Pokemon Sword and Shield: Have leaks provided more information on the game?

While we're waiting for Pokemon Sword and Shield, the Nintendo Switch's first game for the console, many are eager to obtain more information about the new 8th generation game.

Some people have had inside information on the games pretty early which led to a lot of rumours flying around, some of which have proved credible. Here are a couple of interesting ones.

A 4chan post from a year ago

A year ago, an anonymous poster leaked some info about the next Pokemon series. The poster confirmed the name and region correctly. The post suggests that Pokemon Sword and Shield were supposed to release in late 2018 but the development has been wild at Gamefreak because of the new HD development.

The post also says that there are "Lords" instead of Gym Leaders. It seems suggestive based on the map art. Let's hope this post has some credibility.

Spirit Armor

A Chinese leak provided some interesting news about a new thing called "Spirit Armor". There has already been heavy speculation about armoured evolution so it's possible Spirit Armor is related to that.

Image from Dexerto

Pokejungle has translated the Chinese article. According to the leak, there is a new type of item which you can equip called Spirit Armor. It's available only for certain Pokemon and transforms the starter Pokemon from Water, Fire, Grass to Water/Ghost, Fire/Fighting, Grass/Fairy respectively.

The mascot Legendary Pokemon is also only one Pokemon instead of two for two different versions. The mascot Pokemon also supposedly has two forms through Spirit Armor, Dragon/Steel in Sword and Shield/Steel in Shield.

For now, this is all speculation. There is no official communication from Gamefreak about this information. The leaks are credible with regards to prior information but things can certainly change when Gamefreak announces it.

Pokemon Sword and Shield will launch in late 2019 and Gamefreak will release information as we inch closer to that date.