Rumour Update: These rumours have since been speculated that they are fake. The article will still be available to read.
Since Pokemon X and Y were announced the internet has exploded with speculation, rumours, stories and strange ideas. Some of these are wonderful and exciting, while some of them are just strange or silly. We’ve managed to find yet more rumours, some of which are starting to look more credible each day, so keep reading to check out the latest batch.
First things first, credit has to be given to gengame.net, who collated most of these rumours in one place. You can also check out the previous batch of rumours in our previous article, including the possible new Gym Leaders and Elite Four as well as the supposedly ‘leaked’ Pokedex.
The main rumour, which has to be the most important at the moment, is the leaked Pokedex. You can check out the image of this again below. The new generation appears to contain 99 Pokemon, most of which are baby forms or evolutions of existing creatures. For example, we have a potential Sableye evolution and baby forms of Pinsir and Heracross. The last two have been ‘confirmed’ at the moment, with a new trailer set to release in 3 days time (15th March 2013) which will debut the new creatures. As well as this, the new Pokedex features 6 new legendary creatures, two of which we already know about: Xerneas (Psychic/Rock) and Yveltal (Ghost/Flying). The other four creatures are based on the card suits: a Cobra with a heart-shaped hood and tail (Serpreine), a Tiger with diamond patterns (Tigrace), a T-Rex with spade-shaped eyes (Tyrroi) and a Peacock with a club-shaped tail (Jacoq). It’s worth mentioning that the names of these four legendaries are just best guesses at the matching – nothing has been confirmed yet (much to our annoyance).
The new Pokedex is set to feature new combos as well such as Fire/Ice and Dark/Electric. My personal favourites have to be the Dragon types, since I’ve loved these since the first generation. Bug/Dragon is going to be a very interesting combination! The types of the final evolutions of the starter Pokemon have also been confirmed as Grass/Fying, Fire/Psychic and Water.
Sylveon, the only new Eevee evolution, has also been confirmed as a Normal type. This has been a point of debate between the VGU members, with some believing the design looked like Milotic and that it could be a Dragon type, and other members believing that they would bring out the new types for this new generation. A few guys managed to guess it right, on the basis that each new generation of Eevee evolutions has had at least 2 to help balance the game. Having only one (with the existing types) means that it would have to already be balanced, and the easiest one for that would be a Normal type. With this being said, Sylveon is said to evolve based on the new Bond Level.
The next rumour is that the Bond Level will replace the happiness meter from past games. Higher bond levels are set to grant bonuses such as experience or stat gain for individual Pokemon. This relates to the Bond-EYE, a new pair of ultra-cool glasses that allows players to view the nature of wild Pokemon and their capture rate. Potentially this will make it a lot easier to get the right natures for training or breeding, but it takes a little bit of the surprise from the game. The only issue with this is that if it does replace the happiness meter, what will happen to the Pokemon that previously relied on this to evolve, such as Riolu and Togepi. Also the other issue is that if this replaces happiness, and Sylveon uses this, what will happen with Umbreon and Espeon? Both rely on happiness, one during the night and the other during the day, so would Sylveon require a higher bond level to evolve? Or another item to hold/condition to fill? If this is the case, it’s going to get very irritating trying to get the Eevee evolution you want.
Another rumour worth a giggle is that trainers have their own levelling system that affects how in-game NPC’s react to you as well as granting various bonuses such as increasing capture rate and the rarity of the Pokemon encountered. While this may seem like a good thing, it seems to be a little game breaking right now. It could be an incentive to spend more time in the game though: if levelling yourself up while working on your amazing Pokemon team granted you extra bonuses, it could make the game much more interesting. It might be confusing for the younger audience that come into Pokemon at this point though. We’ll have to see with this one!
This next one is my favourite: Wireless Co-Op is now possible, with one player being able to lead and the other aiding in battle. I’ve been wating something like this for quite a while, being able to play cooperatively with a friend instead of just battling them, and it means that the game could be made much more challenging. As well as this, if you’re lacking in friends at a particular point then you can request aid from NPC trainers via a juice bar located in every town. Very Fallout 3-esk! Instead of having a Pokemon follow you, you could have an NPC to aid you in difficult battles. Granted, as with most co-op functions you would probably get a little fed up once the novelty has worn off, but it’s a great idea none-the-less!
Excess money can also be stored in banks now, generating interest and special gifts upon depositing a certain amount. Since when does Pokemon have EXTRA MONEY? My trainer always had an infinite wallet, which was amazing (wish this were real in reality). It’s very similar to the Mum feature, and I suppose the special gifts are extra incentives to store your money in the bank. It’s just like real life in a Pokemon game….
Using a special wristwatch device, players can travel 30 years into the past which features different characters, younger versions of current characters, different layouts and different wild Pokemon. My initial thought was Pokemon + Dr Who. I expected to see Pikachu with a Fez and Bow Tie. Which would be awesome. But it does tie in with the story itself and the enemy team, who also appear to be time travellers. The rival faction, Team Gear, mess with events in the past that affect the present, and you’re the only Pokemon trainer who can stop it. The plot could be very interesting if they do it correctly, but the odds of this being the story at the moment (with no solid details released) are very slim.
So there you have it: some pretty epic rumours that could be very interesting or potentially destroy Pokemon as we know it. I’m personally hoping that some of these are true, especially the time travel storyline and the Co-Op mode (I’m a sucker for things like that, and it’s about time Pokemon took a slightly new direction). What do you guys think, are these all just a load of rubbish or could some of them be potential features for the new game? Don’t forget to check out the previous article for more rumours and let us know what you think with a comment!