Pokemon Scarlet & Violet starter evo leak criticized for being “too good”

A new Pokemon Scarlet & Violet leak claiming to show the final evolution of Fuecoco is being deemed too good to be true by critical fans.

The Pokemon Company recently announced Generation 9 and unveiled the new first-stage starters. And, as is tradition, “leakers” began flooding the seedy corners of the internet with all sorts of information about Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.

By now, Pokemon fans have learned to take every new leak with a grain of salt. While there are some very reputable leakers like Riddler Khu, most leaks come from unverifiable or anonymous sources.

Such is the case with a recent leak showing the final evolution of Fuecoco, the fire-type starter. While it has all of the conventions of a great Pokemon design, fans are being quite skeptical because of how good it looks.

Game Freak

Fuecoco is the fire-type starter for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Fuecoco final evo leak is “too good”

When the image of Fuecoco’s supposed final evolution cropped up online, a lot of fans were quick to scrutinize the leak. But between the perfect Japanese writing and similar line art to legitimate Pokemon concept art, people began to believe it was legit.

• Read More: Pokemon Scarlet & Violet leak suggests biggest roster update “in a very long time”

However, another wave of criticism emerged as fans suggested the design was “too well done”. This led to Reddit user ModishAndElegantPony posting an image of every element of the leaked design being examined.

The image sang the design’s praises by stating it was “strong, unique, and extremely likable”, “beautifully proportioned”, and “consistent with the first stage”. Ultimately, it deemed the design fake for being too in line with the design conventions of Generations 1-3.

Goddamn.. Anon makes a good point. I’m having a hard time refuting this. byu/ModishAndElegantPony inPokeLeaks

Others agreed stating, “Yeah, it checks all the boxes for a good design, so it’s definitely fake.” Another comment read, “First thing that caught my eye is how ‘perfect’ and unjarring it looks for a supposed starter evolution.”

With that being said, this could be a legitimate leak that’s written off as a fake. This happened before the release of Sun & Moon when all three starter final evolutions leaked but were deemed fake for being too anthropomorphic.