Update: The latest Pokemon Sword and Shield trailer confirmed the previously leaked Gigantamax feature and showed off some new Pokemon and gym leaders from the upcoming game. Let's start with Gigantamaxing, which is slightly different from Dynamaxing in that it changes a Pokemon's size and appearance.
For example, one of the new Pokemon in the trailer, the adorable fairy Alcremie, turns into… a giant cake when Gigantamaxed. The aforementioned leak suggested other Pokemon will feature a variety of Gigantamax visual changes ranging from music notes appearing on Lapras' shell to a retro overhaul for Pikachu that makes it look more like the chunky OG model. The leak has been bang-on so far, and I can definitely see these and other Gigantamax changes happening.
The new gym leaders in the trailer include Bea, a fighting-type trainer in Pokemon Sword, and Allister, a ghost-type trainer in Pokemon Shield. We also caught a glimpse of Chairman Rose, bossman of the Galar region's Pokemon League, and Oleana, his secretary. On Twitter, the Pokemon Company explained that Oleana "also serves as the vice president of Rose’s company and is in fact largely in charge of the day-to-day running of the company."
For new Pokemon, we've got the fairy-type Alcremie, which is straight-up made of whipped cream (and happiness); Yamper, the electric corgi we saw in our Pokemon Sword and Shield E3 2019 preview; Rolycoly, a rock-type with an orb body that lives up to its name; and Duraludon, a steel-dragon-type with one hell of a shell on it. They're all fine additions to the Pokemon Sword and Shield Pokedex list, especially Alcremie, which is the cutest thing I've ever seen.
Original story:
According to this Pokemon Sword and Shield leak, Eternatus is the name of a new third legendary, and Pokemon can "Gigantamax" as well as Dynamax. Back on May 23, prior to the pre-E3 2019 Nintendo Direct about Pokemon Sword and Shield and well before the Nintendo Treehouse about the new Pokemon Switch games, somebody posted a Pokemon Sword and Shield leak to an online message board. It didn't get much traffic because all of the claims seemed quite far-fetched but now that some of the information leaked here has proven to be true, it may be worth watching some of the other details posted.
Eternatus, the evil Pokemon Sword and Shield legendary
According to the anonymous poster, Eternatus is the name of a third "evil" legendary Pokemon. He previously said "the other legendary will be a wolf, who will either have a shield mane or hold a sword like Great Wolf Sif", which is basically true except there's two legendaries - Zacian and Zamazenta - and they have a sword and shield respectively. There's no word on Eternatus' appearance, but it sounds absolutely badass.
Alongside Hop, your rival in Pokemon Sword and Shield, Bede and Marnie are both named as important characters you'll face off against. Marnie supposedly causes a lot of trouble, which is supported by Team Yell; another infamous organisation like Team Rocket or any of the other subsequent villains featured in later games.
Gigantamax changes Pokemon appearances alongside their size
Dynamaxing has been a heavily featured mechanic in the recent Pokemon Sword and Shield trailers, and this anonymous leak reckons there's another transformation on top of that called Gigantamaxing: "Gigantamaxing is different from dynamax as it changes what the Pokemon looks like. Meowth looks like long cat. Lapras gets layers like musical bars to its shell and musical notes. Pikachu looks like retro fat Pikachu."
You might be dubious about this but the leak also mentions things like "Pamper, an electric corgi Pokemon". On the E3 show floor, some more Gen 8 Pokemon were revealed including... Yamper, an electric corgi Pokemon. Sure, they got one letter wrong but the details are far too accurate to simply be guesses. Also Nintendo could easily have slightly altered the names between then and the E3 show floor demos.
The leak doesn't stop there. We've never had a Fairy-type gym in a Pokemon game before but that all changes with Sword and Shield apparently, as Opal is the name of the leader while Milo, Nessa, and Kabu are the first three gym leaders.
All the new Pokemon mentioned in the leak
There's multiple new Pokemon mentioned too alongside Yamper; Farfetch'd supposedly has a Galar region evolution called Sirfetch'd (we're not sure which vegetable it's carrying!), while Skwovet and Greedunt are "chipmunk Pokemon who will hide in berry trees and attack randomly if you shake for too many berries. If they attack, you lose half the berries that dropped."
When it comes to the starters, Scorbunny supposedly evolves into Raboot, followed by a third unnamed evolution that "looks humanoid". Sobble turns into Sizzile followed by Intelleon, which is a "chameleon with a spy theme". Finally, there's no name given for the Grookey evolutions but apparently the final one is "a giant gorilla that beats a wood drum to attack."
This is all good and fine, but there's one final unnamed Pokemon the leaker describes. A "blue seagull who when it dives, either gets a barracuda in its mouth or a Pikachu, which it launches at its enemy". Lobbing disposable Pikachus at opposing Pokemon doesn't quite sound kid-friendly enough for Nintendo, but you never know!
The anonymous poster didn't specify where he got all the information from, but he did say why he leaked it: "There's a lot I'm missing, but I wasn't planning on leaking until now. I'm angry and upset, and while I liked what I saw, I didn't get too far." Gigantamaxing sounds hilarious, and we're very excited to see which other Galar regional evolutions there are, so fingers crossed the rest of the details are correct! You can read the full leak here.
