings are hanging here. Currently, the studio is exhibiting works in the motif of legends of the Unova region, which have more to do with the myths of Reshiram and Zekrom. The owner of the studio likes to take walks along the Central Plaza and enjoys taking in the scenery and landscape with people and Pokémon. Every day, a Harlequin inside will ask the player to bring him a Pokémon of a certain type, and for doing so he will reward the player with their choice of one of the first five Berries.
Casteliacone
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Castelia's Famous Casteliacone
Closed during Winter.
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Casteliacone is a popular ice cream stand in Castelia City, which sells ice creams with the same name as the store. A single Casteliacone can be purchased once per week, every Tuesday, for $100, except in winter. The ice cream has the ability to cure a single Pokémon from all status ailments. Due to its tremendous popularity, the Casteliacone sells out very quickly, with crowds of people coming all across parts of Unova, even as far as Accumula Town, just to have a taste. The line for the famous sweet is always long and the ice cream is often unavailable.
Narrow Street
Narrow Street is a back alley with a number of dumpsters and rubbish bins lined up against it. Like the name suggests, the street is very narrow, containing dark buildings, and shady people. Unlike any of the other streets, it is poorly lit and contains very few people, certainly not any rushing businesspeople trying to get to and from work. A man hiding behind one of the dumpsters who has lost his sunglasses will jump out and bump into the player, and give them TM70 (Flash) for finding them. Some thugs can be seen hanging around the street not saying much, just laughing and smirking. One of the city's three Dancers is originally located here. There is only one accessible building on this street, an out-of-place café called Café Sonata.
Café Sonata
Café Sonata is a small café on the right side of Narrow Street. Many people come to the café to relax after a tiring day of work, and to listen to the Musician's guitar rhythm, who believes that a beautiful melody makes people happy and a sad melody makes people sorrowful. If a Trainer brings Meloetta to the Musician, he will teach it Relic Song. The manager of the café will give Trainers a Lemonade for coming into the store for the first time; however, no drinks or items can be bought after this.
Gym Street
Gym Street is a large street which contains its namesake, the Castelia Gym.
Castelia City Gym
- Main article: Castelia Gym
The Castelia Gym is the official Gym of Castelia City, located on the western-most street above the Liberty Pier. The Gym also doubles as a working art gallery. It is based on Template:Type2 Pokémon. The Gym Leader is Burgh. The Castelia Gym is designed like a huge beehive. It contains many small hexagonal rooms, several which are cut off by walls of honey which are at first barricaded by gates. There are buttons which are placed in the center of most of the rooms, and if certain buttons are stepped on, they trigger the gates to descend. However, not all the buttons trigger the doors to descend—some make Trainers appear, who then be battled. The player is able to walk through the any wall of honey, as long as there is not a raised gate over it, allowing the player to navigate through the Gym and eventually reach Burgh. The Gym is also decorated with pictures painted by Burgh himself. For defeating Burgh, Trainers receive the Insect Badge and TM76 (Struggle Bug).
Team Plasma hideout
Across the street from the Gym is a strange, seemingly deserted building. When following a Team Plasma Grunt to try to retrieve Bianca's Munna, it is discovered that the building is currently housing Ghetsis, Bronius, and Rood along with several Grunts. Ghetsis reveals that they are using the building as a hideout as they thought it would be ironic to have a hideout opposite a Gym, but they had not expected to be discovered so soon. Team Plasma then leaves the building, leaving only a Smoke Ball.
Central Plaza
Central Plaza in the anime
The Central Plaza, also known as the Castelia Central Area, is a park located at the intersection of all the streets in Castelia City. There is a large following fountain that is said to bring people and Pokémon together. There are vending machines located here that sell drinks. A Dancer named Mickey will give the player an Amulet Coin if they can round up two other Dancers in Castelia to form a dance team with him. The two other dancers that are located around the city are Edmond and Raymond, and they are located on Narrow Street and Unity Pier respectively.
Further along the Central Plaza to the north is another street that leads out on to Route 4, along which there are several tall skyscrapers. On the left side is a building that contains the Name Rater, where Trainers can have the nicknames of their Pokémon rated and, if the Pokémon's ID number matches the Trainer ID number, the nickname can be changed. If the Pokémon was caught by the player that currently owns it, he will say that the name could be better and offer the player the option of changing it. If the original Trainer of the Pokémon he's judging is not the player, he will say that the name is perfect and refuse to change it. Also, this building contains the Feeling Checker; however, she doesn't check Trainer's Pokémon, but offers advice about using the Feeling Check on the C-Gear.
On the 11th floor, the only other floor available to visitors, the Relocator can be accessed; however, only after the correct password is given can the Relocator be used. The Relocator is used to transfer any of the four Pokémon distributed to commemorate the anime movie Zoroark: Master of Illusions—Celebi and the Shiny legendary beasts, Raikou, Entei and Suicune.
There are two buildings accessible on the right-hand side of the street. One building is full of people who are taking a break from working, and give Trainers various items. On the 47th floor, the only other floor available to visitors, there is a man who will explain exactly what the effects are for each of the eight Gym Badges, similar to the person in Cerulean City. Another building located on the right side of the street, who are having a formal party on the 47th floor. After getting past the guard who is searching for suspicious goods, Trainers may go up and talk with people at the party, some speaking in foreign languages. Some of the people upstairs will give away items or TMs.
Demographics
Castelia City's population is 127. Castelia City is the second most populous city in the Pokémon world, behind its northern rival city, Nimbasa City while beating Goldenrod City's population of 126.
Poké Mart
Items
Man in Pokémon Center
In the upstairs of the Pokémon Center, a man wearing a black suit will give the player some rare items based on how many different outsider ID numbers the player has in their possession (despite his claim it is based off the number of trades), acting as a Generation V equivalent to the Lucky Channel and its successors. These items are usually acquired by battling on the Battle Subway. If the player has not traded with enough people to receive an item, the man suggests players use the GTS.
Pokémon
| Pokémon
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Games
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Location
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Levels
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Rate
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| Sp
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Su
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Au
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Wi
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| Gift Pokémon
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B
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W
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Gift
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10
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One
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| A colored background means that the Pokémon can be found in this location in the specified game. A white background with a colored letter means that the Pokémon cannot be found here.
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Trainers
Castelia City image from a TV commercial
Game Freak
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Reward: $6160
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Battle Company
47F
| Trainer
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Pokémon
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Clerk ♂ Clemens
カツノリ Katsunori
Reward: $760
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55F
| Trainer
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Pokémon
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Janitor Geoff
シンノスケ Shinnosuke
Reward: $4000
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Gym Street
Central Plaza
| Trainer
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Pokémon
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Dancer Mickey
ミッキー Mickey
Reward: $672
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Narrow Street
| Trainer
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Pokémon
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Dancer Edmond
エドモンド Edmond
Reward: $672
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Unity Pier
| Trainer
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Pokémon
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Dancer Raymond
レイモンド Raymond
Reward: $672
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In the anime
Casteliacone in the anime
Like in the games Castelia is a big city with an abundance of huge, colorful skyscrapers and shops with a long wharf. The Castelia Gym is located there. In the middle of Castelia City is a huge circular park called the Central Plaza this is where all the streets of Castellia link up to. Here there are trees, a lake, a few buildings and a huge fountain in the middle. A Pokémon Center is nearby. The Desert Resort can be seen in the horizon.
It made a brief cameo in The Lost World of Gothitelle! where a few skyscrapers can be seen from Skyarrow Bridge, and again in Sally's flashback of Gothitelle in the alleyways. It appeared fully in A Venipede Stampede! when Ash, Iris and Cilan arrived there. Cilan talks about its famous ice cream: Casteliacone. Ash and his friends suddenly meet Burgh at the Central Plaza. Burgh is sensing something is wrong and they go down the underground sewage system that goes past the outskirts of Castelia to find the problem. Here they find an injured Venipede. Suddenly a massive group of Venipede storm in and attack the city.
Burgh becomes somewhat angry to find out that the mayor plans to get rid of the Venipede using force and protests the idea. The mayor eventually decides to let him handle it. His idea was to find the leader of the Venipede and have Nurse Joy's Audino use Heal Pulse on it. He, Ash, and Iris eventually locate the leader only to see it be attacked by Trip and his Lampent. Burgh orders him to stop and tells him that he is only making things worse.
Once Nurse Joy's Audino uses Heal Pulse on the leader, Burgh plays his Insect Pipe and leads the Venipede out of the City. In a now-deleted scene from the episode (the episode's original ending), he sees Ash and his friends off when they decided to go with Professor Juniper to investigate the Desert Resort.
Ash and his friends arrive back in Castelia City in Battling For The Love of Bug-Types! for a Gym Battle with Burgh. The Castelia Gym is located on Gym Street. Ash won against Burgh and his Sewaddle evolved into a Swadloon.
A fishing contest in A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition! was supposed to take place in Castelia City, but the episode was delayed in Japan until June 23 because of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the contest was relocated to an unnamed city.
Trivia
Pikachu inside the building
- Castelia's Japanese motto is ヒウンは 飛ぶ雲 めでたい雲.
- Even though it was officially stated that no Pokémon from previous generations would appear in Pokémon Black and White before obtaining the National Pokédex, a Pikachu can be seen with a Hiker inside the same building as the Name Rater in Castelia City. However, the developers most likely meant that players could not obtain or battle any Pokémon before the National Pokédex.
- The Game Freak headquarters in Castelia City is a direct reference to the Carrot Tower in Setagaya, Tokyo. The 22nd floor of the Carrot Tower is the current headquarters of the game development company Game Freak, which is the same floor that the Game Freak members are located on in the game.
Name origin
| Language
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Name
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Origin
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| Japanese
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ヒウンシティ Hiun City
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飛雲文 hiunmon, a type of pattern based around swirling clouds (example). 飛雲 hiun translates to "soaring clouds".
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| English
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Castelia City
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From castellanus, a cloud species. Also, from the Latin for castle.
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| French
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Volucité
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From volume or volute (swirl), and cité, city.
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| German
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Stratos City
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Probably from Stratus cloud or from Stratosphere
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| Italian
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Austropoli
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From australe, southern, or austro, a southern wind, and the suffix -poli, meaning city.
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| Spanish
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Ciudad Porcelana
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From porcelana, porcelain.
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| Korean
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구름시티 Gureum City
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구름 (gureum) means cloud.
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| Chinese (Mandarin)
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飛雲市 Fēiyún Shì
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From 飛雲 hiun. Also translates to "soaring clouds".
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References
