When the seasonal pass was announced for Pokemon Sword & Shield a lot of players were very optimistic, this was of course the first time Pokemon had ever received DLC this was obviously thanks to the series now being on Home Consoles, so you could imagine why.
It was quite a shock to some players, not me however, when Isle of Armor was released and the content wasn’t exactly as meaty as some would of liked. The story was very shallow and the end game activity was a battle system in which you could only use one type and keep battling for as long as you can. The first DLC did include a few new Pokémon, a lot of returning ones and a few quality of life updates, but Crown Tundra is where you really get bang for your buck.
The DLC is packed with lots to do depending on what you as a player are interested in. This included things such as a new Endgame activity in which you can go into a “raid adventure” to reach the end Pokémon which is one of the many returning legendaries. It is a fantastic mini game to keep you playing for a lot of hours that you wouldn’t of spent in Isle of Armor! It has some faults which I will discuss later but I feel like speaking positively first rather than negatively.
These “raid adventures” allow the player to hunt any legendary of their choosing (once they had encountered it once), or go in blind and get one of the 38 possible legendaries available. This isn’t all it is good for either, along the way you capture three more Pokémon all with predetermined move-sets for the purpose of the activity and if the legendary isn’t what you are looking for you can keep one of these instead! It is fantastic for filling up the Pokedex or just capture good Pokémon for competitive use, if you are into that sort of thing.
It is also a new method for shiny hunting, my personal endgame goals, as the odds are 1/300 for a shiny without the shiny charm, or 1/100 with the shiny charm. For anyone wondering why this is significant the normal odds for encountering one of these oddly coloured wonders if actually 1/4000 without the shiny charm, or 1/1365 with the shiny charm. This is a huge increase, as it should be because the activity is quite lengthy and can last up to half an hour. So they needed to make these rewarding.
Speaking of rewards, not only are the Pokemon quite the spicy treat, as you play, online or offline, you gain a new type of in-game currency which allows you to purchase special items that help for breeding and raising competitive teams. Including an item that allows Pokemon to obtain their hidden ability without them actually having it in the first place, this is subject to the Pokemons species of course as some don’t have a hidden ability. This is a part of Gamefreaks huge overhaul in these games to help newer players get into competitive quicker. This has been widely accepted and appreciated by the community.
So, you may be asking yourself by now, but Harry what is actually new in this DLC? Well this has actually been something I have adored as a Pokemon fan and am excited to talk about! This DLC included a plethora of new legendaries for trainers to capture and raise. It even gave new and old players access to Pokemon that have never been available inside of a main series Pokemon game before.
When you arrive in the area of the new DLC you are introduced to Peony, the main character of the DLC and your guide to all things legendary. He tasks you with going around the Crown Tundra and finding out the mysteries surrounding the legendaries and why they are here in the Crown Tundra.
The quests are all small hints written on pieces of paper in the players inventory and you must solve the clues and find the legends. Firstly you must uncover the truth behind the King of Bountiful Harvests, the people of the Crown Tundra have been without bountiful harvests for quite some time and the King of legends has become just that, a legend. The player, obviously as they are the main character, is contacted by this legendary being and ask to help bring back the harvest to the people by restoring his power. It is quite a short quest, like all them are, in which the player gets to choose which type of Pokemon you wish the legendary Calyrex ends up being. Giving the player choice has always been a good thing in this game series as it doesn’t force players into choosing a Pokemon that wouldn’t want to use on their team.
The second quest objective is to undercover the secret behind mysterious ruins, locked behind walls of braille and the player must uncover what the secret messages mean. This particular quest is a call back to the legendary side quest in the 3rd generation of Pokémon from just over 12 years ago. The first 3 ruins will give you the 3rd gen legendary titan trio that players are all very familiar with. This quest came with….a twist. Once the player has capture the original 3 titans the player is tasked with going to a 4th ruin in which 2 new titans have been added into the game series! Originally the titans were a trio with their “overlord” titan being separate and stronger than them all. This was an incredible surprise when announced by Gamefreak because none of the 4 generations after generation 3 had they added new titans, and they are incredible designs and expand upon the existing lore in the Pokémon Universe.
This quest comes with a catch, not a pun I swear, in which the player can only choose one of the new titans and that is it. This is obviously to encourage trading and online interactions amongst players as Pokémon has always had version exclusives and it obviously wasn’t going to stop now. Whilst slightly annoying and inconvenient, as players are obviously going to want to use both of the new Pokemon, it was something I saw coming and therefore went in with that expectation.
LASTLY AND MOST EXCITEDLY. The final quest involves the player going to a majestic pink tree with large red fruits growing around it. Upon inspection of the tree a cutscene begins as 3 majestic birds begin their dramatic fight. One bird with black fire engulfing its body, one that resembles an Ostrich with jagged wings and finally a purple bird which eyes light up and shoots laser beams out of. But…wait. Upon closer inspection these birds look somewhat familiar.
That is right, these are no ordinary birds, these are new galarian forms of the original three legendaries from Generation 1 of Pokémon, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. These are without a doubt the best part of the DLC and could of been the only thing added and I would of purchased it. They are some of my favourite creatures designs in recent years and honestly, with all the new forms of Pokemon being added in recent generations it was about damn time some legendaries got this treatment.
Once encountered, the birds disappear and roam amongst different areas in the game and it becomes a chase as they are incredibly fast and must be caught up to before the battle begins. They are all difficult to capture and come with new moves and typings. All whilst retaining some of the original design’s spark. I wish I could of shiny hunted them…. which of course, brings us to the negatives.
Since Generation 5 of Pokémon, Gamefreak have had an affinity to “Shiny Lock” certain species of Pokémon, particularly legendaries. This has not changed and it angers players greatly. For me and many others, Shiny hunting is a huge part of Pokémon’s replayability. Thankfully the new raid adventures can be shiny hunted but of course I wanted to shiny hunt the new legends and birds! However, I’m not allowed, to which I ask, why? What does this achieve. This has obviously been done so Gamefreak can host online events to distribute these shiny Pokémon but to me that seems disrespectful to a huge portion of the community.
This of course isn’t the end of the world but something puzzles me, the birds cannot be shiny hunted, the new legendary Calyrex cannot be hunted, nor the secret Pokémon but, the new legendary titans can be hunted? This seems odd. Especially since their shiny forms are not as well designed as the others which are locked. This is not the end of this though, the DLC introduced the Mythical Pokemon Keldeo! A species never catchable in a main series game and it’s shiny locked! Its madness.
For my final nitpick and this is a nitpick, the raid adventures are a perfect example of how a online and open world Pokémon would be incredible, but the connection issues are atrocious and need to be seriously worked upon. It is off putting and really ruins these raids as you can never tell if someone is simply not taking their turn to attack or have been disconnected, which the game doesn’t even tell you by the way.
All in all, this particular DLC made the season pass worthy of the purchase, it was incredibly worth the wait and I have already put plenty of hours into it. I am actually playing the raids as I write this! With the 25th anniversary of Pokemon on the horizon and the new main series games releasing next year, I am super excited for the future of Pokemon. Just please Gamefreak, give me a difficulty slider, no one else. Just me.
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