Ahead of this month’s Pokémon Presents, fans have been poring over more leaked screenshots from the next mainline game but are they real or not?
With this year marking the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise, many assume that Nintendo and Game Freak will announce the next mainline game to mark the occasion, especially when it’s been nearly four years since Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
However, thanks to the infamous ‘teraleak,’ which saw hackers steal and share confidential information from developer Game Freak, fans have discovered a lot of information about Generation X – or Pokémon Wind and Waves as it’s believed to be called.
Naturally, Game Freak did not comment on the bevy of alleged info that was posted last October but now, ahead of Pokémon’s anniversary date of February 27, another set of images have emerged that claim to show off an early version of the new game.
Nine screenshots were posted by grubbinscrubbin on X, who claims they come from a beta build of the next Pokémon game and show various environments, including a large city, snowy mountains, and an underwater area.
While it’s worth taking them with a grain of salt, they do line up with some of the images and video footage from the aforementioned teraleak.
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The underwater screenshot is particularly noteworthy since one of the big rumours surrounding Gen X is that it will be an ‘oceanic adventure’ and feature underwater exploration, with the game’s region inspired by Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
Obviously, even if they are legit, the screenshots aren’t indicative of what the finall game will look like (especially in terms of graphics), though even for a beta, some of the environments are noticeably more detailed compared to Scarlet and Violet and Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
This could also imply a larger and denser overworld to explore, with the city alone looking especially big, which would make sense as the teraleak inferred Gen X will include various rideable pokémon. This would make traversal much easier considering some pokémon can run at high speeds or fly through the air.
Additionally, a few of the images are slightly blurred in places, which some fans believe has been done to cover up something, like a new pokémon or character.
While the teraleak hasn’t spoiled any of the former, a few new character models were spotted, such as an elderly man speculated to be a professor character and one of what is presumably the main protagonist riding a new scooter vehicle.
However, what’s most surprising about these images is that Nintendo/The Pokémon Company hasn’t already moved to strike them down from the internet, which is the most convincing argument that they’re not real.
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Several pieces of alleged info from the teraleak, posted to social media in October, are also still up at the time of writing. There’s even a whole website that compiles everything from the leaks, as well as YouTube videos featuring leaked screenshots that remain untouched.
Unless they’re complete fabrications this is a very unusual reaction from Nintendo, who is usually the first to strike down anything relating to leaked images or content.
It’s also important to reiterate that all these leaks come from old builds of the game. So, even if any of the information is legitimate, plans may well have changed, with some ideas possibly being scrapped altogether.
The teraleak also mentioned plans for future Pokémon games, such as another Pokémon Legends set in the Galar region from Pokémon Sword and Shield and an ambitious sounding multi-region remake that would include all the regions from the first four Pokémon games in one massive open world.
Given all this was made public, though, it wouldn’t be shocking if these plans have now been reworked, if not abandoned. Which is exactly what happened when there was a similar leak at Spider-Man developer Insomniac.
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