Pokemon Sword And Shield: Welcome to the new age of gaming

Wait, does Inteleon have a gun?

Recently I broke a nearly decade long hiatus from Pokemon games and jumped into the newest entry of the franchise; Pokemon Sword and Shield. In my defence, my exile wasn't exactly self imposed. Nintendo have always jealously hoarded their properties for their own pricey consoles and it wasn't until the Nintendo Switch that I felt the need, and possessed the financial freedom, to meet those requirements. Once I had the system, picking up the next Pokemon was inevitable, not least of all because the region in which this title was set, Galar, was loosely based upon my homeland England. (Although it was geographically skewered so that Wyndon, the nation's capital, somehow ended up right in the middle of Cairngorms National Park. I'm sure there's some Scottish players who'll find that pretty insulting.) And I have had a heck of a time since then.

My last few weeks with the title have been taken up by my own personal collectathon as I tackled all the story content and have moved onto the arduous task of 'catching them all'. (And doing by best to pick up some Shinies along the way.) It certainly has been a trip coming back to Pokemon after all these years and knowing things about it now that I did not used to know, (Such as the existence of Shinies) and getting to experience it all has been enthralling. What's more than that, it has been interesting to see the subtle ways that Gamefreak and The Pokemon company have adjusted their game to better fit into the world of 'Live Services' that we all live in today. They make active use of the news feed integrated into the Switch to deliver updates on rules changes to the tournament circuits, and new Gigantamax Pokemon who'll pop up in the Wild area for a limited time. (And a brief period over new years in which Shiny Magikarp specifically became more common, which occurred about three days into my search for a Shiny Magikarp. An odd coincidence if ever I've seen one.)

As such it has become a very interesting point of study, for me, to see how far they would go and if they would adopt some of the more widespread practises of other popular games. Afterall, this is a title that they themselves boast is the 'First Pokemon game to launch on Home consoles' >Cough< you guys forgot Pokemon Stadium 1&2, Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Colosseum, Pokemon Battle Revolution and Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness >Cough<. In the past Pokemon games have relied on ridiculously demanding events in order to keep the community excited post-launch, mostly consisting off >shudder< real life promotion events. (I know, I hate the idea of it too!)

They would also go the distance of making re-releases of past games if ever the team wanted to revisit a region such as with Pokemon Black and White 2, Platinum, Emerald, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and Ultra Sun and Ultra moon. (There's an interesting story about how those last two games came to be, but that's for another blog.) These new games worked well enough for the time (especially as they tended to release at times when fans had literally no alternative games to play) however recently The Pokemon hegemony revealed that they would be moving into a new, and decidedly more expensive, age going forward.

Nintendo pulled another fast-one by revealing a surprise Nintendo Direct a few days ago, and this one earned my attention for the first time because it actually seemed to be solely Pokemon themed. (Although that did anger a significant degree of Smash fans who are still waiting to hear about the 5th character in the fighter pass that they purchased a year ago.) It was during this 'live' event that an announcement was made that would change the trajectory of the Pokemon franchise going forward and forever; a remake of 'Pokemon Mystery dungeon: Rescue Team'! Wait, upon reflection I guess that the decision to pursue the expansion pass model for Pokemon going forward is a lot more significant for the franchise as a whole.

That's right, for the first time ever a mainstream Pokemon game will partake in DLC in order to allow for the player's adventures to continue without having to resort to adopting the body of another 10 year old. (It always felt weird whenever they made us do that.) This time around there will be two significant expansions, announced so far, that will take players to the various isles of Galar and feature brand new quest lines. Whatsmore, they will also add over 200+ previously cut Pokemon (with some new ones thrown in there) in order to make up the deficit of Pokemon that were left over from the abandonment of the National Pokedex for Sword and Shield. (For context; Sword and Shield only featured 400 Pokemon whilst the National Dex had 890.) This won't exactly even out the numbers, but with the approach they're taking to this DLC it looks like they are taking the right steps towards healing the rift their split caused within the fanbase.

The first expansion, arriving this summer, called 'The Isle of Armor' will take fans to a suspiciously Japanese looking 'dojo' in order to train under a powerful Pokemon expert. They will find themselves experiencing a brand new environment, training with a new legendary and interacting with a new version specific rival. (No more Hop? Allow me to play the world's smallest violin in commiseration.) This, I'm sure, will appeal to those who felt themselves disappointed by the lack of scope to Pokemon Sword and Shield as well as the distinct lack of legendary Pokemon themselves.  In the Galar Region all we had to play around with were Zacian, Zamazenta, a story-central Pokemon that I don't feel happy talking about on a non-Spoiler discussion, and a surprise addition from the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire games which definitively confirms that this game takes place in the new universe created for that title. (Pokemon's canon gets weird sometimes.)

The second expansion neatly eclipses everything I just discussed however, and it's called 'The Crown Tundra'. That DLC will take players to a frozen landscape at the head of an expedition in order to uncover some sort of secret, likely related to the royal-revelation from the base game. Once more this title will feature a new location, new legendary and new characters, but where my attention is drawn to is the brand new 'raid dungeons' that will feature in the Tundra. These are locations that expand upon the 'raid fights' from the base game into a large and hostile location wherein a group can encounter various Legendaries and Mythicals from past games. I'm talking Mewtwo, Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Lugia, The Eon Duo and so many more, bringing some of the best Pokemon of the franchise to this new generation.

Of course, as exciting as all this is, there does come the caveat that these Pokemon are attached to a paywall. (and it's an expensive one at that.) Main line Pokemon games use to retail at around £40, back when they launched on hand-held consoles, but this title launched for a full 60 and the expansion pass will cost a cool £30 too. That's a bit of a 'yikes' for me, I'll admit. Although this is slightly offset by the fact that one can trade for these new Pokemon without having to actually own the expansions, but if anyone is under the delusion that this will make it possible for them to get their hands on the slew of new and old legendaries, think again. (No one's going to trade their Rayquaza. That'd be tantamount to blasphemy!)

With all this to think about, I think it's fair to call reception to this approach 'mixed with a leaning towards positive'. Some folk see this for cynical monetisation strat that it pretty much is, whilst others are use to Gamefreak monetisation and couldn't really care less. As for me, I got this title for Christmas so I have no qualms dropping a little money on it, especially with all the fun I've been getting from it, but I can imagine others being slightly appalled at how their initial £60 wasn't enough to get them full excess to a series which, let me remind you, is used to being far cheaper. At the end of the day this comes to a question of how much your willing to tolerate, as well as the cost that tolerance might incur.