A few weeks back the Pokemon fandom was treated to something that had never been granted to any Pokemon game before in the franchise's 24 year-long lifespan; DLC. Instead of another re-release fans can enjoy an addendum to their adventures which pick up with the same characters in the same regions with the same Pokemon. Isn't that the dream? Continuous adventure? Of course, as this was the maiden implementation there were a great many questions about how this additional content would pan out, whether it would be worth the £15 asking price (which can only be paid for in a £30 Season pass as of the writing of this article), and whether this really was just a glorified Pokemon 'Booster pack' as the droves of the Internet were so quick to claim. And these are the questions that I very much intend to address over this little DLC review right here.
Firstly, I should disclose the fact that I did have my own significant reservations regarding what this DLC would entail all the way back at the first reveal. When we first saw that small island and the way that it would all be using the same 'free-roam' camera and exploration that was featured in the main game's 'wild area' I was hit with a certain worry. I feared that the apparent minuscule size of the play area would lead to a lack of story and purpose to the content, wherein I would finish the story in one day and clean up my poke-collection in the next day to be done with the DLC on the eve of the third. In my mind; that was the absolute worst case scenario of a DLC like this; to be so incredibly undercooked. My concerns built as I learned more about the small scope of the story and in a sense they were met, whilst also being sidestepped entirely; but I'm getting ahead of myself
Following the downloading of the update earlier this year, 'Sword and Shield' fans will encounter a surprise run in with their respective version-exclusive DLC trainer at Wedgehurst Station. (That's the psychic-eccentric 'Avery' for Shield and the Poison-loving 'Klara' for Sword) Such encounter will have lumped these players with a Galarian Slowpoke that had no Pokedex number/entry and couldn't yet be evolved, giving them prime reason to anticipate the DLC. (Also, Galarian Slowpoke just happens to be a 'Psychic-Poison' Type in direct relation to the two DLC stars; who'd a thunk it.) It wasn't until the DLC, however, where fans got magically inundated with an 'Isle of Armor' pass that allowed them to return to Wedgehurst and follow the same line this Slowpoke snuck onto in order to get to 'The Isle of Armor' (A journey which immediately highlights a narrative inconsistency as this Slowpoke was said to have crawled onto the train, but the train line ends firmly in Galar with a Corviknight sky-taxi taking you the rest of the way to 'Armor'. Seems our Slowpoke is a bit a ninja.)
The Isle of Armor itself is quite what one would expect from a small island with the exception that it's variation of atmosphere's seem rather extreme. (And to think I was criticising 'Breakpoint's Auroa for the same thing.) You have sandy beaches, (an impossibility in England) archipelagos, a swamp, caves, a dense forest, (nothing like Glimwood but still pretty overgrown) and even some desert area. All this variety is crammed within a relatively small play space compared to the base title with one key standout; it can all be explored at the player's own pace. From the second that you arrive at Armor, you have freereign to explore where-ever you want to and come accustomed to their new land, and you'll really want to because if you've any sort of attachment to the Pokemon endgame; you'll likely be spending a lot of time here.
Once you arrive, however, you are presented with a bit of a story hook in that you are immediately mistaken to be the new recruit from the 'Master Dojo'; the only piece of infrastructure on the entire island. Klara (or Avery) is tasked with escorting you to the Master Dojo, however they loathe competition and after a brief bout (In which you presumably wipe the floor with them as you'll have finished the game and have a ludicrously overpowered team by this point; right?) they'll come to the conclusion that you are too powerful and will undermine their reputation. This calls to the return of a classic Pokemon trope that has been missing for the past few entries; the rival. For a while now Pokemon games have been replacing their traditional rivals with 'companions' who 'join you for the adventure'; but this lacks that drive to prove yourself in their sneering face as one might experience with old-school rivals like Gary. Klara's mean-girl competitiveness did sort of gleam with that same spark and I hear Avery has a similar dynamic with the player, which I find to be a welcome return to form.
As it turns out; The Master Dojo is an Asian-style training facility built on this island by a sweet old man named Mustard who is adamant in discovering the utmost excesses of Pokemon trainer strength. This means training folk to be better trainers, as well as pushing Pokemon to their peak performance. In fact, Mustard is even credited to have been the one who trained Leon, and I think I heard something about him becoming Champion of something somewhere. So to enter under his tutelage is certainly quite the daunting task; until you arrive and find out that it's all pretty ramshackle and these people mostly just do their own thing. (As one would expect from a laid-back Pokemon game.) But there is one important take away.
The crux of your training under Mustard, and the main framing device of the DLC, is the training of a cute legendary bear Pokemon named Kubfu. This is perhaps the first time, since Yellow at least, that a Pokemon game has focused so heavily around the relationship that the player has with a single Pokemon; but I must admit that the team did pull it off decently well in execution. It isn't the most daunting task in the world, raising Kubfu, but under the guise of 'training' the building of your relationship takes on a whole new dynamic. Should the player be willing to partake, this can be rather the endearing montage of grinding and levelling. (as the story requires the player to build the hidden stat of 'friendship', alongside normal levels.) Personally, as an endgame lover, I took this opportunity to personally EV train Kubfu with this rewarding sense of purpose whilst doing so. I've never had a Pokemon game actively encourage this sort of free-form gameplay and I was pleasantly surprised. (Of course, that won't stop some players from just dunking some EXP candy, cooking a few curries and skipping through all this; but thus is the nature of free-form gameplay: it's as fun as you make it.)
Keep up this training regime and you'll eventually be met with a choice; you'll have to take Kubfu through one of two towers of the island in order to determine his course after graduating the Dojo. There is the tower of Water, which favours the path of the multi strike attack pattern; and the tower of Darkness, which caters to the one strike knockdown path. These towers present another unique Pokemon challenge, as you must face them in their entirety with only Kubfu in your party, which might genuinely prove a challenge if you didn't do a me and train his EV's to a point where he can cut through almost anyone before they can so much as blink. Your reward is an ultimate battle at the top of the tower with the Dojo master 'Mustard' himself (in which he reveals his 'True form') and the chance to evolve your Kubfu to a unique form of 'Urshifu', the Wushu Pokemon. (Who's appearance, type and move-set is determined by the tower you picked for the final exam.)
But that's pretty much all she wrote when it comes to this DLC in terms of story. There are some finer points that I passed but, much as the advertising suggested, the journey of collecting and earning your Urshifu is the main point of this adventure, just as I feared. So does that mean everyone was right and the rest of the DLC is characterised as a collectathon of the 100 Armor-unique Pokemon that litter the land? A chance to get all the Pokemon that they scrapped from the game at a premium? Actually no, there is a little more to it than that. You see, 'the isle of Amor', in it's very nature, represents something that the Pokemon formula has been long overdue; evolution. (That's in terms of gameplay and presentation, by-the-way.) Whilst graphics have improved in the years since the beginning, the core of Pokemon has always remained the same; you go on a very linear journey and fight through very specific gyms through towns that you have no incentive to really ever visit again once the journey is over. It was a completely fine formula to have at the time, but nowadays it feels a little hollow and was part of the reason why I, and some others, saw the jump to console as a missed opportunity for Pokemon to reinvent itself a little bit. The Isle of Armor makes up that opportunity by presenting the Pokemon formula in the shape of something it's never been before; an exploration-based free-roam adventure.
Now, this wasn't what I thought I wanted from Pokemon until I played the Isle of Armor; but after a week of being practically glued to the place; I understand the appeal fully. Besides the raid dens that little the island and shoot out to the sky (they were in the wild area for the base game) you have the Apricot trees that drop items which can be shoved into the new Cram-o-matic in exchange for a random pool of rewards, (a pool which contains some ultra-rare and unique Pokeballs), Mustard's wife: 'Honey's upgrade requests for the Dojo which requires an incredible amount of Watts (I've been at the game amassing Watts for months and I still didn't have enough to finish it),a Diglett scavenger hunt which will reward milestones with regional-variations of SWSH Pokemon (A reward that I actually appreciate and want) and various scattered NPCs that impart the player with everything from region-variant trade opportunities to the chance to completely clean a Pokemon's EVs for a nominal price. (Something that's absolutely invaluable for endgame Pokemon building.) All these little additions to this island make me want to explore and come back to this location that I've seen a hundred times already; which is something that Pokemon has never been capable of before!
I don't think I'm alone in saying; this is the sort of blueprint that future Pokemon titles should be following in order to add more replay value to their games. Building their worlds to be exploration-reliant, full of secrets, reasons to return to old places and free-to-explore should be the design philosophy of the entire franchise and I'm entirely sold on that concept. Whatsmore; I appreciate Armor's new mode that is built for endgame players who have already built that perfect team which can wipe through the 'Battle Tower'. 'Limited Battles' does the exact same thing as the 'Battle Tower' with the exception that your team of three has to all be of the same type, (dual type Pokemon are allowed as long as there's still one common type between them) you have to fight 5 consecutive rounds and are only allowed to restore Pokemon between rounds 2 times and there are no restorative items beyond those you literally put in each monster's hold slot. It's a brutally gruelling challenge that awakens that desire to improve in a manner no other mode from the game quite so perfectly encompasses. (Not even the battle tower to be honest) As a lover of challenges, I look forward to spending the next few months building and testing the right teams for literally every challenge type; because that's the sort of min-maxing play that this DLC encourages.
So yes, from the eye of a minimalist one could look at the short storyline and conclude that this DLC was an empty waste (for the story is incredibly short); but for those take the time to engage with the larger and harder Pokemon systems (which, admittedly, aren't for everyone) there's undoubtedly something special about this isle. To the point where I am honestly excited about the Crown Tundra and the extra concepts it'll introduce when it comes around. (Such as the franchises' first regional-variant legendaries!) With that in mind, I can say that if you are a lover of the Pokemon world and games then the Isle of Armour is easily worth the asking price and a must-have for no other reason than to take a glance of what potentially peak modern-Pokemon game design can look like. But if you enjoy Pokemon on a purely casual level (just there to play the story and experience that alone) you won't be around long-enough to find anything near your investment's worth here. So in that sense I do heavily recommend Armor, but on a provisional basis. And, one must take into account how you currently cannot buy the DLC separately and must pay for another DLC as well just to try this one. Therefore, I must will say that the curious should wait until a sale, as unless you've the heart to commit, you may be left slightly out-of-pocket by The Isle of Armor.
So a mixed bag with a lot of hope thrown in there. (some of which, I'll admit, might be self imparted.) As such I'll stick this review with my very first rating (because I've decided to do that now) and label 'The Isle of Armor' as a C-rate DLC. I know, that seems a bit strange given my applause but I rationalise it like this; as the potential requires significant investment from the player, the DLC is capable of disappointing a lot of people. Go in invested and you can expect a B experience, don't and you'll get a D experience; cut the difference and you get a C. In summary; The Isle of Armour is a bundle that is brimming with potential and may just be the blueprint for a bright future for the franchise. But it's short narrative length will undoubtedly leave some wanting.
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