Pokémon Sword 2018 build has allegedly leaked online

Ever since the massive Nintendo source code leaks began this past July, the Nintendo landscape has become a much different place, full of bizarre and extraordinary reveals like the existence of Luigi in Super Mario 64 and the original look of Yoshi. Now, whether it’s part of that leak or a brand new leak, a Pokémon Sword 2018 build has allegedly leaked online via 4chan. Twitter user LuigiBlood, who has been drawing light to many of the ongoing Nintendo leaks, claims that this build is from March 2018. The user also states that a build of Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! / Eevee! from December 2017 has leaked but is not yet accessible. To be clear, source code for the games has reportedly not leaked — just these builds.

Yes a March 2018 build of Pokémon Sword has leaked today, alongside from what I understood to be a December 2017 build of Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee that has yet to be extracted because it was leaked as a passworded ZIP file meant to be cracked using plaintext methods.

— LuigiBlood (@LuigiBlood) October 21, 2020

For a closer look at what the Pokémon Sword 2018 build entails, Twitter user Lewtwo has uploaded numerous alleged images demonstrating differences. He did not make any claims of the build’s legitimacy until LuigiBlood started talking about the build himself.

– Seems to use Sun/Moon as a base and had a minimap at one point (seems to show Alola's Royal Avenue)
– Screenshots show a WIP train station, Route 1 and Hop's house.
– Beedrill (which is not in the final game) is in the background, and is replaced on Route 1 by Butterfree. pic.twitter.com/IuQQ6PmjTD

— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) October 21, 2020

– That being said, the title screen is clearly a mockup piece of art. It seems this was designed without the Pokedex cut in mind, and both Mega Evolution (Primal Reversion) as well as various forms (Dark-Arceus and Autumn Sawsbuck) are present.

this looks like a pre-crunch build pic.twitter.com/knLFKIhd6w

— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) October 21, 2020

Screenshots from the /ppg/ Discord

– Game seems to use LGPE UI, with plans for the Rotom Dex to return.
– Icons are all pretty self-explanatory, but Japanese speakers may be able to help translate all of this in the replies! pic.twitter.com/N95gfOcRae

— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) October 21, 2020

The above is only a sampling of what Lewtwo shared of the alleged Pokémon Sword 2018 build in a long thread. The user also shares many images of unfinished environments, early UI design, and other incomplete game elements. Perhaps most strikingly of all, there is an icon of Clefable maybe giving the finger?

– Love the adorable icons in this build. Absolutely supposed to be in place of the emotes for the online functionality pic.twitter.com/BhJspuvbgq

— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) October 21, 2020

We encourage you to take a deep dive into the thread and see what other surprising differences you spot between the Pokémon Sword 2018 build and the final Nintendo Switch version, presuming it’s all legitimate.