Have the Starter Pokémon for Generation 8 Been Leaked?

With a game like Pokémon, the majority already know that when you start your Pokémon adventure you will be met by a Professor who will present three Pokémon for you to select from to start their adventure. Every Pokémon fan has a favourite starter Pokémon from the past eight generations, my personal favourite being Chikorita. I can actually hear the groans from readers reading that, but like all fans, we have Pokémon in each generation that we gravitate towards, with aims to have them on our Pokémon team.

While Generation 7 might not have been the biggest success in Pokémon history, fans are hopeful that Nintendo have listened and will produce an 8th Generation of the games that fans will embrace like past generations. While Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon were lacklustre games, the Pokémon of the region were still pretty cool. So, regardless of how good the 8th Gen games turn out to be, we are still guaranteed some cute and epic looking new monsters to catch and train. With that said, three images have surfaced on the internet and many suspect these could be legitimate leaks of the next set of starter Pokémon.

The Grass-Type Starter

This Pokémon has had no revealed name, so for this article he shall be dubbed 'Leafmar'. Leafmar is a Pokémon you could already see Ash owning in the anime. The expressions and details in the design show some serious thoughts has been put into this Pokémon's design. It would appear to have a mischievous appearance, akin to Totodile, but would act more like an Aipom. The interesting part of the design is the berry in the tail. Could this Pokémon produce you berries as you travel with it? It could be possible, as some Pokémon have had the ability "Pick Up" where the Pokémon would find random items as you traveled with it. So a Pokémon producing you berries as you go would not be the craziest of monster abilities in Pokémon.

The Fire-Type Starter

Again, this Pokemon has no suggested name, so I dubbed this one "Burnny." As Ash often travels with a female trainer, you have to admit this one screams it would belong to her and not Ash. Again, a lot of detail has gone into this design, even down to how it would change its expression with its whiskers and ears. It seems that Burnny could become quite hot-headed with the angry expression, which does suggest more firepower the angrier it gets. One thing that is certain is, this cute Burnny could indeed delight those who love cute and fluffy Pokémon.

The Water-Type Starter

With the first two not named, it shouldn't be a surprise now this one has no name either. I will give this cute little guy the name "Plaquapus," and is my favourite of the three designs. It is one you could, again, see in the anime. But it could literally land as a Pokémon for either Ash or a companion, but it does appear to have Ash's hat in one of the images, appearing more relaxed than the other two and possibly clumsy. The detail of the poison claws is the added bonus, as it does suggest it could have a duel-type as a Water/Poison-Type.

Conclusion

While fake leaks often appear before the release of games, the designs in these three Pokémon do appear to hold a consistency in the art to past official designs. They all would also fit the small and cute designs the starter Pokémon often hold, to begin with. Personally, I think these leaks could be genuine due to the detail and consistent artwork and they just seem to be what you would expect from starter Pokémon.

What do you think? Are they real or fake? Do you like the designs?