Earlier this week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company emerged from hiding to reveal the latest batch of information for Switch games Pokémon Sword and Shield.
The 15-minute presentation divulged details for several new mechanics, including mountain-sized Dynamax Pokémon and a free-roam Wild Area with gameplay inspired by last year’s Let’s Go! spinoffs. Some announcements, like the addition of Raid battles, proved surprising, to say the least, and certainly provided Trainers with enough material to dissect until further reveals roll around.
Taking into account the current reveal schedule for Sword and Shield, the next big batch of footage is likely to arrive via next week’s E3, though an insider may already have spilt the beans on what to expect. Hailing, as many rumors do, from 4Chan, this latest round of hearsay surfaced a few weeks back but largely went unnoticed due to its unverifiable nature. Since then, however, many of the claims have ultimately turned out to be 100% accurate, lending credibility to those not covered in the latest Pokémon Direct.
Check them out below (thanks, PokéJungle):
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Team Yell is the gang in this game, who are well-meaning fans of Marnie causing trouble
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Eternatus is the evil legendary. The other legendary will be a wolf, who will either have a shield mane or hold a sword like Great Wolf Sif. Don’t recall its name
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Dynamaxing and Gigantamaxing are new dynamics that will supersize pokemon in specific areas. Gigantamaxing is different from dynamax as it changes what the pokemon looks like. Meowth looks like long cat. Lapras gets layers like musical bars to its shell and musical notes. Pikachu looks like retro fat pikachu
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Some pokemon, like Farfechtd, will get regional evolutions, like Sirfechtd. Meowth looks like a ball of spiky grey fur
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Skwovet and Greedunt iirc are chipmunk pokemon who will hide in berry trees and attack randomly if you shake for too many berries. If they attack, you lose half the berries that dropped.
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Camping is how you play with pokemon now. You’ll get two toys, a feather toy and toy pokeball, which can raise friendship. You can make curry which will raise starts and friendliness
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Scorbunny will have fighting moves, but is pure fighter. It becomes Raboot, but I don’t remember the final evolution, except that it looks like a fighter. It looks humanoid
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Sobble becomes Sizzile and then Intelleon, a chameleon with a spy theme
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Grookey will end up as a giant gorilla that beats a wood drum to attack.
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The best Pokémon so far is the blue seagull who when it dives, either gets a barracuda in its mouth or a pikachu, which it launches at its enemy
Taking into account the specific description of Dynamaxing as well as Sword and Shield‘s box art legendaries, I have a hard time not believing the remaining leaks to be accurate, but it nonetheless remains unsubstantiated, so take everything seen above with a pinch of salt. Do note, however, that a separate leak has previously touched upon the addition of so-called Galarian Form versions of existing Pokémon, so the supporting evidence is there.
True or not, though, expect Game Freak to expose more of Pokémon Sword and Shield in just a few short days. See you then.