The rumours of a Pokémon Unite Clefable release date have subsided since the game's release. And with good reason. While there will always be evidence suggesting the original Fairy Pokémon could come still to the game, the same evidence could be used to debunk its existence as well. Here's what we know about the Pokémon Unite Clefable release date.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty about why a Pokémon Unite Clefable release date is unlikely, we need to plug a few other bits and pieces we've done.
If you're looking to get competitive in handheld mode, you need to know how to get 60fps. After that, take our guides on Held Items and Battle Items into your next match. Learning from the Pokémon Unite statistics page is a good habit to adopt as well.
When is the Pokemon Unite Clefable release date?
Just over a year since its launch, we now know that Clefable will come to Pokemon Unite on October 13.
Was Clefable cut from Pokémon Unite?
The simple reason why people think a Pokémon Unite Clefable release date is coming boils down to one thing right now: the fact that Clefable was actually playable when Pokémon Unite was first revealed.
It happened over a year ago at this point, but during the Pokémon Unite reveal stream, players from The Pokémon Company International (including Director Tsunekazu Ishihara) played a match that clearly showed Clefable duking it out in the 5v5 MOBA title. So where is it now?
Although it's easy enough to think that a Pokémon Unite Clefable release will round off the current first wave of new character releases, there's a good chance it's already in the game: just as another Pokémon entirely—Wigglytuff.
- Read more: See where your main ranks on our Pokémon Unite tier list
Despite have very similar appearances, movesets, appearance locations in the original games, and even evolution methods, there are a couple of reasons why we believe a Pokémon Unite Clefable appearance was ultimately swapped out for Wigglytuff. Going off the brief Pokémon Unite Clefable footage featured in the initial reveal video and match, it uses the same Double-Slap/Pound move Wigglytuff uses in the current build of the game.
On a similar front, while both Pokémon traditionally have access to Sing (which puts a Pokémon to sleep), the original anime's running gag of having Jigglypuff (Wigglytuff's starting form) put people to sleep with its singing was probably viewed internally as the option that made more sense from a brand recognition standpoint. Its Unite Move "Star Recital" would ultimately make a bit more contextual sense this way as well.
This theory extends to Wigglytuff's Defense Curl and Rollout moves in Pokémon Unite. Jigglypuff has used similar moves in every entry of the popular fighting game Super Smash Bros. since its debut in 1999. That's another bonus point when it comes to brand recognition.
Clefable's popular Metronome move, which uses one of the franchise's hundreds of moves at random, probably wouldn't really work well in a skill-based game like Pokémon Unite, either. But another reason could simply centre around visibility concerns given the genre of the game.
Due to the camera angle of Pokémon Unite, it could be difficult to differentiate Wigglytuff from Clefable on the battlefield. They're strikingly similar from certain angles. Being a reactionary game with counter-based mechanics, if you can't be sure what you're fighting, you can't be sure how to fight back. Like failing to accomdate for colourblind players at least, having two virtually indistinguiable characters in a competitive game is a major design flaw that's easily avoided.
All in all, there's plenty of reason to believe a Pokémon Unite Clefable release wasn't axed, but simply tweaked. It's still there in spirit. It's just that Wigglytuff was ultimately the more recognizable choice of the two and the switcharoo probably wasn't too expensive or time-consuming to implement.
So will a Pokémon Unite Clefable release date ever happen? It's unlikely. In the end, the core similarities between the two probably made the switch from one to the other quite simple. Character animations and attacks were likely easy enough to switch out due to their similar appearance.
The work was already done as for the reveal, and may simply have been retroactively applied to the Pokémon we see in-game today. Clefable probably isn't even viewed as wasted cut content: it laid the foundation for the final product. It's not the first time Clefable's evolutionary chain has been put on the sidelines. Did you know that Clefairy was originally set to be the franchise mascot in place of Pikachu? That surely would have secured it a place in Pokémon Unite.
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