Pokemon Sword/Shield was a contentious release, and though it divided many people, I considered myself one of those who fell in love with the game. It had its issues, looking like a suped-up 3DS game and following the same formulaic (if much more conveniently plotted) plotline that most of the other games in the series did. But with the usual and the disappointing came some innovation for the series, including a semi-MMO type instanced area called the Wild that let you catch Pokemon and go on raids with other players, looking for monsters with the best possible stats to enter into the competitive meta. Pokemon felt much more freeing and social than it had in years, and with the promise of DLC in the future - a first for the series - things looked bright a year ago. Now, both DLCs are out, and while the newest one, The Crown Tundra, is getting a lot of praise, The Isle of Armor has hardly had words said about it that pierced my various feeds.
When I finally put down Sword/Shield, I meant to give myself a great deal of time before I returned to it, if I returned to it at all. Despite not hearing about The Isle of Armor through my news feeds, I did go out of my way to look into the DLC around release (and ask some friends who had jumped back in). At the time, it didn't sound interesting enough to warrant me dropping the various games and writings I was working on at the time in order to fit in an extremely addictive game. The Crown Tundra, however, has caught my ear, and in order to properly play that I thought it best to give this DLC a playthrough.
The Isle of Armor doesn't add all that much for what amounts to a $15 DLC expansion when you factor out The Crown Tundra in the expansion pass' cost. After purchasing the DLC, you get a train pass that takes you to an island to the East where a world famous Pokemon Dojo resides. The island itself acts as another Wild area with a few new biomes such as a swamp land and a massive ocean type biome to catch different types of Pokemon (seeing a massive Wailord sitting on the ocean is a cool sight, as is the torpedoing Sharpedos that will beeline for you in the water). There are raids, plenty of items to nab, and, once you get far enough into the story, your Pokemon are allowed to follow you around like in SoulSilver/HeartGold, a nice touch but one that should probably have been added to the original release. The new wilds are nice to look at, even as they feel far more video game-y than just about anything in the original. There are bizarrely shaped islands in the oceanic area, corny labrynths such as the forest area meant to distract you from how simple it is (and on a more technical level, this forest is hardly unique to the series - just about every game has had a similar one) and it feels overall far more like an amateur mod than an official release. The way the island intersects with itself to give it this more complex layout is definitely appreciated, but this Wild area feels far less grounded than the one in the base game.
Wild Pokemon here run the gamut of generations, but primarily you are going to find Pokemon from Gen 1. Pinsar, Scyther, Tauros, Jigglypuff - there are plenty of Gen 1 Pokemon to catch, something relatively welcome since it is a great (and nostalgic) generation to include, and contains at least a couple that are relatively competitive. But if you came hoping for more Galarian versions of your favorite Pokemon, you will be disappointed as there is only one this time around. (As a quick aside - why doesn't Gen 2 get any love? Just asking). With the old wild Pokemon newly added to the Pokedex (or, rather, the Isle of Armor Dex, as the Dex's are separated by region, apparently and annoyingly) comes a new legendary to get you hands on, and unfortunately it isn't all that great. It has two stages (so does it even classify as a legendary the way the game likes to state?), first as a small fighting bear called Kubfu, and then when it evolves at the end of the plot it turns into Urshifu, a better but still not great Pokemon that will either have a Dark or Water sub-type depending on your choices in the story. This little bear isn't particularly exciting at all, and the game's plot requires you to use him quite a bit.
Kubfu, it turns out, is a rare Pokemon that needs to be shown the Isle of Armor in order to bond with you, so the plot dictates. After arriving to the island, you accidentally become enrolled into the local Dojo, prove yourself worthy enough for Kubfu, and must train him (to level 70! From 10!) to fight in one of the two towers on the island. The towers correspond to the Dark and Water sub-types Kubfu can gain upon evolving, so choosing the tower is really just choosing how you want him to evolve. The idea is sort of neat, like having a modular Pokemon typing, which could make party creation creative, but its execution here as story specific and with such a limitation means it is little more than a gimmick. Likewise, leveling the little guy up so much could be a chore if you aren't already in the end game with experience candy to spare (and that is sort of assuming you don't care about EVs), but I'll say that at the very least your training of Kubfu is consistent with the plot of the game. As a matter of fact, it just might be the best synergy Pokemon has ever had between gameplay and story, so it's hard for me to criticize it even as playing it out was slightly annoying.
Once Kubfu evolves at the end of a rather easy gauntlet of trainers you must fight with 1v1 party rules (using only Kubfu, of course), you can enter a sort of post game section that allows you to give Urshifu a gigantamax. On the Isle of Armor are Max Mushrooms that can be brewed into a soup that will give a Pokemon a gigantamax form if they are able to get one. It is a pretty neat idea, but it dos devalue some of the vanity catches you can get through raids. Regardless, if you've beaten the post game of Sword/Shield (where you catch the legendary wolf of your game, skipping the re-battles and all that) you can go on the hunt for Max Honey to get your new friend a gigantamax form. A neat little thing, sure, but really not much for all of your effort. What is nice, however, is at the end of the DLC you get to fight one of the hardest battles in the whole game. If you've had a lot of time building up your party in the post game, obviously this isn't going to be too much trouble for you, but it was still a welcome challenge nonetheless.
The Isle of Armor overall amounts to very little with a steep price tag. While some of the elements appeal to me, such as getting my shiny Charizard a gigantamax I've always wanted for him, and catching more Pokemon because I cannot help but delve into collector mechanics in games, that hardly justifies the price. The story is dull, the new mechanics are really just old mechanics with a little more leniency and customization, and although a new wild area is nice as is a hefty addition of more Pokemon, it feels a bit like a Nintendo premium as other games on other platforms would probably have made this a free update to continue engagement from its player base. In a lot of ways, this DLC shows how very out of touch Nintendo still is with its methods in the gaming sphere, and while I still look forward to the legendary filled DLC that comes next, I cannot help but temper my expectations a little after such a disappointment.
5.5
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