You may think that Pokémon Sword and Shield have been laid bare after having been leaked a full two weeks before their release. While we do know what Galar’s new Pokémon look like and some of what the story entails, we don’t know everything. In fact, there’s actually quite a bit that remains to be seen.
This article may contain small spoilers, but not in regards to story elements.
1. What Pokémon were actually cut
Yes, we do know which of the old Pokémon “made it” into the Pokédex of Sword & Shield, but that’s not the full story. Until the game’s ROM is dissected, we don’t actually know what Pokémon are coded into the titles.
If they’re in the game, why wouldn’t they be in the Pokédex? For future event gifts, most likely. There are several likely candidates that were glaring omissions from the games’ regional dex:
- Starting Pokémon from past titles
- Legendary Pokémon from past titles
- Meltan & Melmetal
It’s easy to imagine the last two, Meltan and its evolution, being a bonus if you connect your game with Pokémon GO in the future. And just how Pokémon Bank has given out various rewards for subscribing, the upcoming Pokémon Home could do the same.
There’s a lot of potential there and I would be surprised if there are no older Pokémon hidden in the games’ data.
2. All of the new Pokémon
Sure, we know there are 81 new Pokémon in the Galar region. What we don’t know is anything about the Mythical Pokémon of Gen VIII. Generally speaky, we usually see three to four per generation.
Information about Sword and Shield’s will probably remain unknown until the ROM is out. Game Freak may have even omitted them from the games and are saving them for a future update, but that might be a stretch. It would be fun to be surprised by the announcement of a Mythical Pokémon for once though.
3. All the details
While the leak has seemed like a huge amount of data, just wait until Serebii gets a hold of his copy. There are so many details that the leakers have probably yet to uncover themselves. It isn’t unheard of for time-based mechanics to exist or even features that require multiple players.
Some things we can look forward to see are:
- Full details about new attacks, abilities and items
- Changes to existing Pokémon’s learnable attacks or abilities
- Changes to existing Pokémon’s base stats
- Extent of Pokémon Jobs, Camp, etc
- Hidden features
Hope that this has served as a good reminder that we’ve seen only some of what the games have to offer and there’s a whole lot more to discover! Only 10 more days to wait!
Leave a comment with what you are still excited to find out about Sword & Shield. Join our Discord if you want to chat in real-time with other trainers!