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Leaked Pokemon Art Destroys Myths: ZA Starter Theories
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Leaked Pokemon Art Destroys Myths: ZA Starter Theories

A new batch pokemon Images from various projects have been leaked, potentially revealing the Starter Pokémon for Legends: ZA has shot down fan theories on the subject.

Game Freak Teraleak has seen thousands of files featuring previously unseen Pokémon art and projects surface online since October 12th. Most of this content comes from previously released Pokémon games, but a few info dumps have been seen regarding upcoming games like Pokémon Legends: ZA and Pokémon Legends: ZA. unannounced 10th Gen entries.

Details about Legends: ZA in this leak were vague, hacker was behind the leaks refusing to share more information about new games to avoid anything that would create “active risk of further damage” to the series, such as unforeseen delays. But that didn’t stop a batch of recently leaked concept images from showing an early version of the vehicle. 2025 Pokémon World Championships key art and potentially ZA Starters as well.

While most of the Pokémon featured in the Anaheim trailer are unremarkable, Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie all make an appearance. While this is still just speculation since the official Starters have not yet been announced, usually when a trio of Starter Pokémon appear in World Championship art, they are tied directly to a main series game within that event’s time frame.

Pokemon World Championship hps 2022 promotional image.

Image via The Pokemon Company

However, when Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released in January 2022, this situation faced some reactions because the Starter series was not used. Instead, The Pokémon Company used Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble from Sword and Shield; this was probably because this game was used for the VGC competition – Legends: Arceus did not feature competitive combat.

Related Article: Leaks Show Pokémon Trying More Action-Style Battles in Legends Arceus

Additionally, the Pokémon World Championships only focuses on new Starter trios from the game’s first year of release, so 2023’s material will heavily feature Sprigatito. From Scarlet and Violet, Fuecoco and Quaxly moved on to other Pokémon paired with Pikachu in 2024. So unless Legends: ZA increases its presence at Worlds in 2025, whether it’s an actual battle or just marketing, the Kalos Starter trio may not make a comeback.

Pokemon World Championship 2023 promotional image.

Image via The Pokemon Company

Before this, there were fan theories about which Initials could be used in Legends; ZA was almost exclusively mixing and matching Pokémon from various generations. This was under the assumption that Game Freak would choose it. A trio like Snivy, Torchic and Totodile giving regional variant final evolutions and potential Mega Evolutions because that’s what Legends: Arceus did with Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott, minus the Mega part.

While the logistics behind the art choices have been questioned, seeing Legends: ZA use the same Starters as X and Y would make a lot of sense based on other leaks we’ve seen.

The person behind Teraleak has apparently confirmed this Myths: ZA will not happen in the past Like Legends: Arceus did this too, and will be closer to the present day, so there can’t be the same ability to ignore why the original Beginnings were not used. This is especially true if the game will be connected to X and Y in some way, as a prequel or as a replacement for the Z version we never had.

Likewise, this gives Game Freak the chance to finally give Chesnaught, Delphox, and Greninja a Mega Evolution; This is supported by the fact that Greninja has consistently been named, even named, one of the most popular Pokémon in the world. Pokémon of the Year in 2020.

Again, I would like to point out that all of these are merely speculations based on leaked images and trends from the previous Pokémon World Championships and should be treated as such until the developers or Nintendo give official confirmation. Only one Legends game has been released, so we don’t know if Game Freak will follow a standard formula or handle the Starting choices differently with each entry.