Pokemon Legends: Z-A will allegedly introduce 27 new Mega Evolutions, leakers claim, and we can only hope Flygon gets its chance this time

Pokemon Legends: Z-A is finally bringing the fan-favorite Mega Evolution mechanic back after it was originally left behind on the 3DS, and leakers are now claiming that a pretty massive number of new Megas will be joining the lineup, too.

There's a multitude of reasons why Mega Evolutions are so popular, and why their return is so exciting as a result. The powerful, temporary evolved forms of certain Pokemon don't just look cool, but they've given a number of underwhelming 'mons a real opportunity to shine in the past with buffed-up stats, new abilities, and sometimes even new Types. Occasionally, they've also been given to already-powerful Pokemon to make them even more deadly, and hey, that's fun too. In Legends: Z-A's first gameplay trailer, a number of returning Megas were confirmed, including Absol, Altaria, Lucario, Charizard (both X and Y forms), and more.

Now though, leakers are hinting that as many as 27 new Mega Evolutions could be added in the upcoming RPG. The leaker once known as Pyoro (now the significantly less catchy @eb576dcfe on Twitter), who has correctly leaked a lot of game information in the past (including about Nintendo games), today claims that "thousands of [people] know the number [of new Mega Evolutions] now but no one is willing to spill the beans." They follow this up with a more cryptic: "Look at the key at the upper left corner of your keyboard."

Clarifying that they mean a PC keyboard, we seem to be looking at the escape key. Which, uh, notably isn't a number at all. However, it's not taken long for detectives to look deeper into this – the 'esc' character can also be represented by the ASCII code 27. Just in case there was any doubt about Pyoro's intentions here, they've responded to the Pokemon leak account @CentroLeaks, which reshared the 27 new Mega Evolutions claim, simply saying "real."

Obviously, do take this with a pinch of salt while it remains unconfirmed, but if this is true, that's a massive amount of new Mega Evolutions joining the fray. Up to this point, we've had 48 of them total – a further 27 would bring us up to 75. Speculation has already begun surrounding who these supposed new Mega Evolutions might be for – other leakers have already begun dropping cryptic hints, while fans are out here begging for the likes of Flygon and Dragonite to finally get the love they deserve.

For years, Flygon, in particular, has had a passionate fanbase of people crying out for it to get a Mega – the fact that it didn't get one in the Gen 3 remakes Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is still rather baffling to this day. Will it get its shot this time around, though? We'll just have to wait and see – at the time of writing, Game Freak hasn't revealed any new Mega Evolutions for the upcoming RPG.

Pokemon Legends: Z-A's director appears to be a Xenoblade Chronicles fan, and I'm now feeling very validated about a tiny detail I spotted in the upcoming RPG's gameplay trailer.