RUMOR: Pokémon Switch Drowns Pallet Town

REMEMBER: Rumors are NOT confirmed information. This is not something to get your hopes up or down over; we recommend you treat everything skeptically and assume that it is false. We write about these rumors because they offer fun and exciting angles to discuss in the comments and online

The rumor that’s got everyone talking today is that the Nintendo Switch’s Pokémon game could be set hundreds of years into the future (and past) and even feature the infamous Pallet Town underwater.

A user calling themselves Piuk has claimed to be working on a translation of the game’s script since earlier this year and has posted various “information” online since February. Nothing has conclusively proven them to be trustworthy, outside of other credible Chinese leakers supporting his claims on how the translation process works. We are incredibly weary of this rumor, but we thought that the idea is worth a discussion at the very least.

Their most recent posting consisted of an image (right) and read simply,

Hundreds of years ago, this submerged town gave birth to one of the most famous trainers of all times. It’s name was Pallet Town.

The inference based on their past posts (view them all here) seems to be that the past Kanto has been submerged, and the future version of the town will be above ground. What calamity could have caused such a discrepancy is obviously unknown.

A Twitter user also found something that may or may not foreshadow this theme of past and present hidden in Generation VIII:

https://twitter.com/Toadusedbadjoke/status/994641886626410496

We obviously do not recommend putting faith in this rumor, but it would be a fascinating take on the series and certainly make Kanto feel like more than just a retread of where we’ve been.

What do you think? Does it sound like a direction Game Freak may be going? Would you like to see the Pokémon games go this route?