Pokémon Sun and Moon’s special 3DS demo may not be out in all regions yet, but data miners are already hard at work extracting as much information as they can from the uploaded eShop files. (SPOILERS)
According to hackers, data miners, and trusted Pokémon sources, the public Sun and Moon demo contains files revealing the sprites of many unannounced Pokémon, including the final evolutions of the starters:
You’ll note that these images look exactly like the ones that were leaked earlier in the year, meaning that hardcore fans have known about the new monsters for months now. Actually, a lot of information relating to the new games leaked ahead of time, including the information that Sun and Moon would eschew gyms. It seems that Game Freak has had a tough time keeping Sun and Moon under wraps, especially with such overzealous fans. But hey, at least this confirms that Popplio’s final evolution is indeed fabulous.
According to data miners, most of the sprites within the demo are “shinies,” that is, versions of Pokémon in rare colors. It was through these rare sprites that fans were able to extract most of the information circulating at the moment:
Other images showcase variations of known monsters, such as a Pikachu wearing a hat. In previous games, players could dress Pikachu up, so while its inclusion is not a surprise, it is a testament to the wide variety of unused content bafflingly contained within the demo:
Unfortunately, not all of the information floating around is as innocuous as already existing features and already known monsters. This is your final spoiler warning.
Apparently, even the mysterious “ultra beasts” were mined from the demo. As you can see below, they don’t quite look like normal Pokémon, which makes it easier to believe in the theory that they are a different category of beast (aliens?!) altogether. According to the leaks, there are eight UB in total, at least within the demo:
More Alolan forms have also been discovered, though so far it’s been entirely creatures from the first generation. Given the completeness of the leaks thus far, it seems reasonable to assume we won’t be seeing Alolan forms for newer generations. Instead, fans can expect to see only old favorites in new forms, making it clear that the feature is a total nostalgia play. Some Alolan forms, like Persian, continue a somewhat silly design trend:
According to one of the major dataminers disseminating most of this information, Kaphotics, the complete ‘dex contains “around 800 Pokémon,” though not all of them are included in the demo. Specifically, “totem” Pokémon cannot be viewed, though that still leaves most of the roster visible to anyone with know-how.
In the released footage—which might be down by the time you read this—Kaphotics reveals more tropical monsters (such as starfish), as well as pre-evolutions for the legendaries that appear on the box. All of this was extracted from the Sun and Moon demo within hours of it going live in certain regions, and the dataminers say there’s still more info to come. It’s kind of bonkers how fast everything has moved, not to mention how much information was contained in a small, limited demo.
Last time around, some aspects of Pokémon X & Y were also leaked ahead of time, including mega evolutions and the map itself. Curiously, some leaks happened under the same exact circumstances as these Sun and Moon leaks—Game Freak released a demo for ORAS, and dataminers poked around to see what they could find. Turns out, it was a whole lot. You’d think that Game Freak would have learned by now, but, welp. There’s always next time.
Basically, now is a good time for Pokémon fans to unplug from the internet, lest the entirety of Sun and Moon’s surprises get spoiled by the internet. In the meantime, not only is the Sun and Moon demo getting data mined, some people are already figuring out how to hack the game. Damn.
The demo drops for North America at 10AM EST.