What does SPA mean in Pokemon X?

Question

I got a lvl 24 Sylveon from wonder trade, and when I checked it's summary I saw a little black box at the top that had the letters SPA in. What does this mean and should I be worried?

Answer 1

SPA means its origin game was played in Spanish

The tag is referring to the Language of the game it came from, not the real-world region. If you play the game in a language from another country while your GPS and 3DS settings indicate you're somewhere else, you still get the tag, because it's not about location. It just so happens most people pick their native language, and live in a place where their native language is the most common one. American-born Pokémon have "ENG" when traded to other language games, and Canadian-born Pokémon have either ENG or FRE when traded to other games, depending on if the Canadian playing is French-speaking or not. Mexico-born Pokémon tend to have "SPA" too.

Comments

I de-selected the old answer, though this new one doesn't completely answer the original question.

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But it does. The SPA means its origin game was played in Spanish, and I explained in-depth how the language tags worked. Maybe you missed the last sentence of my answer?

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Hey, nothing personal. I'm just saying "SPA means its origin game was played in Spanish" is what any selected answer should say straight up, so people don't feel like they have to disentangle the incorrect answer before reading the correct one.

This is a really silly thing to argue about so I'm just going to edit the answer and select it.

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Giving an in-depth explanation so the asker walks away with updated understanding of the game that can be applied in other situations is a better thing to do, and believing otherwise is absolutely insane, as is editing my statement without my consent.

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Yeah bro understanding is good but when you don't even put "SPA means Spanish" in your answer, when the question is "What does SPA mean?" Youre not really answering the question. This isn't math class, you don't need to give people hints and then hope they can solve the problem themselves. Just give them the answer upfront and then explain.

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I made sure OP's statement in the comments is in the answer, front and bolded. I see you edited out it before. We like our selected answers to have the information easily accessible. there's nothing wrong with explaining, but the answer should be visible. If you insist on editing it out again, I'll just de-select this best answer and post a new answer in which the information is accessible. people shouldn't have to dig into the comments to find what they're looking for.

I saw that you flagged fizz's comment.... just so you know, that isn't what the flag function is to be used for. Fizz is the dude in charge here, and he's only following the rules and guidelines of the site... the same ones everyone has to follow.

Answer 2

It means it's spanish

Answer 3

If the original game the Pokemon was in is spanish. Spa is another word for it. The only way you can obtain it is to get someone with a spanish game over wifi or someone else who does

Hope this helped!!!

Comments

I got a Spanish shiny clawitzer

Answer 4

The SPA means that your Pokémon was originally from Spain. Foreign Pokémon all have 3 letters that indicate the country (i.e. JPN from Japan, ENG from England, etc.)

This is actually a great thing for a few notable reasons. First of all, foreign Pokémon get 1.7x experience from battling (compared to 1.5x from a traded Pokémon from within your country), and not only that, you can use the Masuda method to get a shiny Eevee (which is very valuable).

Comments

thank yoo now i'm going to try the masuda method to get shiny eevee :3

Answer 5

SPA means the language of origin of the game is Spanish. When starting Pokémon XY, you can choose from seven different languages for the game to be in. These are Japanese, English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Korean. Pokémon who originate from any language have that indicated, like SPA for Spanish or ENG for English. Despite what the other answers may say, it doesn't necessarily mean they're exclusively from languages these countries are from, as there are very well people who speak these languages outside a country they originate from.

Pokémon traded with a language the recipient is not playing on leads to a few unique things. For instance, if they're not nicknamed, they'll retain the name of the Pokémon from that country. The Pokedex entry for the Pokémon is also gotten in its country of origin. Finally, the Pokémon itself gains a 1.7× experience modifier instead of the standard 1.5× for traded Pokémon, and it can give greater Shiny odds when breeding via the Masuda Method.