'Pokemon Sword' And 'Shield' Leak Teases Legendary Pokemon

Now that the announcement of Pokemon Sword and Shield has come and gone, fans of the series are starving for any scraps of information they can find about the new games. And that includes looking back at some old leaks that previously made the rounds and turned out to be at least partially true.

More recently, a leak that was published on the website 4chan is now getting a second look. And if the leaker had his or her facts straight then, it could point to a few of the Legendary Pokemon we'll end up seeing in Pokemon Sword and Shield later this year.

According to Inverse, the since-deleted 4chan post listed the titles for the two games as Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, and then went even further to mention that the region of both games would be based on Great Britain, and that there would be two legendary Pokemon — a metal snake and a wooden horse. The leak also teased Armored Evolutions, and named off a few Pokemon that could get the Armored treatment, such as Charizard, Mewtwo, Flygon, and Zeraora.

Finally, the leak very specifically mentioned Meltan, stating that the steel-type Pokemon would play a role in both Armored Evolutions and the lore of Legendary Pokemon.

In some places, it appears that whoever leaked this information was right on the money. The titles of both games were correct, and the region of Pokemon Sword and Shield is Galar, which does look an awful lot like Great Britain in its shape. The rest, however, doesn't seem to have anything backing it up. The Pokemon Day Nintendo Direct trailer for Pokemon Sword and Shield was careful not to give away too much, and we couldn't pick anything out that substantiated those wilder claims. You can rest assured we'll be on the lookout, though.

All in all, Pokemon Sword and Shield looks to be delivering on what fans have wanted from the series for years now: a full-fledged console RPG experience. From what we've seen of the Galar region so far, it's made up of cities, towns, rolling plains, mountainous terrain, and all sorts of other places to visit and explore. And you just know that there are going to be a few secrets along the way, too, which makes the journey we'll take later in 2019 all the more exciting.

Old-school Pokemon battles look to be making a return. After Pokemon Go! and Pokemon: Let's Go! toyed with motion controls and a more simplified way to capture Pokemon, some worried about the direction the series was taking. Thankfully, there's nothing we've seen of Sword and Shield so far that indicates a shift away from what other mainline games have done, which means you should finally be able to play a Pokemon game with your Pro Controller.

Oh, and the Pokemon! The Pokemon Direct introduced us to the three starter Pokemon we'll meet in Sword and Shield, and many players are already starting to pick their favorites. Sobble (the water-type) seems to be the runaway winner thus far among those who've been keeping tabs on Sword and Shield, though you shouldn't sleep on Scorbunny (the fire-type) and Grookey (the grass-type) — at least not until we know how they play. Along with Sobble, Scorbunny and Grookey, we know that some old favorites are making a return in Sword and Shield: Pikachu, Minccino, Wishiwashi, Grubbin, Hoothoot, Zweilous, Flygon, Braviary, Moewstic, Wailmer, Lucario, Tyranitar, and Munchlax. And that is almost certainly not the full list — that's just what we saw in the Direct trailer.

We simply cannot wait for Pokemon Sword and Shield on the Switch. As nice as it was to play Pokemon: Let's Go!, it'll be nice to get back to the type of gameplay found in the more traditional Pokemon titles. Along with that, fewer and fewer games are being released for the Nintendo 3DS, and it feels like we're now entering an era where the Switch is Nintendo's primary home console and primary portable console. We can probably expect all future Pokemon entries (at least, those that aren't spin-offs) to show up on Switch after Sword and Shield are released. And that is really, really good news for fans.

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are set to release on the Nintendo Switch sometime in late 2019.