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Pokémon Sword and Shields DLC review "The Isle of Armor": summer vacation

"The Isle of Armor is improving Pokémon Sword and Shield's open-world experiments with a slight expansion."

• Improved wild area

• Thoughtful exploration game

• Reward side quests

• Many new Pokémon

• Battle lights

• Missing long-term value

Pokémon Sword and Shield's DLC "The Isle of Armor" is as bold as it is inevitable for the franchise. The series has always flirted with the idea that Pokémon is a long-tailed official game, but has taken small steps to the altar.

That's because Game Freaks' approach to its main RPGs has always had a strange tension. Players are asked to tie lifelong ties with their monsters, but they can just as easily be thrown to the side of the road when next year's sequel or remake comes. Isle of Armor is the first time the developer has asked players to continue their journey instead of leading them on a new adventure.

While the expansion lacks the depth needed to make Pokémon Sword and Shield an enticing experience, Isle of Armor is a pleasant little coda that enhances some of the best ideas in the base game.

Wild Area take two

The extension is on a brand new island east of Sword and Shields Galar with a British flavor. The eponymous Isle of Armor has a completely different feeling and swaps in industrial cities for sunny beaches that are more like the Alola region of sun and moon.

The compact locale is a successful second draft of the Wild Area, the extensive base game field populated with Pokémon. While the Wild Area often felt separate from the rest of the game, the new island is a more natural implementation of the idea. Lush marshes weave seamlessly into remote caves and shady forests. Moving from place to place feels fluid, as if the island were a coherent ecosystem.

It's not just the interconnected design of the island that makes it work better. The history of the expansion is based on the new location. Isle of Armor sends players to a dojo and asks them to complete a series of exams. Each mission is less about fighting than exploring every corner of the island. An early quest lets players run through marshland to hunt three fast slowpokes (an adorable oxymoron). It is a cute micromission that offers a good narrative reason to look at the landscape.

The best example of this design comes from a subquest asking players to find 150 Alolan Diglets. The creatures are scattered across every sector of the island and players receive Alolan Pokémon in return for their location. To find them all, players have to search every corner of the new location. It is a simple activity that rewards those who learn the world internally and externally.

Moving from place to place feels fluid, as if the island were a coherent ecosystem.

The compromise to exploration-oriented gameplay is that the DLC is very easy in battle. Throughout the campaign there are only a handful of short battles that may not be necessary. I arrived on the island with a Pokémon team that was pushing level 70. The enemies scale a bit to the level of the players so that someone starting sword and shield can drop by, but most of the time I was 10 levels above my opponents. I've survived almost every battle with nothing but a pelipper.

There's no challenge for fans who continued to play Pokémon Sword and Shield after the end credits, but Isle of Armor isn't about increasing the difficulty. It is a sightseeing tour for players of all skill levels.

Known faces

It's hard to revisit Sword and Shield without thinking about the Dexit controversy that didn't affect the game's record sales. For some Diehards, Game Freak's decision to reduce the number of Pokémon in the game was a nail in the coffin of the series. Others loved the move, which made filling out Galars Pokédex an achievable goal.

The expansion pays off for Sword and Shield's originally slimmed-down squad.

It seemed pretty obvious that despite contradicting statements from Game Freak, the games would add more creatures over time. Isle of Armor puts over 100 Pokémon into the game, including many favorites from the original 151.

The well-timed addition is very effective on some levels. For fans who have been conditioned to catch them all, there is a new Pokédex that they can fill. The competition scene is also reissued, and Pokémon from the past of the games enter the online arena. In the meantime, those who were sad that their favorites didn't make the original cut had reason to celebrate.

With the addition of some new Gigantamax shapes and raids, the expansion of Sword and Shield's originally slimmed down list is paying off. When the Crown Tundra DLC adds another batch in November, the final version of the game should feel closer to what the naysayers wanted from day one.

What now?

After exploring the island for a few hours and slowly reviewing the story's tasks, I came across a Wailord-sized roadblock. To push the campaign forward, I had to develop Kubfu, the expansion's newest Pokémon. To do that, I would have to do a five-fight fight with my little gray mate.

The catch? An NPC told me that Kubfu should be around level 70 to prepare for the fight. He joined my group at level 10.

Despite the hundreds of creatures to collect and the vast areas to explore, Pokémon's endgame is still incredibly limited.

I had enough Exp. Candy to catapult him to this request, but I wanted to see what it was like to train him naturally. In less than an hour, something became crystal clear: there is not much to do after defeating Pokémon Sword and Shield.

Despite the hundreds of creatures to collect and the vast areas to explore, Pokémon's endgame is still incredibly limited. If I wanted to train the old-fashioned way, I had the opportunity to lead the championship for the 100th time or to fight wild Pokémon. In the end, I chose the candy method.

Isle of Armor brings some new features, but it doesn't add much value to the base game in the long run. The closest comes the new restricted sparring mode, a challenging variant of the Battle Tower. When the story was done, I was back exactly where I was when I beat the game last year: a PC full of Pokémon and nothing to do with it.

Perhaps Game Freak's concerns about modernizing the franchise's business model were justified all along. Maybe Pokémon games should be finally conquered. Maybe the fun is starting over. Isle of Armor isn't a strong argument for changing how long players stay in a Pokémon game, but it's a sunny break as they wait for their next trip to begin.

Our opinion

The Isle of Armor is an easy summer vacation for old and new players. The focus on exploration successfully builds on the experiments of the base game in open world design. The DLC misses the opportunity to turn Pokémon Sword and Shield into a long-term experience, but does offer players a good reason to log in to their friends.

Is there a better alternative?

Unless a new main role-playing game is surprisingly released this year, Isle of Armor is the only thing that will satisfy the craving for Pokémon until the DLC in November.

How long it will take?

It took about five hours to finish the campaign, find two thirds of the Alolan Diglett, and thoroughly explore each sector of the island.

Should you buy it

Yes, if you just want more Pokémon sword and shield. It's not a breakthrough package, but it's a fun excuse to see some old favorite monsters.

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