>>37643131Something pointed out in another thread is that there is leftover text for nine badges (from when Yujirou was a Gym Leader), seen here:
>>37645671>>37646136The Badges were likely renamed (after colors in the Japanese version) due to adding Super Game Boy support in mid-development, which may have been a contributing factor for cutting a Gym Leader to maintain randow theme. The Marsh Badge is known as the Gold Badge in Japanese and apparently has a psychic connection, so that one's obvious. We also know that Giovanni had Flying types in early teams, so his badge was the Falcon Badge, and they didn't both redesigning the Earth Badge even though it's blatantly a feather. As for the others:
- Boulder Badge has no obvious counterpart, replaced either Cool Badge (Ice?) or Friendship Badge (Normal?).
- Shell Badge became Cascade Badge, and probably had a different design.
- Lightning Badge became Thunder Badge, based on the type.
- Rose Badge became Rainbow Badge, and still looks like a flower.
- Ojizou Badge became Soul Badge, based on heart shape.
- Fireball Badge became Volcano Badge, and probably didn't get a design change.
We don't know if the Gym Leaders were always had the same badges, but the Cool and Friendship Badges make be think at least Brock had his type changed from early development. Misty's design was seemed always intended for Water. The Ojizou/Soul Badge is the one of interest here: the original name implied that its trainer was Ghost type instead of Poison, and we know that Koga's early roster used Ghost/Poison Pokémon.
Conclusion: there was a Ghost Gym Leader, but it most likely wasn't Erika; if her design was intentional, it's likelier that she may have been the Psychic at one point.
