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Sword and Shield Expansion Pass

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Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass
Developer(s)Game Freak
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Hiroyuki Tani
Producer(s)
Artist(s)
  • James Turner
  • Suguru Nakatsui
Writer(s)Toshinobu Matsumiya
Composer(s)
SeriesPokémon
Platform(s)Nintendo Switch
Release
  • WW: June 17, 2020
[1] (The Isle of Armor)
  • NA: October 22, 2020
  • WW: October 23, 2020
(The Crown Tundra)
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Pokémon Sword and Shield: The Isle of Armor and Pokémon Sword and Shield: The Crown Tundra are the two downloadable content expansion packs that make up the Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass. They are DLC for the 2019 role-playing video games Pokémon Sword and Shield on Nintendo Switch. They were developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. The Isle of Armor was released worldwide on June 17, 2020, followed by the release of The Crown Tundra, which was released on October 22, 2020. The Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass physical bundle pack was released on November 6, 2020.

The addition of the Expansion Pass was used to replace the need for a third version or sequel of Sword and Shield. The two DLCs are set outside of the mainland of the Galar region, the game's main location. The Isle of Armor is set on a coastal island named the Isle of Armor, which is based on the Isle of Man. The Crown Tundra is set in the snowy southern area called the Crown Tundra, which is based on Scotland. The player controls the protagonist during their journey through these areas, where they encounter various new characters and Legendary Pokémon.

Gameplay

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Main article: Pokémon Sword and Shield § Gameplay

The island the expansion pack is set on is one inter-connected "Wild Area", a free-roaming open world with a free moving camera and dynamic weather, which has implications on which Pokémon species appear at a given time.[2] Additionally, "Raid Dens" appear which are small arenas for battling and catching Dynamaxed and Gigantamaxed Pokémon. The game introduces trials, initiated by the island's dojo master and former Galar Champion, Mustard and also the once Master of Current/Former (depending on your progress in the main series) Champion, Leon, and must be completed to advance the story. The trials involving battling Pokémon and collecting items for "Max Soup", used for "Gigantamaxing" Pokémon.[3] These trials grant the players access to Kubfu, a Pokémon that can be trained to be evolved into either a dark type or water type version of Urshifu. There is also the "Cram-o-Matic", a machine that resembles the Pokémon Cramorant. This machine combines items into creating new, and sometimes rare, items. A returning feature from the Pokémon Let's Go games is the player's leading Pokémon can follow them in the overworld.[4] A new form of battling was introduced name "Restricted Sparring", which limits the types of Pokémon the player can bring to a battle. The expansion offers a big side quest involving the hunting of 151 Alolan Diglett, where the player would be awarded different Alolan Forms for certain milestones.[5][6]

The location the expansion pack is set is one inter-connected "Wild Area", a free-roaming open world with a free moving camera and dynamic weather, which has implications on which Pokémon species appear at a given time. The defining of The Crown Tundra are the Dynamax Adventures. The player must travel to an area in the tundra called the Max Lair, where they can be given rental Pokémon to battle through three different Max raid battles.[7] After beating a Pokémon, the player can choose which path to choose next. After battling each raid Pokémon, the player must battle a Legendary Pokémon from previous games. The player can choose to catch the Legendary Pokémon, which have a 100% chance of being caught, or they can choose to leave it, losing out on the chance to catch another one if they decide to catch it.[8][9] These Dynamax Adventures can be played online or single player, and are included as a part of the story.[10] The other big feature for the DLC are Galarian Star Tournaments, which are tournaments where the player and one other character of the player's choice engage in Multi-trainer battles with other characters from Sword & Shield and the expansion pass.[11]

Pokémon

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The expansion introduces the legendary Pokémon Kubfu and its evolution Urshifu. These Pokémon are central to expansion's plot and its themes of growth. Additionally, a regional form of Slowpoke and one of its evolutions, Slowbro have been added.[a][12] The expansion also adds new Gigantamaxed forms for Venusaur, Blastoise, the region's starter Pokémon (Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Inteleon), and both forms of Urshifu.[13] The expansion pass includes the Mythical Pokémon Zarude, which is a pivotal character in Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle.[14][15] The island contains 108 returning Pokémon that are not in the base game,[16] though Game Freak had previously stated aversion to adding Pokémon past the release of the base game.[17]

The core focus of The Crown Tundra centers around various legendary Pokémon like newly introduced Calyrex, resembling a mix of a jackalope, snowy plants and the Crown jewels.[18][19][20] Calyrex has a gimmick where it can fuse with two other newly introduced legendary Pokémon named Glastrier and Spectrier, an ice and ghost horse respectively, in order to regain Calyrex's power.[21] The expansion also introduces two legendary Pokémon that resemble the Regi golem trio from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, with the electric type Regieleki and the dragon type Regidrago.[22][23] Adding onto the first expansion pack, a regional form was given to Slowking.[24] However, additional regional forms were given to the legendary bird trio from Pokémon Red and Blue: Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres.[25][26] Likewise more than a hundred Pokémon returned from previous generations that didn't appear in the base game in the form of Dynamax Adventures which including all the non-mythical legendary Pokémon from previous games.[27][28][29]

Plot

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The Isle of Armor

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The player visits the Isle of Armor, where they encounter a student, named Klara (In Sword) or Avery (In Shield) of the local Master Dojo. The player meets the Dojo's master, Mustard. The player joins the Dojo, and is challenged to complete three trials to obtain the Dojo's "secret armor." After the three trials are passed, the player is gifted the Legendary Pokémon Kubfu. Mustard tasks the player with becoming friends with Kubfu. After the player attains maximum friendship with Kubfu, Mustard asks the player to go to either the Tower of Waters or the Tower of Darkness. Mustard waits at the top floor of the player's chosen tower, and battles the player with his own Kubfu. After defeating him, Mustard lets the player evolve Kubfu using a scroll in the tower, with the tower chosen affecting which form of Urshifu Kubfu evolves into.[30]

If the player has completed the main story of Pokémon Sword and Shield, the player will team up with their friend Hop to find a way to let Urshifu Gigantamax. They manage to find a way to do so, and Mustard asks the player to fight him in a no holds barred battle. Upon his defeat, Mustard declares he has nothing more left to teach the player, allowing them to graduate from the Dojo.

The Crown Tundra

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The player visits the Crown Tundra, where they meet a man named Peony and his daughter Peonia. Peonia does not want to join her father on an adventure in the Tundra, and uses the player to distract her father while she goes to the Max Lair. Peony and the player enter the Max Lair, and Peonia has the player take her place in Peony's adventure.

Peony instructs the player to go on multiple adventures featuring Legendary Pokémon. He requests the player hunt down the Galarian forms of the Legendary Pokémon Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, who scatter to various areas in the Galar region. He also requests the player capture the Legendary Pokémon Regirock, Regice, Registeel, and one of Regieleki or Regidrago. Another request involves uncovering the mystery of Calyrex, a Pokémon who used to rule the Galar region as its king but was reduced to a weakened state. The player and Peony help Calyrex reunite with its steed, either Glastrier or Spectrier, restoring its power. Calyrex willingly joins the player on their journey, letting them capture it after a battle. After all of the Legendary Pokémon are captured, Peonia arrives to join Peony's adventure, but runs off again after Peony informs her of the player's completion of all the adventures he had prepared.

Following this, the player finds a note involving Ultra Wormholes, with Ultra Beasts, Pokémon from other dimensions, appearing in the Max Lair. After Necrozma is captured in the Max Lair, the scientist manning the Max Lair reveals she wrote the note, resolving the plot. Another plot involves Leon, the former Champion of the Galar region, announcing the Galarian Star Tournament, a competition of the best trainers in Galar, which the player can partake in.

Development

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The expansion pass was first announced in the January 9, 2020 Pokémon Direct and again shown briefly in the March 26 Nintendo Direct Mini.[31][32] Following this, the pass was shown off in great detail in the June 17 Pokémon Presents, hours before The Isle of Armor was released worldwide.[33] A follow-up on information was released on September 29, during a DLC livestream presentation.[34]

During interviews, it was mentioned that depending on how far into the game the expansion pack would be entered, the levels of the Pokémon in The Isle of Armor would be scaled accordingly.[35] However, as is in the base game for wild Pokémon, levels instead scale with the number of Gym Badges the player has. At the end of the last presentation before the release of the DLC was a music video for Acacia, the newest song from Japanese alternative rock band Bump of Chicken, which acted as both a celebration of The Crown Tundra as well as the franchise in general.[b][36][37][38]

Reception

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The Isle of Armor

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The Isle of Armor received "mixed or average reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic. GameSpot considered it to be an extension on the best part of the base game being the Wild Area. The length of the expansion, specifically the story, was seen as too short; Álvaro Alonso of Hobby Consolas and Travis Northup of IGN wrote that the expansion's story only lasts a couple of hours and a lack of post-game does not help improve this problem.[47]

One of the highlights according to critics was the giant Wild Area that is spread across the isles, with critics from TouchArcade calling it "the star of the show". Kallie Plagge of GameSpot noted that the expansion doubled down on the idea and made it "bigger and better" than the base game's version, making praises on the diverse scenery and better-suited game elements such as the dynamic weather system. In Alex Olney of Nintendo Life's review, he said that the Wild Area was well thought out and carefully planned, but did mark down the game due to "muddied graphics". He also praised the Pokémon scaling that was originally missing in the base game, such as with the up-scaling the size of Wailord.

Though fairly positive received, the expansion was mainly criticized for not doing much with its gameplay or story. Chris Carter of Destructoid mentioned that the game was solid and worth the price, but that the expansion did not fix the base game's problems nor did it shake up the "Pokémon formula". Other critics said the game didn't offer much. Sam Loveridge of GamesRadar+ concluded that the story and characters may not be enough to excite fans of the series and that the Wild Area was repetitive.[48]

The Crown Tundra

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The DLC received generally positive reviews. On Metacritic it has a score of 75 out of 100 based on reviews from 23 critics.

Chris Carter of Destructoid gave 7.5 on their review saying "It was small, but it wasn’t bad! The new locale was a breath of fresh air, especially given that Game Freak was doubling down on the Wild Area mechanic, allowing the entire DLC to make use of the feature."... "But given Sword and Shield‘s latent shortcomings, it wasn’t enough for everyone." He felt that the story "feels decidedly like a Pokemon movie, with the main legendary finding a way to telepathically communicate and speak to humans." while also praising the plot noting "It’s more involved than the Isle of Armor plot, that’s for sure." He criticised some environments claiming them to be "generic" as well as stating that the Wild area wasn't "as sprawling or interesting." as the one present in The Isle of Armor DLC. He concluded "Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun."[55]

Travis Northup of IGN gave a score of 9.3 had a mixed review on the addition content saying "Like the harsh and snowy climate it's set in, the final DLC for Pokémon Sword and Shield’s season pass is an add-on designed with the most hardcore Pokémon players in mind. The Crown Tundra puts open-world exploration and legendary Pokémon front and center, taking full advantage of the base game's best innovation: wild areas." While acknowledging the fun gameplay features added he criticised the story saying "its weak story is similarly short-lived – and its exciting legendary hunts end with classic, grindy encounters that will have you praying to lady luck." However praised the execution of the open world aspects saying "Unlike wild areas before it though, The Crown Tundra actually makes much better use of the open-world sandbox by cramming it full of legendary Pokémon to track down and secrets to discover", concluding. "Though there’s only a few hours of legendary-hunting to be had in total, it’s definitely some of the best content in all of Pokémon Sword and Shield."[56]

References

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