Pokémon Day Leak Hints the Franchise's Best Spinoff Could Return Very Soon
A mystery in the works.
Detective Pikachu isn’t the only Pokésleuth. Two weeks before Pokémon Day, a fan discovered the words “Spike Chunsoft” hidden in the Pokémon Together website’s code. Thus the suspicion that this year’s Pokémon Day might have something to do with one of their games. Spike Chunsoft is known for developing murder mystery visual novels like Danganronpa and AI: The Somnium Files. However, if you’re a true fan, you might also know that they developed Pokémon Mystery Dungeon.
The Pokémon Together event invites fans to share their Pokémon-related memories with the hashtag #PokemonTogether on February 27. The official Pokémon channel shared a video advertising the campaign and also made a page dedicated to it for those who want to participate.
On Twitter, @BrybryPokebip posted a screenshot of “Spike Chunsoft” hidden inside the website and even linked to it so that fans can see it in the data themselves. The original tweet is in French, but they answer questions from commenters in English. The site’s source code lists Spike Chunsoft with the dates the developer has been active but without any other hints about why it's referenced there.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, a dungeon-diving Pokémon RPG series, puts the player in the shoes of an anthropomorphic Pokemon that’s part of a rescue team. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team kicked off the series as a pair with Blue for the Nintendo DS and Red for those who hadn’t moved on from the Game Boy Advance era. The circumstances vary depending on the installment, but Pokémon Mystery Dungeon typically involves an amnesiac person who’s somehow transformed into a Pokémon.
The first two games accumulated a cult following thanks to their surprisingly emotional story, even if the dungeon exploration was weaker than many reviewers hoped it would be. In a thread about the topic, the most upvoted reply came from a commenter who loved the game because of the “effort to write decent/good characters along with not being afraid to have dark plots that impacts your character.”
“I was pleasantly surprised to find it has one of the most emotionally resonant Pokémon stories in years — and that's largely because the Pokémon are anthropomorphized,” wrote Cian Maher, who reviewed Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX for GameSpot. “They have personalities, ambitions, quirks, and dreams.”
The Pokémon Company typically celebrates its unofficial Pokémon Day holiday on February 27. The Pokémon Presents livestream hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s likely that it will happen again. As video game account Stealth pointed out, these livestreams happen regularly. Pokémon Presents aired in 2019, 2021, and 2022.
Pokémon Presents also typically announces new Pokemon games for the year. The February 2021 Pokémon Presents announced Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Pokémon Shining Diamond and Brilliant Pearl. The February 2022 Pokémon Presents followed suit with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. It might be too early for another mainline release. However, a spinoff would make sense within the timeline.
It’s been over seven years since Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, the latest installment with a new story. The last Pokémon Mystery Dungeon title that Nintendo released was the Nintendo Switch remaster for the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, titled Pokémon Mystery Dungeon DX. If the rumors are true, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon fans will finally get a continuation of their favorite Pokémon spinoff series.
