A short clip of a fisherman waving from his little boat just sent a good chunk of Pokémon fandom into a full nostalgia spiral, and honestly, you get it.

The official Japanese Pokémon account posted a playful video for Respect for the Aged Day starring Mr. Briney, known back home as Old Man Hagi, as Polygon reported. On its own, that is just a sweet little seasonal post about a beloved side character. But IGN noticed the footage looked cleaner and more colorful than anything the Game Boy Advance ever produced, and fans immediately clocked it too, wondering if it was pulled from an unannounced Switch version of Ruby and Sapphire.

You can see why hopes are running warm. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen already made this exact jump last year, arriving on Switch and Switch 2 with brighter visuals, a handful of unlocked event tickets, and, charmingly, a swear filter nobody asked for. IGN notes those two sold four million copies in six weeks at $20 each, which is the kind of number that makes a publisher start humming to itself. Datamines of that release reportedly turned up references to Ruby and Sapphire buried in the code, which is exactly the sort of breadcrumb that turns a cute anniversary clip into a full-blown theory.

Shade News is circulating the same rumor, and to its credit the channel is careful to frame it as just that: a rumor, not a Nintendo announcement, with the shape of any eventual release (straight port, enhanced remaster, something bigger) still a total mystery. Insider Gaming is running the same speculation off the same clip. No official confirmation has been reported by Polygon, IGN, Shade News, or Insider Gaming, and Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have said nothing themselves.

Here is what I love about this theory, and here is the part that costs it nothing to admit: Hoenn deserves the reunion tour. Mudkip deserves to look glossy again. Kyogre and Groudon deserve a screen that isn't the size of a coaster. Fans still owe FireRed and LeafGreen a verdict on Pokémon Home support, expected sometime this October, and a Ruby and Sapphire launch alongside that news would slot in with suspicious tidiness.

And that tidiness is exactly the problem: a beloved region being treated as a seasonal product drop, timed to the holidays down to the week, is not nostalgia being honored, it is nostalgia being scheduled.

Until Nintendo actually says something, treat the crisp little fishing boat as a clue and nothing more. The rest of Hoenn is still waiting off camera.