Pokemon Sword & Shield: Isle of Armor & The Crown Tundra DLC Review
Pros
- New Wild Area-style locations are fun to explore.
- Loads more Pokémon from past games to catch.
- Dynamax Adventures can be exciting, under the right conditions.
Cons
- Story campaigns are very short.
- Lack of new trainer battles.
- Pokémon Sword and Shield each require their own Expansion Pass.
In our original review for Pokémon Sword and Shield, we expressed our enjoyment of the games, but lamented the lack of content, such as the multitude of missing Pokémon creatures. As if to rectify this problem, Nintendo and the Pokémon Company later announced an Expansion Pass, which would be released in two parts: “The Isle of Armor” during Summer 2020 and “The Crown Tundra” during Autumn 2020. Each part includes a massive new area to explore, its own storyline and hundreds of Pokémon that were missing from the base game.
“The Isle of Armor” takes place on an far-off island to the east of the Galar mainland. Here, Pokémon trainers can train under the guidance of Master Mustard, who runs a well-known dojo on the island. Eventually, you can befriend Kubfu, a small bear-like Legendary Pokémon that can evolve into Urshifu, a stronger Legendary Pokémon with two possible forms, depending on your choice. The Single-Strike Style Urshifu is a Fighting and Dark-type, while the Rapid-Strike Style Urshifu is a Fighting and Water-type.
Meanwhile, “The Crown Tundra” is set in the frigid snowlands at the southernmost edge of Galar. As members of Peony’s expedition team, players are tasked with exploring the tundra in search of various Legendary Pokémon. These include brand new Pokémon, such as as Calyrex, who’s deeply connected to the Crown Tundra, Galarian versions of Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos, plus two new “Regi” Pokémon: Regieleki and Regidrago. On top of that, dozens of returning Legendary Pokémon show up in Dynamax Adventures.
(1 of 2) The Isle of Armor is based on the Isle of Man in the UK.
The Isle of Armor is based on the Isle of Man in the UK. (left), Similarly, the Crown Tundra is loosely based on Scotland. (right)
Both “The Isle of Armor” and “The Crown Tundra” are accessible once you reach the Wild Area in the base game (which is a few hours in). To visit either location, you must set out from the train station at Wedgehurst, the first proper town on your journey. The Pokémon you encounter at the Isle of Armor are low Level near the beginning and scale up once you’re completed the base game. However, the Pokémon at the Crown Tundra are all at endgame/postgame Levels, regardless of your progress.
The key thing to know about the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra is that each of these new areas is effectively a Wild Area. That means traversal within the area is seamless (except when going inside buildings). Just like the Wild Area in the base game, each area is divided into multiple zones, which may be home to different species of Pokémon. Likewise, the weather in each zone changes at the start of each day and may affect what Pokémon you’ll find in that zone.
Compared to the Wild Area in the base game though, the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra are far better designed, with a greater variety of terrain and environments. The general theme of the Isle of Armor is “lush and exotic”; locations include forests, caves, highlands, a desert, a lagoon and open seas. Naturally, the Crown Tundra has a lot of snow, but there’s also a warmer southern half. Even the snowy areas are quite unique, ranging from snowfields to mountainous slopes and an icy-cold sea.
(1 of 2) There are lots of old favorites to be found.
There are lots of old favorites to be found. (left), …And some new faces too. (right)
If you loved catching Pokémon in the Wild Area, you’re bound to enjoy catching them at the Isle of Armor or the Crown Tundra. Besides the new areas being more interesting to explore, there are lots and lots of Pokémon to catch that were missing in the base game. When you first visit one of the new areas, your Pokédex will be upgraded to register all the Pokémon found in that area. As we briefly mentioned, “The Isle of Armor” and “The Crown Tundra” each add roughly 100 returning Pokémon.
Altogether, by combining the base game with both parts of the Expansion Pass, you can obtain up to 664 different Pokémon. At the time of writing, 12 of these Pokémon aren’t available unless you transfer them from Pokémon Home. Otherwise, there are still 234 Pokémon that cannot be brought to Sword and Shield whatsoever. Obviously, it’s not 100%, but having over two thirds of all Pokémon available in Sword and Shield is a huge improvement compared to originally (when it was less than half).
By the way, the skeptics among you may think the Expansion Pass is simply a way to “sell” you two hundred or so returning Pokémon. But this isn’t the case at all, because with the release of each part of the Expansion Pass, there’s a free software update for all owners of Pokémon Sword and Shield, so they can receive all of the newly added returning Pokémon. Granted, you can’t catch these Pokémon yourself without owning the Expansion Pass; you’ll have to trade with others or transfer them using Pokémon Home.
(1 of 2) The new stories are short, but they’re certainly charming.
The new stories are short, but they’re certainly charming. (left), In Dynamax Adventures, you can co-operate with other players to take on consecutive raid battles. (right)
Pokémon catching aside, how’s the newly added story? We’re sad to say it’s very short-lived and not very substantial. Even if you take your time, you’ll probably blitz through each of the new story campaigns in a couple of hours. “The Crown Tundra” might take slightly longer, since you have to catch a bunch of Legendary Pokémon–and some of them really dislike staying inside Poké Balls! Instead, most of your time will be spent exploring the new areas, catching more Pokémon, training them etc. Basically, more of the same.
There are some new gameplay features and improvements though. The main big one is Dynamax Adventures, introduced in “The Crown Tundra”. This is an expansion of the Max Raid Battles from the main game. As before, you can team up with 3 other players (either online or nearby) or you can attempt it solo (good luck…). Your task is to navigate a 2D map with multiple branching paths. Whenever there’s a branch, you can vote for which path to follow; afterwards, your team will automatically move along the path with the most votes.
Each path leads to a different Pokémon that you must defeat in a raid battle. For those who don’t know, in a raid battle, you face off against a Dynamaxed (humongous) Pokémon. This Pokémon has more health than usual and can unleash devastating attacks. When you reach the end, you’ll battle a powerful Legendary Pokémon. To create a level playing field and keep things fresh, you cannot use your own Pokémon during Dynamax Adventures–instead, you must choose from the rental Pokémon that are randomly provided.
(1 of 2) At the end of a Dynamax Adventure, you’ll encounter a Legendary Pokémon from previous games.
At the end of a Dynamax Adventure, you’ll encounter a Legendary Pokémon from previous games. (left), The Galarian Star Tournament pits you against pairs of skilled trainers you’ve fought before. (right)
After defeating a Pokémon in a Dynamax Adventure, you’ll have the option to catch it. Unlike regular raid battles, the catch rate is always 100%, regardless of anything (such as the type of Poké Ball used). Next, all members of your team can request to borrow the newly-caught Pokémon, to replace their current Pokémon. When the Dynamax Adventure is over, you can choose to keep one of the Pokémon you’ve caught (maximum of four). Also, Pokémon found in Dynamax Adventures have a significantly increased chance of being shiny!
Dynamax Adventures can be great fun, especially if you’re able to properly co-ordinate them. A lot of the time, there’s a very short timer (likely to prevent people from idling), so you need to make your decisions fairly snappily. As such, if you’re playing with friends, we suggest using voice chat (for example, via Discord). If you’re teaming up with random folks, expect “anything goes”. At the very least, it can’t be as bad as playing with AI partners… They were terrible enough in regular raid battles, but their issues are magnified here.
The other new gameplay element is the Galarian Star Tournament, available after finishing both “The Isle of Armor” and “The Crown Tundra” storylines. This is essentially the Champion’s Cup tournament from the main game, but in Multi Battle format. So it means you’ll team up with another Pokémon trainer (who’s controlled by the AI) to battle against two other opponents. It’s nothing ground-breaking, although there’s some neat banter between the trainers–all of whom are Gym Leaders or skilled trainers from the base game and DLC.
(1 of 2) If you’re bored of your current style, there are lots of additional fashion items to try out.
If you’re bored of your current style, there are lots of additional fashion items to try out. (left), New items like the Ability Patch allow for increased customization of Pokémon. (right)
Onto the smaller features. Fashion-conscious trainers will be pleased to know there are more ways to deck out your trainer character. Near the beginning of the Isle of Armor, you’ll receive the Style Card, which unlocks additional clothes, accessories and hair styles in existing boutiques and hair salons. We counted over 60 clothing items each for males and females. Meanwhile, there are 3 new hair styles for the gents and 4 for the ladies. There are a few extra clothing items available through quests and NPCs too.
For trainers who endeavor to get the most from their Pokémon, the Isle of Armor allows you to give any Pokémon that’s capable of Gigantamaxing, the ability to do so. To recap, Gigantamax is a variant of Dynamax, where a Pokémon changes their appearance when they Dynamax and gain a unique G-Max move, in place of one of their regular Max Moves. Previously, whether a Pokémon could Gigantamax or not was fixed. But now you can change this by feeding a compatible Pokémon some Max Soup, created from Max Mushrooms found on the island.
Not only that, but in the Crown Tundra, there’s a new item called the Ability Patch, purchasable using Dynite Ore earned from Dynamax Adventures or Max Raid Battles at the tundra, which gives any Pokémon its Hidden Ability! For those unaware, many Pokémon have a rare Ability that can only be obtained through elusive methods in the past–as well as Max Raid Battles if you’re lucky. Like the ability to Gigantamax, it wasn’t previously possible to give a Pokémon its Hidden Ability after the fact. So this is a very welcome change.
(1 of 2) Playing through the Expansion Pass put a smile on our face (except when hunting for Diglett on the Isle of Armor).
Playing through the Expansion Pass put a smile on our face (except when hunting for Diglett on the Isle of Armor). (left), With all its new features, the Expansion Pass is functionally Sword and Shield’s “third version”. (right)
Well, that about wraps up the Expansion Pass. All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed playing through both “The Isle of Armor” and “The Crown Tundra”. Both pieces of the Expansion Pass have their own merits–and the new locations are vastly superior to most of the locations in the base game. If you’re like us and really enjoyed Sword and Shield, but felt like the games needed more time in the oven, well, that’s what the Expansion Pass is. In which case, we’d highly recommend the Expansion Pass.
Conversely, if you were underwhelmed by Sword and Shield, we doubt the Expansion Pass would really change your mind. Since it’s essentially more of the same. So if you didn’t like the original plate of fish and chips, you probably wouldn’t like a bigger plate of them. Otherwise, for those of you in the middle ground, there’s a good chance the Expansion Pass will make you appreciate Sword and Shield more. Just keep in mind the new content is more focused on exploring and catching Pokémon–there’s little in the way of story and battling.
More than anything though, we feel like the Expansion Pass is a promising sign of things to come for the mainline Pokémon games. Despite their flaws, Sword and Shield set up a great template with the Wild Area. If they were able to improve the Wild Area concept so much in the span of months, we can’t wait to see what they’ll cook up next. Not to mention, the concept of an expansion pass has been sorely needed for ages. It sure beats buying a whole new game for full price, just to have more or less the same amount of new content.
Sword and Shield, Enhanced
A much welcome expansion for Pokémon Sword and Shield that introduces two, very well-designed areas, brimming with Pokémon to catch. Perfect for fans of the games, but likely won’t change the minds of others.
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