Game Freak has decided to have some fun with its latest reveal for Pokémon Sword and Shield, it seems.
Earlier today, the games’ official website was updated with a strange new addition. Clicking on what initially appeared to be some sort of visual glitch on the site’s homepage leads to a new Pokémon entry for the Galar region’s Pokédex, but there’s a catch. Unlike the existing collection of critters already confirmed to appear in-game, this particular ‘Mon’s appearance has been obscured with a filter, leaving behind little more than a jumbled mess of white and green pixels.
We’ll get to the potential candidates that could be hiding behind that curtain in just a moment but first, check out the teaser in question below.
Honestly? With haunted teapots and fish-spitting birds already confirmed for Sword and Shield, Game Freak’s weird and wacky designs mean that what we’re looking at could be almost anything. With that said, however, fans already think they’ve cracked the secret hiding in plain sight. In rotating the image 90 degrees, the blurred photo has been noted to resemble some sort of bird appearing to hold a lance in one hand and a shield in the other. This would certainly account for the hefty 257.9 lbs that Game Freak notes as the Pokémon’s weight, but that’s not all.
Thanks to previous (increasingly accurate) leaks name-dropping Gen 1 birdie Farfetch’d as receiving an evolution in Sword and Shield, Pokéfans think this is exactly that. See below for a rotated version of the image as well as a humorous artist’s interpretation of the hiding Pokémon.
— Robin (@Robin_The_Red) September 13, 2019
That about covers all the leads we have so far on Sword and Shield‘s latest newcomer, but if you’ve got time to burn, see below for Game Freak’s description. Oh, and good luck filling in the blanks!
Only [REDACTED that have survived many battles can attain this [REDACTED. When this Pokémon’s [REDACTED]ers, it will retire from combat.
Pokémon Sword and Shield are out November 15th for Nintendo Switch.
