SwSh Sword & Shield: Expansion Pass

[RK9]

Alright lads, say it with me.

Dragon Dance Garchomp.

 

[Battista]

The #1 positive for me is that the base games will be updated to include the new Pokémon even without purchasing the DLC. It seems like such a small thing but I’m still having flashbacks to ORAS’ Megas not making it to Kalos.

I will probably purchase the pass eventually but I haven’t preordered yet. What little we’ve seen hints that we’ll be getting more wild area style content which has been my favorite part of these games by far. I also like that we’ll be getting some new regional forms, one of my favorite things about the newer games in the series.

After having so much of the main game spoiled by Affleak, it was nice to be caught completely off guard yesterday. I also like that even though they’re not third versions the naming (Armor, Crown) and logos go perfectly with Sword and Shield’s. I’m looking forward to getting more info soon.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Since there will be more content in these expansion packs, here's what we'll likely get...

- More new Regional Forms/Evolution
- More new Pokemon (Hoping for proper Fossil Pokemon and Eeveelutions), perhaps enough to go beyond 900, since by now we have 895.
- Returning old characters such as Looker, Cynthia, Steven, Alder, Diantha, etc.
- Returning old Pokemon/Starters/Legendaries/Mythicals
- Champion's League
- New Gigantamax Forms, perhaps from Sinnoh, Kalos, Alola

 

[BigBadButterfree]

Does anyone remember years ago when Hostess went out of business and Twinkies came off the shelf? Well that was a marketing scheme and they "came back" and everyone went crazy wanting to buy the "first batch" Twinkies after they came back.

...I'm just saying, I get a similar vibe here.

 

[nickdt]

I just thought of something: Sonia says at one point that Zacian and Zamazenta were originally born "somewhere beyond the Slumbering Weald". Could that be referring to the Crowned Tundra?

I think you are up to something here.

 

[AngryBinacle]

Callirus is a celtic deity of the woods; I guess him and maybe Flemish giant rabbits are the inspiration for Calyrex?

Rex means ruler, of course.

 

[TdDBergamo96]

Must have missed something is the some kind of additional battle tournament coming with these dlc's ?

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Out of curiosity, I was wondering if there would be a Queen Pokemon to counter Carlyrex, like Carlyregina

 

[blitzle stan]

Very excited by this DLC after seeing the direct (didn't watch live) and how they specifically framed it as a replacement for the third versions concept.

Anyone complaining about dexit still really needs to look at this timeline and the video. The expansions will be coming out 8 and (at least) 10 months after game release. That's the time they needed to make all the 200 extra models ready.

And the trailer shows that they don't even have finished game models for any of the new designs except the starter gigantamax forms. Everything else was concept art. So it's not like any of this was ready in November 2019 (except the starter gmaxes probably) and just arbitrarily saved for a cash grab. If you still have a problem with this, blame those responsible for the games not being pushed back (which is Nintendo! SwSh was the ONLY big holiday release for 2019, Nintendo needed it to come out when it did).

 

[Battista]

I feel like I’m in the minority that really doesn’t see SwSh as incomplete lol. Aside from a skimpy post-game which we’ve had for the past 3 generations, it had everything any other Pokémon game had except the full Dex availability.

I sort of agree with this, but coming at it from the opposite angle - if none of the third versions or sequels ever existed, I don't think there'd be as much of a sense that the base games were "incomplete," because our ideal of what a Pokémon game is expected to consist of would be far more standardized. Obviously this is just my take, but I don't get the sense that they've ever really held back content with the intention of making people pay for it in a second game; I feel like it's more that they have a lot of ideas that they'd like to implement, but only have so much time in which to do so, and focus primarily on getting what they consider to be the core experience into a stable package. And then third versions, where they can put a secondary team onto a side-project in which the heavy lifting has already been done, allows them to salvage some of those ideas that didn't make it in (for instance, Masuda has said that they thought about implementing something like Cosplay Pikachu into X & Y, but weren't able to do so at that time - but then the Hoenn remakes gave them space to work it in).

Even Sun & Moon, which are the only base games that I personally think feel "incomplete," strike me more as a case of "When Deadlines Attack!" as opposed to "lol let's sell 'em half a game now and half later"

(Though to be clear, I'm essentially saying here that third versions never needed to exist, and yet they did, because obviously we're dealing with a company and all companies operate on greed. So while I don't think they deliberately set out to make the base games feel "incomplete," I also don't think they ever had any ethical issue whatsoever with then taking that skeleton and adding more to it to entice people into another buy, and I think they've only changed track now because other game studios' move to DLC has made the practice of rereleasing more frowned upon by consumers.)

I'm still trying to process the "incomplete" claims and how I feel about them. If we're talking about post-game, we're really not dealing with a situation that's much different from X & Y, which makes me wonder what the reaction was to those games at the time. Were people saying back then that "Pokemon's holding out for Z version"?

On the other hand, I think the main "issues", the things people are seeing that suggest the game was "rushed" or "released in beta", have to do with graphics (N64 tree) and story beats ("Let the grownups handle this" i.e. all the action we'd have to animate conveniently happens offscreen). The former is more likely to be given a free update, but neither one necessarily detracts from the overall experience for me.

In other words, the expansion pass from what we've seen so far still feels like an actual expansion in my opinion, rather than something they cut out of the final product and are charging us in post for now.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

There are many reasons to why Pokemon Z was never made.

1: ORAS helped to fill in the lore of Megas.
2: GF was busy making SM to commemorate the franchises 20th Anniversary.
3: They probably hadn't the effort and focus of making the third instalment or sequal, which will likely take place in southern Kalos.

No doubt something big is coming for 2021, since that'll be Pokemon's 25th Anniversary. Whether it's expansions for SwSh, the Gen 4 Remakes or even Gen 9.

 

[Battista]

No doubt something big is coming for 2021, since that'll be Pokemon's 25th Anniversary. Whether it's expansions for SwSh, the Gen 4 Remakes or even Gen 9.

I'm inclined to believe you, but then I think of the travesty that was Super Mario's 25th (a straight rerelease of Super Mario All-Stars on a Wii disc) and I have to wonder

 

[nickdt]

Another interesting thing too note in the DLC: The rivals are adults.

 

[Phosphene]

 

[Sakuraa]

I realized I never actually commented about the stuff within the Expansion Pass itself.

Okay, so Isle of Armor. Looks like it'll be the one I enjoy more since it's looking to be more story based. I'm glad to see more new characters, including the Minor League leaders. Avery and Klara both have great designs. The Poison and Psychic uniforms were my favorites in the games, so I'm glad to finally see the leaders they belong to. Once again it's great to see Shield continue to get the better version exclusive characters. Klara's nice and all, but Avery looks so bae with that top hat. And the floating PokeBalls are lit.

The story with Mustard and Kubfu sounds like it'll be really interesting. I like Kubfu and both Urshifu forms. I slightly prefer rapid strike because of design and its water-type. But since it's evolution is based on story choices, I'll try to avoid spoilers on that (unless it's revealed beforehand) and just go with whatever happens when I play.

The new Gigantamax forms are looking great. Literally all of them are so cool, especially baby Cinderce

Crown Tundra sounds fun, but it's giving me ORAS vibes with all of the 50 million legendaries being in Max Raid Dens all over the place. I just have this fear that it's gonna be running all of over the place finding legendaries in this new extension of the Wild Area (my least favorite place). I do like Calyrex. He looks like Xerneas's son. Also, the new forms for the legendary birds are cool. Ironically enough, I actually like Articuno the least and Zapdos the most, which is the opposite of how I feel for their original forms. The new Rejis look interesting. I like the pink one more than the yellow one. Galarian Slowpoke is.......yellow, I guess. I'm curious what Galaraian Slowking and Slowbro will look like.

I like that they're adding more Pokemon in these passes. I hope Wurmple is able to make it in this time. But more importantly that anything else, NEW CLOTHES! Over 100 new items?!?! I can dress as Marnie!!!! I can change my bike! This is the best thing about these Passes. PLEASE, give use more dresses GF, pllleeeeaaaassssseeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

 

[nickdt]

They messed up the rivals typings btw. Klara is Poison, Avery is Psychic. However, they should have made it the reverse, especially since Avery is wearing that tophat and should have Galarian Weezing as his ace.

 

[Nicolas721]

Like others I really like that they went the DLC route for this. Not only because it's more player friendly, but also because it allows them to focus only in the new stuff. They don't have to spend time anymore thinking and programming where do they place the Pokemon from the expanded dex or if the game is balanced again. and that allows them to fulfill some fan wishes: more Galar and Gigantamax forms, and EXP item, an expanded regional dex, apricorn balls, two new sub regions in open world (which no previous games were even close to have, as Gen 2 Kanto had the same layout from Gen 1 and the Battle Zone wasn't that big). The expansion at least in its core concept doesn't read at all like something that could've been planned to be in SWSH, as it has its own concept and shows us new sides of Galar, instead of offering new gyms, Rose's revenge or something like that.

I certainly didn't expect them to throw all of their cards so early in the year, with a "Now in development" perspective. My opinions about specific things:

• Kubfu and its evolution have cool designs, but I'm not sure if they look legendary enough. Calyrex on the other hand looks like a legendary but its design is confusing, I wonder if a form change or an evolution will make it clearer.
• The reimagination of the birds with new types is great. Hopefully they'll get good roles.
• Magnemite, Psyduck and Zubat are back. I hope they appear in small amounts.
• Legendaries as Max Raid Battles was predictable. I pray there's a way to force them as waiting for events or 1% chances is no fun.
• Gigantamax Rillaboom is great. Why did they gave the best final form and Gigantamax to the one starter that had the weaker early forms? Cinderace is ok, and Inteleon had a cool concept with a meh execution. They should have filled the empty space with something else than its tail, like a Substitute or a shadow projection. Isn't the concept of snipers that they can't be easily seen?
• Didn't expect new Regis after all this time. I hope they get good puzzles like the first time.
• My prediction is that Slowking and Slowbro were censored because they were bitten by a new Pokémon.

 

[Silktree]

>watches trailer

Man... I feel really bad for Gen 2. Gen 1 favoritism is just plain given, and at least Gen 3 has the Regis getting something new. I believe Gen 5 survived a lot in this gen. Assuming Gen 4 gets remakes sometime within the next few years, Gen 2 pokemon are just basically shoved in a corner.

Honestly, if "something new" means forms or weird additions like those Regis, then I can do without them. No region really needs it, and regional variants for legendaries would be a headache lore-wise more often than not. I'd much rather that they just rethink abilities, stats and movepools for Pokemon that need the help, and if they can come up with good evolutions, why make them exclusive to new forms?

two new sub regions in open world

That doesn't necessarily mean that they offer all that much. It depends on how much you like the Wild Area.

 

[prog rocker]

Honestly, if "something new" means forms or weird additions like those Regis, then I can do without them. No region really needs it, and regional variants for legendaries are a headache lore-wise more often than not.

Well, the birds at least didn't have any lore as far as I know, so they can be justified.

 

[Esserise]

Were people saying back then that "Pokemon's holding out for Z version"?

-has war flashbacks to this board in 2015-

You um, you could say that. To keep it simple, yes, there generally was a sense among fans that X & Y lacked content compared to previous games, and that they would be followed by a second Kalos game of some sort. And that idea isn't totally baseless - there are indeed two unused game origin markers in the code of Pokémon Bank for a pair of Gen 6 games, so it may be the case that GF at least considered the option of making "Ultra X and Ultra Y," but then for a variety of reasons decided to move onto the next generation instead.

have to do with graphics (N64 tree)

I'm not sure that poor tree even deserves to be the symbol that it has become. Considering how GF said they were off-and-on working on even the look of the grass for about 6 months, and all the little visual details throughout the game that clearly had thought put into them, I would be surprised if there wasn't some discussion about how the the trees should look, and the end result just wasn't to most peoples' tastes (I don't really care for the look of it myself). But it's entirely possible that it looked good in the eyes of the people making it.