Did anyone else notice that Clara's bow looks really similar to Dustox? Could it be hinting toward a Galarian/Gigantamax form!?
Sword & Shield Expansion Packs Announced: New and Returning Pokemon!
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
- Start date
I'm genuinely surprised by how uplifting a lot of this news was to me. It doesn't change the fact that SwSh still have archaic, unpolished aspects to them that need to be addressed in future games. And while I still have some gripes and hesitation about SwSh, there was a lot of good things for these passes shown in the Direct.
First of all, the reason why I didn't buy either of these games really was the snowball effect that Dexit had. I'm in the minority of fans for this, but I really do enjoy the challenge of catching, evolving, trading, and transferring all Pokemon to complete the National Dex. On top of that bad news, the reason for it was for recreating the Pokemon models and having better animation. Those were both false and only partially true. But the final factor was GameFreak being adamant about not adding the missing Pokemon later.
Well what do we have now? There will be 200+ returning Pokemon. That's certainly a turn for the better! I'm sure the argument can be made that these Pokemon are locked behind a paywall. But that's not correct since they decided even those without the passes will have the ability to trade and transfer these Pokemon for free, which is a great move. (Though, they kind of HAD to make it work this way, since one way or another, everyone would still be using the base SwSh games. There would be issues if there couldn't be connectivity between those who do and do not have the pass.) This is a step in the right direction, and I hope the remaining missing Pokemon will also be added.
I think another big step in the right direction is forgoing the third version in favor of these expansion passes. I've seen others--not just here--say that all of this should have been in the base games to begin with, and I really can't argue with that. Especially given how minimal the post game is. But in this day and age with games costing $60, I'd rather buy the base and then buy the content that would have been exclusive to the third game for $30, rather than another $60. Plus, if they're taking this approach to the 'third version's content,' does that mean they're not releasing a main series game this year? Will this actually allow more development time for future games? I really hope this is the case!
As for the content itself, everything seems intriguing to me. On the lower end, the new Gigantimax forms are fine. New legendaries and Galarian forms are neat. (Though what on earth is that stoic deer/rabbit balloon? What is it? It's such a bizarre design.) The Galarian legendary bird trio and new Regis are pleasantly surprising. Additional clothing through DLC is something I've wanted since X&Y. And the art for the areas themselves look great.
Has this convinced me go out and buy Shield? ...Not yet. But perhaps in the next few months. Which is not something I thought I'd be considering anytime soon. However...
Hesitant speculation for the future:
One thing that really stood out to me in the Direct was the following lines: "We can't go into the details of everything, but we're working on planning and developing new ways to enjoy Pokemon, even as we speak. The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra areas themselves are actually two key examples of the things we're working on." To me, this sounds like more content is planned beyond these two areas. If that's true, then that could be how we get the remaining missing Pokemon. However, the Expansion Pass says that it includes two expansions. If more is to come after these two, are they going to be included in the existing Expansion Pass? Or will there be an Expansion Pass 2 that also costs another $30?
In my opinion (and this gets a bit ramble-y), that goes from "Hooray! This is cheaper than a third game!" to "Well, now with both passes, this is exactly the same as buying a third version." That's a bit less desirable, and for a game that seemed incomplete to begin with. But then again, if this 'first' Expansion Pass possibly means they're not releasing new main series games this year, then would a potential second Pass mean no main series games in 2021? If so, maybe another $30 instead of $60 would also be comparatively good. But then where do the potential DPPt remakes fit in, if not this year or next? Ugh... Too much speculation...
First of all, the reason why I didn't buy either of these games really was the snowball effect that Dexit had. I'm in the minority of fans for this, but I really do enjoy the challenge of catching, evolving, trading, and transferring all Pokemon to complete the National Dex. On top of that bad news, the reason for it was for recreating the Pokemon models and having better animation. Those were both false and only partially true. But the final factor was GameFreak being adamant about not adding the missing Pokemon later.
Well what do we have now? There will be 200+ returning Pokemon. That's certainly a turn for the better! I'm sure the argument can be made that these Pokemon are locked behind a paywall. But that's not correct since they decided even those without the passes will have the ability to trade and transfer these Pokemon for free, which is a great move. (Though, they kind of HAD to make it work this way, since one way or another, everyone would still be using the base SwSh games. There would be issues if there couldn't be connectivity between those who do and do not have the pass.) This is a step in the right direction, and I hope the remaining missing Pokemon will also be added.
I think another big step in the right direction is forgoing the third version in favor of these expansion passes. I've seen others--not just here--say that all of this should have been in the base games to begin with, and I really can't argue with that. Especially given how minimal the post game is. But in this day and age with games costing $60, I'd rather buy the base and then buy the content that would have been exclusive to the third game for $30, rather than another $60. Plus, if they're taking this approach to the 'third version's content,' does that mean they're not releasing a main series game this year? Will this actually allow more development time for future games? I really hope this is the case!
As for the content itself, everything seems intriguing to me. On the lower end, the new Gigantimax forms are fine. New legendaries and Galarian forms are neat. (Though what on earth is that stoic deer/rabbit balloon? What is it? It's such a bizarre design.) The Galarian legendary bird trio and new Regis are pleasantly surprising. Additional clothing through DLC is something I've wanted since X&Y. And the art for the areas themselves look great.
Has this convinced me go out and buy Shield? ...Not yet. But perhaps in the next few months. Which is not something I thought I'd be considering anytime soon. However...
Hesitant speculation for the future:
One thing that really stood out to me in the Direct was the following lines: "We can't go into the details of everything, but we're working on planning and developing new ways to enjoy Pokemon, even as we speak. The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra areas themselves are actually two key examples of the things we're working on." To me, this sounds like more content is planned beyond these two areas. If that's true, then that could be how we get the remaining missing Pokemon. However, the Expansion Pass says that it includes two expansions. If more is to come after these two, are they going to be included in the existing Expansion Pass? Or will there be an Expansion Pass 2 that also costs another $30?
In my opinion (and this gets a bit ramble-y), that goes from "Hooray! This is cheaper than a third game!" to "Well, now with both passes, this is exactly the same as buying a third version." That's a bit less desirable, and for a game that seemed incomplete to begin with. But then again, if this 'first' Expansion Pass possibly means they're not releasing new main series games this year, then would a potential second Pass mean no main series games in 2021? If so, maybe another $30 instead of $60 would also be comparatively good. But then where do the potential DPPt remakes fit in, if not this year or next? Ugh... Too much speculation...
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I like this way of adding more Pokémon. The new Regis, Galarian forms.
I still don't buy the games, so the costs don't matter to me, but having new Pokémon revealed (apart from maybe 1-2 mythical/legendary ones) not only every ~3 years, but also in between is really interesting. It's like finding new species and leaves more room for suprises and changes that did not happen at the game release.
Nowadays I look at Pokébeach so often, but with this it would become more likely to suddenly see a never-before-seen Pokémon somewhere for the first time; not on the internet, but inside of a game, even the TCG.
I still don't buy the games, so the costs don't matter to me, but having new Pokémon revealed (apart from maybe 1-2 mythical/legendary ones) not only every ~3 years, but also in between is really interesting. It's like finding new species and leaves more room for suprises and changes that did not happen at the game release.
Nowadays I look at Pokébeach so often, but with this it would become more likely to suddenly see a never-before-seen Pokémon somewhere for the first time; not on the internet, but inside of a game, even the TCG.
I hate how you have to buy all DLC twice, once for Sword and once for Shield, plus they're probably doing the same with the legendaries as they did last time, where one version gets the reddish box legendary and other gets the bluish one and then you have to have both to get the 3rd box legendary. So scummy! At least with USUM it cost less to get both games than this, which is essentially paying for 4 games that are all mandatory.
This is the same exact issue I had with the games, as you probably know by now. I'm a huge fan of collecting a full Pokedex (currently working on my second living one starting with gen 3 so I can get the shiny charm in BW2), it's my absolute favorite part of the series, easily. Every new area, I have to go around and check "Oh, what can I catch here that's new??", Trainer battles and gym challenges and all that have nothing on how exciting it is to actually collect every Pokemon, and also have my ever-growing collection of shinies, legends, and teams from previous games all together from region to region. So Dexit kinda killed exactly what I liked about Pokemon for, the same idea in the new game, but with only half of what we had in previous games.
Not only did they return a lot of Pokemon, but they did the great move in the Tundra expansion to add new legendaries and bring back the old ones. For me, this is what I play Pokemon for, catching and hunting down these rare Pokemon. Like I said before it's really respectable that they didn't lock the returning Pokemon behind a paywall, even though of course they had to probably do such, but it's Pokemon and they've done some pretty dodgy stuff before, so I wouldn't have put it past them. I think that they very well could bring back the remaining 250-280 (don't know the exact number) Pokemon back at this point, but that's a very very cautious hope on my end. I just wish they'd communicate their plans better-if we had all known old Pokemon would be added in the future, how much less of an issue would the initial announcement of their weird system be, yknow? It's still not the greatest execution, don't get me wrong, but at the same time it could have lessened the blow a lot. We still don't know their intent on the future since they won't communicate it. I just hope, so much, that they decide to add the last of them. It'd really turn me around on the game.
I would definitely have to agree content like this could have been in the base game, especially when you compare it to something like Breath of the Wild which I put over 150 hours in even WITHOUT the DLC, and that nearly doubled once it did come out. But, nonetheless, this is a huge step up from USUM, which was probably the least content in a third-version type game in a long time. Now, trust me, I love the third version games like Emerald and Platinum, and I ESPECIALLY love BW2 which, is honestly so different from the first that it does stand as its own title. But I got Emerald and Platinum (as well as Yellow and Crystal on the 3DS) before I got their original base games. Meanwhile, USUM I got, and while yes, it did improve Sun and Moon by a lot (difficulty especially), it was just a 40 dollar DLC pack that barely changed anything. This is so much better of a format to do, given that it's all new stuff. It's great especially if the content proves plentiful, which we'll have to see. It looks intriguing though, especially the Tundra given that it has all to do with what I like about Pokemon, lol.
I don't really care for the Gigamax forms, again should have just been Megas, I hate Dynamax as a feature since it 100% kicked Megas out of the mix, but the legendaries were my favorite part of the whole announcement. I do hate that deer-rabbit-balloon thing though, I honestly think it's my least favorite Pokemon this generation now, even past Morpeko. The thing is just really kinda off-looking. Trainer customization and the areas themselves definitely are cool from what we've seen thus far.
That definitely stood out to me too. Again, I wish they could communicate their plans on whether or not they're bringing everyone back. It definitely sounds like they have something else planned. I mean, it's strange-we haven't gotten a generational Mythical pokemon yet.
I think how I feel about the price of the expansions depends entirely on how much content we're going to get out of them. If there is a second one, for another $30, then the two passes SHOULD have a full-price game worth of content in order to be justifiable.
I think the Switch still has a long life ahead of it. I think they have the opportunity to take their time with a DP remake if it happens, and I'm sure these expansions could hold a lot of people over anyways, IF they have the content to back them up. We'll just have to see what the future holds, I guess. Here's hoping it's for the better of this series.
I actually find this to be fantastic news. USUM were probably the most disappointing upper version games ever. I love Sword so much and am glad it isn't being recycled into a whole other game with just a little bit more, it's probably my second favourite game in the franchise and gen 8 has been the best new generation since gen 4 in terms of thee world and the pokemon and the characters.
More stories, new pokemon, new regional forms, new gmax forms, I couldn't purchase it fast enough. Long may it reign until Adamant Diamond or Temporal Diamond or whatever it'll be called comes out to pose a threat to my free time.
My only gripe is they spelt armour wrong.
More stories, new pokemon, new regional forms, new gmax forms, I couldn't purchase it fast enough. Long may it reign until Adamant Diamond or Temporal Diamond or whatever it'll be called comes out to pose a threat to my free time.
My only gripe is they spelt armour wrong.
This is exactly how it'll be sadly. You can thank EA for this. Each base game will likely come with an absolute minimum, remove the quirks/mechanics from previous games, add new ones that ultimately do the same thing, charge people double that of previous gens. Then DLC comes and they'll get more out of people while making sure it's only slightly more content, with marketing hype flooding the minds of kids everywhere.
So much this. It makes no sense whatsoever and just goes to prove how much Kanto pandering they feel they must shove in your face. Amused we are not, they look great, but they make no sense.
The issue with DLC is that we shouldn't have to pay the up-front cost for buying the game if we're buying an incomplete game, and that the up-front game will have much less contact than it should have because they're making us pay for the full content. Why didn't they just keep National Dex rather than scrapping half the Pokemon and making us pay 30 bucks for the rest?
N's Rhyperior
Aspiring Trainer
Breakdown of the contents:
- 200 returning Pokemon seems alright and cool, I know the NatDex is too far to happen, but having more Pokemon fills the void in my heart when I am playing this game.
- New Mons seems cool, that's it.
- Tutor Moves in DLC 1 is awesome, Hopefully they'll include the Toxic as a tutor move because since Gen 8, only the new Poison-types are capable of learning Toxic making the 90 acc completely nonsense. Corviknight and Corsola should learn Toxic, but it wasn't.
- Are the Magic 35 include in these 200 returning Pokémon in the DLC, hopefully it wasn't.
- Bulbasaur and Squirtle
- Mewtwo and Mew
- Celebi
- Jirachi
- Swords of Justice
- Keldeo
- Tao Trio
- Meltan and Melmetal
- Alola Starters
- Main Alola Legendaries
- Marshadow
- Zeraora
While I am someone who buys games on release and would have ended up getting crown sword or what ever the second versions would have been called, and ending up paying more than how this DLC is priced, It does concern me that this means those who planned to wait until next year to just picked up the "finished" 60$ game, will also end up having to pay 90$.
Which means from the standpoint of a user who buys games ever release moving to the DLC model, I'm saving 25%
From the standpoint of a user who wants for the second edition moving to the DLC model, I'm paying 50% more.
Which means from the standpoint of a user who buys games ever release moving to the DLC model, I'm saving 25%
From the standpoint of a user who wants for the second edition moving to the DLC model, I'm paying 50% more.
Yeah, I completed a living Pokedex in both White 2 and Omega Ruby. It's very satisfying! I remember wanting to get the Shiny Charm to try catching a shiny Latias and Cresselia in White 2, but those two never happened. But in OR, I caught a shiny Reshiram and Cresselia! I'm very proud of those, as was as my shiny, perfect (or near perfect) IV, Modest Ralts. Best of luck on your current endeavor!
Twice you brought up something I had forgotten to mention--better communication. There was an interview with Junichi Masuda and Shigeru Ohmori shortly before the release of SwSh where the interviewer asked if missing Pokemon would be added later. And Ohmori, in English, simply said, "NO COMMENT," while Masuda looked off to the side at the group of Pokemon Company people behind the camera. At the time, it came off as them wanting to bury their heads in the sand like, "Backlash? What backlash? There are no problems." So I really wonder if they're taking a step back from what they said and they're addressing the fan issues of not including every Pokemon. But now I wonder if they had been planning this method of returning Pokemon along with these expansions from the start, but just didn't want to give away any 'secrets' or hints at this DLC. Which, with either of those, it was poorly handled. All they had to say is that, yes, in the future, missing Pokemon will be added. That's it. It doesn't hint at DLC or anything. So much grief and disappointment could have been avoided! I really hope, ALL things considered, Pokemon and GameFreak have learned some things from these games.
It really depends on the game, but I'm generally not of the mindset that DLC is content missing from the game. Sometimes, it's blatant that it is, though. But this is a unique case, given what Pokemon fans have grown accustomed to for two decades. Given that the content is all new and replaces the third version, I'd just prefer this method more. (Though, in the future, it would help is the base games had more meat to their bones.) But I'm in no rush to get Shield or the pass anytime soon. I'd also rather see how substantial these expansions are first.
I did it once before in 2018 with a friend of mine in gen 6, never got to finishing it in Sun and Moon though (just needed gen 7 and all the alternate forms of Pokemon). I'm planning on getting every legendary in White 2 with this next one I'm doing though (besides the ones that are locked of course). I know I should do it in a later generation but for some reason I'm dedicated to going with gen 5 for whatever reason. (I've done worse and am currently doing worse hunts though, I'm going for Mewtwo right now in Leafgreen). I LOVE shiny Reshiram, by the way. I only wish it wasn't locked in Gen 5, I'd easily go for one of those.
Yep, I remember that one. They really did handle that poorly. What they could have done, and I actually think this would have generated MORE excitement than what they did would go something like this:
1. They announce that although not all Pokemon are available from the start, more of them will be added in the future, as well as apologizing for the inconvenience-an important thing to note as it'd have made them look a lot better than they announced it nonchalant at the Treehouse event.
2. Later on, around the time of the Pokemon Direct, they could go: "Remember how we mentioned that more Pokemon will be added in the game into the future? Well, we have one more thing to announce about the future of Sword and Shield..." (queue the DLC packs).
This would have gotten more people excited for the base game knowing that, although their Pokemon aren't here NOW, they can have them in the future, and then they can get even more excited knowing that on top of getting their old Pokemon into the game, they also have new DLC packs to explore later on as well. This could have very well gotten more people to buy the game (Even if it's already selling so well they probably don't care...Even if they did when they didn't sell as many copies of BW as they did DP, which is probably why XY played it so safe).
Although, this is assuming that EVERY Pokemon would eventually come back, which again, I hope they go that route if they've already started down it. Like you said, so much disappointment would (and could) be avoided if they learned better communication and explained things rather than not commenting and leaving the viewers to draw their own conclusions that may or may not be correct at all.
A lot of the time DLC, at least the small amount of DLC I've gotten (Smash Bros. Fighter Pass, BoTW, and even Mario Kart 8 way back in the Wii U days) have never felt like they were content missing from the games, and that's because the games felt complete as they were when you got them without it. Is Pokemon the same way? I'm not quite sure with it. I feel like most of my complaints about the game being "unfinished" are mainly in the unpolished visuals, while the bare-bones plot/region just kinda rubbed salt into the wound. I think the games should have definitely had more to them than just a 10 hour campaign with a postgame you could finish in the same amount of time as the tutorial part of Sun and Moon, lol. However, this is definitely an improvement from the classic third-version formula, only which BW2 managed to do prior to it. (albeit that a lot of the areas were recycled, BW2 feels like a completely different experience from the first one with a significantly larger amount of content to add to it).
I'm definitely hoping that the DLC has a good amount of content to them. They look decently promising, but even if they're not I appreciate them as an idea to evolve some of the more archaic methods Pokemon has with their games.
Anyone here know what the expiration date for these DLC expansion passes will be?
Game Freak hasn't said anything about it when this was announced on the last Pokémon Direct.
Game Freak hasn't said anything about it when this was announced on the last Pokémon Direct.
You're going for shinies of all the legendaries in White 2? Seriously, best of luck to you! Kind of makes me want to pick up Omega Ruby and shiny hunt again. I didn't catch any of the optional legendaries, just so I could hunt them with the Shiny Charm. Ho-oh was next on my list...
Oh, gosh... Yeah, that off hand comment at E3... You also gotta wonder how all of this would play out if they just hadn't mentioned it. Would they have told us before release? Also, another way that they could have handled leaving out Pokemon would have been to say that, even though they are mostly reusing the previous models, they are redoing the textures on the previous Pokemon, in addition to everything new in the games. It's taking time to work on those, but the rest will be added later. Then cue the plan that you mentioned. That would have at least been understandable, rather than the excuses/lies that we got.
I only kind of hinted at it, but you said it. The other aspect about this DLC being a unique situation is that while this, in my opinion, is a better approach to what we've gotten used to for the third version, the base games do feel incomplete. So it still leaves a bad taste, in regards to that. It's unlike SSBU and BotW. I also got those passes because I was so satisfied with those games, it felt like they earned that extra purchase from me, and I actually wanted that bonus content. And on your note about BW2, I really think those are the best third version games. Like you said, some areas were recycled, but what they had going for them (on top of all the extra stuff) was the fact that they took place a few years later--it's a completely different story. No other third version is like that.
I'm glad I 'took a few days off' from this. While I do like most of what we've seen, I'm now at a lull in interest, and I can just relax about any further news.
So long as the Switch's eShop is supported by Nintendo, there shouldn't be an expiration.
Yep! After I got my shiny Charmander in LG, I've kinda been on a shiny hunting kick. It's really not that bad if you're doing something on the side with it. I'm probably not going to get to the ones in White 2 for a while (still going for Mewtwo on and off when I get the time to, I hit 1000 SR's last night), but I plan on doing it eventually. I like getting pre-gen 6 stuff, it just kinda feels more special to me with both the lower odds and the fact that there's a lot less of it out there than gen 6/7 Pokemon that are traded constantly. Good luck if you pick up OR again to hunt though!
There's so many different ways this could have been done that are better than what we got, honestly. And still they're not 100% about what they're saying. That would have been a perfectly fine explanation to say that the textures need upscaling or remaking or whatever they want. They could have even said they can't include them all because of either the time or the staff having restraints, but they want to let people know that eventually, in time, the remaining Pokemon will return. (And maybe even hint something like "and maybe even something extra will happen!" to drum up excitement before the DLC reveal). But again, this is in a world where they're definitely intent on returning the last bunch of Pokemon. We STILL don't know that, and won't know for a while. I wish, like Smash Bros, they'd lay out their plans for the future (During the Byleth reveal, which although the character itself was kinda underwhelming, although I'm not really mad at all like some people are, lol, we now know the Fighter's Pass 2 will have 6 characters over the next two years. Their plans are clearly laid out for what's to come).
I think with Pokemon, I've grown to just take what steps in the right direction we get and hope they mean something good in the future. This is a huge step in the right direction, as I've said before, and I appreciate that a lot. It is still not the greatest thing in the world that the base game was felt incomplete and now we're getting what we SHOULD have had at the start of it, but at the same time I'll take what I can get after the mess we've been seeing since June. It looks like they're actually putting some good effort in these expansions, and even if the game wasn't complete, if the DLC itself is a good product, I'll respect that.
I think BW2 is beyond a third version game, honestly. The areas it recycles are often quite transformed, plus all the new areas, the continuation of arguably the best plot the series has seen, seeing how this region and the characters have changed through the years, and then adding so many new features, the biggest postgame EVER, extra challenges like the PWT and Black Tower/White Treehollow, the list goes on. Pokemon tried to change it up and do a sequel game and it's exactly what a sequel SHOULD be like. Now that I think of it...It's in a way kind of like a more condensed Gold and Silver, a melding of new and old, but while packing in as much new content as possible.
Yeah, I'm pretty much in that boat too. The one thing I'm really keeping an eye out for is just the new Pokemon themselves, I'm really excited to see more about the new Regis. But otherwise, I'm pretty much at a lull as well about it.
A great guide to learn thanks for sharing.