Is it just me or do Dragonair and Clefable have similar cries in Gen 1?

Question

I was looking through some old Generation 1 cries, and found that Dragonair and Clefable's cries are both two toned, have almost the exact length, but have different pitches. I do Pokemon cry quizzes a lot, so this would really help.

Comments

Good content on this subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDLpbFXnpeY

Answer 1

Dragonair and Clefable in specific don't have related cries, but most Pokemon cries in Gen 1 are related in some way.

To illustrate, I've taken a graphic from this excellent video by Retro Game Mechanics Explained:

All Pokemon in each of the 38 groups have an identical "base" cry. The variance within each group is created by altering the length and pitch of each Pokemon's base cry.

Due to the way this is implemented, cries from the same group can end up sounding very different to each other. But equally, some of these do sound very alike. In the case of Ditto + Poliwag (group 14) and Rhyhorn + Charizard (group 04), the cries are outright identical.

Dragonair (group 15) and Clefable (group 25) don't have anything in common behind the scenes.

I recommend watching the video if you're interested in a full explanation.