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Sword/Shield Thoughts on the Isle of Armor

Discussion in 'Switch Pokémon Games' started by SyWry, Jun 19, 2020.

  1. SyWry

    Legendary Egg
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    The new DLC for Pokémon Sword and Shield came out last Wednesday. I'm wondering what all of your thoughts are on the DLC. Did you like it, did you hate it and why? What was your favorite part/least favorite part? Did you like the new island and Gamefreak's new approach to wild area's? Are Gallarian Slowpoke actually pronounced Fastpoke?
     
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  2. WavePearl

    WavePearl Believer in Possibilities

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    While I am enjoying it so far, part of me wishes there was more--a more substantial story (although I have been told Klara's story is better than Avery's--any Shield players that want to weigh in?) and more Urshifu forms other than Dark and Water.
     
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  3. bakugo

    bakugo Camper


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    I'm not getting this DLC because the main game should've already included this. I feel the main game didn't have enough substance to it. For a $60 game, I sure finished it quick. I'm pretty sure I got more hours out of Ultra Moon than Sword.
     
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  4. SyWry

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    I personally feel like it was just more testing. Ever since X and Y I've felt like their games have been big tests to see how things will work and to get used to them. This is no different. However, what they were testing was better wild area design, and I will hand it to the developers, it is far better than anything in sword and shield. I'd even say its better than the usual routes, but that is only because the inherent idea of the wild area makes it better than routes.They are far more condensed, and far more lush because of it. I never looked at the wild area and thought it was particularly eye catching, it was after all just a barren field with wild weather. The Isle of armor had the design it needed to fix this issue by making it far smaller, and thus more compact. Sword and Shield just is a rush job and its starting to feel like all these games are and this DLC is making the wild area that they wanted.

    There really isn't any other content though. What has been put in, was just more to fill the wild area they've built or give minor player conveniences. Mustard was fun and Klara was the best character they've made so far in terms of expression, but even this feels like testing and practice for the developers. Other games do these features far better than Pokémon and they feel like they are trying to get their old staff to reinvent the wheel when they should just hire people that can do it better, or at least help teach.

    My rant on Gamefreaks practices aside, I liked the characters, (probably because I had Klara) I had a lot more feelings for them than most other NPC's in Pokémon. Not only does Klara's story feel real, but her growth feels natural. Mustard was a fun character if a little quirky. He doesn't feel strong at first but when you actually go at him, the shift was very well done.They are slowly getting better at writing characters.

    Was it worth it for me? I had fun with it. I enjoyed the characters, enjoyed the upgraded wild area as a replacement for routes. I will wait on saying whether it was worth the price until the next part comes out, but from what I got now, its over priced. I'd still pay 20 buck for this because it was fun, but not 30.
     
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  5. Flyg0n

    Flyg0n PKMN Breeder

    Mojave
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    I personally really enjoyed it. While the story was short, I felt like it was well worth 15 bucks I paid for it, considering this is only one half of the story. I got several hours entertainment out of it, from raising my precious Urshifu (love my fighting bby) to hunting down every single Diglett. (I genuinely enjoyed that sidequest, especially the reward for catching all of them.) And on top of that, they gave us Pokémon following? Love it! Loved Mustard, and Honey, and I really liked the new outfits.

    I have a lot more thoughts so I put them in a spoiler so I wont take up tons of space.

    While it wasn't perfect, it was worth my money, and I had fun, which in the end is all that matters to me in a game. I appreciated the diverse wild areas a LOT, especially the little things, like that giant Wailord. I actually really enjoyed Avery's story. My husband said he found Klara annoying, and I usually agree with him on most things, but I haven't played it so I ultimately don't know.

    I really liked catching all the new Pokémon. I probably caught more Pokémon there than I have in awhile.

    But most of all... after like a DECADE of waiting... Pokémon FOLLOWING IS BACK!!!! That literally nearly made me cry to see it return in any capacity. (I don't count Let's Go because even though those are fantastic games its different to finally see it in a mainline game.). Yeah I know some people dont like the animation or whatever but I dont care, personally. My Pokémon can FOLLOW me again, finally! I am so happy.

    Mustard is one of the coolest NPC's ever imo, and so is Honey. Honestly, I only have one big gripe with the DLC.

    The Gigantamaxing Soup. I am VERY happy they finally added a way to make old Pokémon Gigantamax. I had an Orbeetle that I raised, but I was really upset to find out that the one I already had was useless, and if I wanted to gigantamax i'd need to catch a brand new one. I thought that was stupid and I'm glad they rectified that.

    What I didn't like was how they set up the Bulbasaur/Squirtle part. Both me AND my husband nearly mistakenly fed the soup to those starters, mistakenly believing we needed to in order to have them Gigantamax. In my husbands case, he actually gave it to Squirtle, basically ruining it and making it Dynamax, not Gigantamax.

    We had to spend and extra couple hours farming just to get more stupid mushrooms, and I traded him some of mine.

    I thought that adding a way to TAKE AWAY gigantamaxing was not only stupid but poorly explained. I happened to get LUCKY because I fed the first batch of soup to my Cinderace. I don't feel like they explained it well enough at all, and its too easy to accidentally miss. I'm wondering if thats just me that mistakenly almost did that, or if it happened to anyone else?

    That aside, all the new stuff was definitely cool. The new moves, new modes and new Pokémon. I've raised a couple of teams and dabbled in competitive and had lots of fun doing new raid battles.

    The Diglett side mission was fun for me, and I loved the rewards. Getting an Alolan Starter was awesome. And when the Diglett with the hiker chose to join me at the end... that really made me smile. It such a minor thing, but I always wanted more story-based encounters for my team, and just that one thing was awesome.

    The new outfits were FANTASTIC. I finally made a look for myself I really like. Customization is a big deal for me, and getting more options was well worth it. Fingerless gloves were the real selling point.

    Oh, And the new bikes? AWESOME. ALways hated the old ones, thought the colors were nasty.

    In the end, I feel like they gave me 15$ worth of content as a whole. I don't mind the shortness of the "main" story personally, given that Pokémon has NEVER had a strong story imo. Not that their stories are bad but they've always been very... simple. With all the additional content, it kept me entertained for at least a few days.

    Anyways, rant over, thanks for reading!

    TL;DR: Not perfect, but more than fun enough for me to justify the price and I can't wait for more.
     
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  6. Shade

    Shade Sailor

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    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 from an above post in this thread 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.

    BTW, am I crazy or were there TWO new locations advertised in the expansion pass?
     
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    #6 Jul 10, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2020
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  7. BZRich64

    BZRich64 The Mustachiod Machamp

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    I thought it was great. The story was good, if a bit short, and the Island itself was far better than the main game's wild area. Klara is the best rival I've seen in years (I don't know anything about Avery) and Mustard was kind of interesting, though came across as rather generic. I liked the two Urshifu forms and unlike others here I don't think that they needed more, as the forms were based around apposing fighting styles that worked well and even just a third form would have thrown off that theme.
    Having Pokémon follow you was great, though they should have had it so that you could have them follow you in the regular wild area and routes of Galar once you unlock the feature. It feels really jarring to have my Pokémon follow me but then when I fly back to the mainland they're gone again. I also feel like there weren't enough new Pokémon (and I mean actual new Pokémon, not just returning ones) with a total of only 4 (3 if you count the fact that Galarian Slowpoke had already been added a while ago). The Cram-o-matic is also terrible and they should have just brought Kurt back or something. What's the point of giving us a way to Apricorn Balls if they're not actually going to give us a way to get Apricorn Balls? (I'm hoping that Crown Tundra will add a more efficient way of getting them). My final complaint is that they randomly decided to have this extremely Asian setting in what is supposed to be the region based off of Britain, even though have the series is already set in Japan. European martial arts are a real thing, and it would have been potentially more unique to have the focus be on that instead of the Asian martial arts that clash with the main game's setting.
    Overall, I really liked what the Isle of Armor had to offer, though for the most part it just felt like it was just meant to tide the fanbase over until they're ready to release the Crown Tundra, which so far is shaping up to be a much larger area where the bulk of the actual new content is going to be added.
     
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  8. Banshee

    Banshee Pokémon Professor

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    Hmm... Over all I did enjoy the addition. It was a nice change of musical tunes for wandering across the open area. Finding the Diglett, as silly as it may be; I actually enjoyed wandering around in search for those little punks. Being able to get a new design for your bike was pretty cool. Only issue I had was that when I was online, sometimes other trainers wouldn't fully load. So I'd see a sparkle, thinking it was an item, to only find that it was a trainer that hadn't loaded in. Not a major loss, but eh. XD

    I did like the idea that you had to train the Kubfu to advance in the story. I personally don't really care for that Pokémon but I did find it interesting to have to do such a thing. Breaking the norm for me training Pokémon that I do like.

    The characters were okay. I have Shield and found Avery to be really uh...selfish and annoying. But at the end I did like him as a character because he had his own issues that he was trying to overcome. Especially with a "newbie trainer" pummeling him each match they face. (Yay Froslass <3) Plus I dig that tie-dye shirt. :D

    Mustard was okay. Reminded me of a crazy old Grandpa that is obsessed with Martial arts. Honey was okay as a character. She, to me, didn't have all that much personality. I personally wasn't a fan of how much the upgrades cost for Watts. But it makes it something you can use them for because I never bought anything with them. (I still have a lot of upgrading to go).

    The negative side for me... It felt too short? Like story wise. I cruised through it without much issue. I am sad to see that your Pokémon only follow you on the Isle and not on the main island. And though this is a personal thing; I am super sad that some of my favorite Pokémon didn't make the cut...again. Then...SHARPEDO.... Evil little guys... lol.
     

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