The rumors of a Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remake have been circulating since the release of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in 2014, even though there’s never been an official confirmation from Game Freak that those projects are in the works.
But the official Pokémon Twitter account used a GIF from one of the special events available in the fourth generation games today—and it has Pokémon fans a little stirred up for more than one reason.
The GIF is simply part of the Shaymin event that was made available in Platinum, which had the player talk with Professor Oak after using an event item called Oak’s Letter to pass into a restricted area of the map. The Pokémon Company could be using this for the context of the Professor’s words to ask players to thank the people who support them in life, which is what the initial context of the tweet is.
“You’ve met many people and Pokémon, and experience many things that have shaped you into the person you are,” Oak says in the event. “I want you to sincerely tell me who affected you the most.”
Most of the comments are the typical response to anything posted by Game Freak or The Pokémon Company nowadays, which is people incessantly asking for the developers to bring back the National Pokédex and flooding the post. But because of the origin of the GIF, many fans are now speculating over if there’s a deeper meaning behind the choice.
It’s unlikely that a single GIF is being used as a hint that the remakes are coming in the future, especially when you consider the fact that the Sword and Shield Expansion Pass is going to last the rest of the year. Any announcement or hint would be more likely to happen next year when the slate for Pokémon content is clear again.
Funnily enough, the version of this GIF that was used by the official Pokémon account is actually taken from a hacked copy of Diamond and Pearl. The Shaymin event was never made accessible through legal means until after Platinum’s release in 2009, but the main character in the GIF is wearing her outfit from DP.
That means that the GIF was most likely taken from a version of DP that was using an Action Replay cheat to break the barriers of the game and access the event.
