Pokemon Sword and Shield Reveals Galarian Forms of Legendary Birds

Three popular Legendary Pokemon are getting new regional variant forms. Earlier today, the Pokemon Company revealed a surprise first look at the Galarian forms of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, three of the oldest Legendary Pokemon in the franchise. The new Galarian regional forms will be released as part of the new downloadable content released for Pokemon Sword and Shield later this year. All three Pokemon look radically different from their non-regional forms. Articuno's face is covered by mask-like feathers and it shoots ice beams from its eyes. Zapdos's neck is much longer and it has long legs that it uses to run quickly. Moltres has a dark grey body and distinctive pink feathers and looks much fiercer than before.

Other details about these Pokemon aren't available, but this marks the first time that a Legendary Pokemon has gained a regional form. It'll be interesting to see the storyline around these Pokemon and what happened to change their forms so radically. You can check out the new Pokemon below:

The new versions of the Legendary birds will appear in the Crown Tundra DLC, which will be released later this fall. The DLC will also contain Pokemon dens in which players can battle Legendary Pokemon from past games and explore mysterious temples connected to the Legendary Golems. Several new Legendary Golems were also previewed, so we may learn some new details about those mysterious Pokemon and how they ended up sealed away in the Hoenn region.

We'll be able to learn more about these Pokemon later this year with the release of the Pokemon Sword and Shield Expansion DLC, which is available for pre-order now on the Nintendo eShop store.