Pokémon Winds & Waves New Regional Variant Officially Teased

Pokémon Winds and Waves are a couple of the most mysterious, non-mysterious games yet. We’ve only seen one official trailer, and we don’t even know the region’s name, but so much info about Generation 10 is presumably known because of extensive leaks. We have an idea of the games’ possible price, how many new Pokémon Winds and Waves will introduce, and even what some of them are. But an official teaser about a new regional variant may have been hiding right in front of us.

To set the stage, we have to talk about a new video covering footage from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl‘s development received and archived by YouTuber Lewtwo (thanks, Polygon). Lewtwo’s video is a fascinating, hour-long affair diving deep into a documentary made by developer Game Freak while Diamond and Pearl were in production, but of special interest to a potential Gen 10 regional variant is a section about a third of the way through, where sketches appearing during a quick panning shot show prototype Pokémon designs.

Lewtwo is able to spot early drawings of Bidoof, Cranidos, and others, but we want to focus on is one that appears to be a concept for Gastrodon (at the 18:35 mark in the video above). It has the same general shape as Gastrodon, just with appendages rather than the slimy underbelly of a sea slug, but its color scheme is noticeably different than Gastrodon’s two forms. West Sea Gastrodon is pink and brown, and East Sea Gastrodon is blue and green, both with yellow accents, but the sketch is mostly golden yellow, with a tan belly, and black and orange accents.

On its own, this prototype Gastrodon isn’t exceptionally notable, but Pokémon Pokopia seems to be teasing a yellow Shellos. One of the lore tidbits you can find in Pokopia says:

“Shellos changes its color and appearance based on its diet and the environment it lives in. We are researching day and night in an attempt to create a heretofore unknown yellow Shellos.”

It’s entirely possible this is just a fun, throwaway gag about trying to breed a different color of Shellos, but Game Freak has been known to hold Pokémon designs and other ideas for years until they fit just right into a new game’s design. Shellos having two forms based on where it’s found in Sinnoh has always felt like a concept that wasn’t explored to its full potential.

A group of West Sea Shellos in the Pokémon anime

It is, admittedly, a design choice that hasn’t been used very interestingly. It’s neat that there are two different colorways for Shellos and Gastrodon, but that’s as far as the differences go—they’re aesthetically different but effectively identical. Shellos and Gastrodon are, however, ripe for regional variants. Its different appearance based on habitat is mentioned in most of Shellos’ Pokédex entries, but the Pokémon has yet to receive a regional form.

If the leaks are true and Winds and Waves introduce an unprecedented number of new Pokémon (supposedly around 300), surely there will be plenty of regional variants. A new yellow Shellos, like that teased in Pokopia, would be a great callback to Gastrodon’s initial design—its original legs could even be reintroduced. We won’t know for sure, though, if the Pokopia tease is actually leading to something until we see more official footage from Pokémon Winds and Waves.