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SwSh Sword & Shield: Expansion Pass

Would the next part of the DLC cover Eternatus' effects on Leon's health? I think battling would be difficult for the man now. If not it will be a headcanon that I have.
 
*glances at last page*

A-am I the only one who doesn't get lost in that forest at all?? O_O I thought the npcs talking about how much of a maze it is was supposed to be a joke...

I got a little turned around the first couple of times, but yeah, it's no problem to navigate it now. It's really just two parallel paths connected by bridges:

show
 
*glances at last page*

A-am I the only one who doesn't get lost in that forest at all?? O_O I thought the npcs talking about how much of a maze it is was supposed to be a joke...

nope, I thought it was pretty straight forward too, I wonder if having the ability to move the camera round is throwing some people off.
 
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nope, I thought it was pretty straight forward too, I wonder if having the ability to move the camera round is throwing some people off.
This has been my issue with it. Not having a top-down view like with traditional Pokemon games has sort of made it difficult for me to navigate at times. Before, where you'd always have a straight forward understanding of where north is (i.e., up), you don't have a natural indicator for direction. Leading to situations like the Forest of Focus being an area where it's easy to get turned around in since you don't have any discernable landmarks to help identify your location.
It would have been great if we'd at least had gotten a compass in the UI. A mini-map would be ideal, though.
 
I got a little turned around the first couple of times, but yeah, it's no problem to navigate it now. It's really just two parallel paths connected by bridges:

show

I picked up on that the moment I first entered. I wonder if some people just aren't used to 3D exploration games with a controllable camera? I've been playing games like that for almost 25 years, so getting my bearings in that kind of environment is second nature to me now, but this is new for Pokemon so maybe people that haven't played as many of those games aren't used to it. Or maybe they don't have good spatial awareness.

About the only thing I really have trouble with in terms of navigation is pinpointing the location of an active Pokemon den, and even then that's more of an issue with the ones that are in enclosed spaces such as the caves, Forest of Focus, or Loop Lagoon. And even then it doesn't take me that long to figure out.
 
About the only thing I really have trouble with in terms of navigation is pinpointing the location of an active Pokemon den, and even then that's more of an issue with the ones that are in enclosed spaces such as the caves, Forest of Focus, or Loop Lagoon. And even then it doesn't take me that long to figure out.

It isn't difficult, but I'll be damned if there's not something very organic and immersive about scanning the sky and quickly calculating where you'll have to cycle to.

RE: the initial exploration of the island, it's not so much that individual areas are particularly tricky to navigate; for me it was the time it took to get a sense of how it all comes together. I really loved that initial 40 minutes or so of "Huh", when realising that this cave path connects to that vantage point, or this small river leading from the sea runs parallel to that area etc.
 
Here is my take on The Isle of Armor:

I haven't done the second part of the plot after evolving Kubfu because I needed to finish the main post-game (literally, it doesn't allow you to continue if you haven't) and am now doing some shiny breeding.

So far, it's been a unique experience from the main game.

Warning, spoilers ahead!

The wild area is expansive (enough that I got a bit lost a couple of times) and contains almost all exclusive Pokémon including the gift Pokémon received in the Alolan Diglett hunt. I found the new characters fun and interesting with substantial depth and the plot was an exciting iconic Asian theme with intriguing twists.
My personal favorite aspect was that for the first time in Pokémon game history, we had a rival with a conflict of morality to the extent of cheating in a battle. At least this is so in the Sword version with Klara. I've gathered that there is a different rival in Shield but as I haven't played Shield yet I can't comment on that. I don't know if there are significant differences with the alternate rival.

I like Kubfu and Ursifu. The evolution method is unique and engaging, its design is aesthetically pleasing and accurate regarding its poses and it made Hop's Snorlax in the final battle with Zacian and Zamazenta the easiest it's been for me in the entire game to take out. It was also a good asset in the Circhester stadium Dynamax battle with Gigalith.

The most substantial features by far are the exclusive move tutor and the ability to convert any capable Pokémon to its Gigantimax form. I was so stoked to G-max my shiny Corvaknight! I had thought the limited access to G-max Pokémon as being exclusive to a few gift Pokémon and 5-star raids was rather senseless. This still isn't entirely fair since it costs money and most of us have little to no use for it by the time we gained access to it but it's better.

However, as with the main plot, I felt this was a bit short and lackluster.
While there was a bit of lengthy complex travel involved in the second task, ultimately one could complete all 3 in less than an hour without using Diglett hunting or leisure exploration to draw it out.

Just the same as how one could complete the main game in under a week with no prolonging activity. The only reason it took me about a month or two was that I did some shiny breeding and then took a break after starting the post-game until I started the DLC the other day (I ended up getting into a couple of fan-made games).

While the characters had fairly good backgrounds, but there were holes such as how we don't know exactly why Klara has such confidence issues, how Mustard is apparently a seer.

A significant inconsistency that bothered me the most as someone who did this event after defeating Leon and claiming the Champion title was how everyone on the Isle including the supposed all-seeing and knowing Mustard continued to refer to Leon as the champion. Whereas in the main region, the passing dialogue of the city residents and the greetings of the vendors change post-game to acknowledge you as the champion.
This comes across as sloppiness on the part of the developers. One might be able to argue the remoteness of the location if not for the television in Mustard and Honey's family room that Mustard can often be found playing a video game on and as mentioned previously there is his second sight.

Certainly, the developers knew that most players would be finished with the game by the time the DLC was released so how could such an oversight have happened?

While Ursifu is a solid fighting type Pokémon and possibly one of the best in the game, some more form options would have been nice. I love my Dark/Single Strike form Ursifu but a Fire, Psychic, Flying, and Dragon version would have been sweet as well. Granted this would have made my decision quite a bit more difficult than it was, it would have been worth it.

Now was it worth the money?
Ultimately yes but I feel it's extortion that Nintendo is now charging us for in-game content such as side events and online features that used to be free.
Especially when piled on top of the price of the games themselves.
I hadn't bought Sword until January in the hope that it'd be gifted to me on my birthday or Christmas and when both were a bust I had a Target gift card from Christmas to cover about half the expense.

I really want Shield (I like how they make it more worthwhile to get both versions by extending the differences to the gyms) but I checked yesterday and even on Amazon it's $57 without shipping and tax. I do happen to have an unused Amazon gift card and admittedly the prospect that COVID19 is going to be the Grinch that will steal Christmas is making it quite tempting.
Do you have to buy a separate pass for both games? I'm almost positive you do because of what I was saying about they're really milking us this in this gen but just want to be 100% clear on that?

All that said, I am looking forward to The Crown Tundra.
 
I enjoyed the isle of armor. Like what other folks have said it's much better than the wild area. More Pokemon and moves are nice. I went single strike and kinda regret it (not as much utility). I like the new characters. Klara is a cool rival and Honey !

I'm just hurt there's still no way to get belly drum on Galar born Slurpuff. Even with reintroduced breeding buddies
 
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