Welcome to our first Side Quest! We will still have our regularly scheduled Thursday review (so don’t fret). This is just a bonus fry for you to enjoy.

This week, I’ve been diverted by the DLC that was released for Pokémon Sword and Shield. I’ve been a fan of Pokémon for a long time. As it’s the first time Game Freak has done a DLC of this sort for a Pokémon game, I wasn’t sure what to expect. What we got was an enjoyable addition to the franchise, and I think most folks are pretty happy with the direction the DLC took. All the same, I have some reservations. While I hope Game Freak keeps doing DLC for future installments, I hope that they will be a bit more substantive.

A Capital Idea

Note that this Side Quest is specifically about the Sword and Shield DLC, not the main game. One day, hopefully we’ll get our thoughts on the main games up too. But for now, we’re focusing on the DLC. The DLC came in two waves: the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra. Each had unique features and Pokémon, and each had its own set of perks and drawbacks.

The first pack, which contained the Isle of Armor, saw the player visiting the . . . well, the Isle of Armor. Once there, you get to join a fighting dojo to prove who’s the best one on the island. (Since you’re probably the champion by the time you get here, I think it should be pretty obvious who’s the top Growlithe.)

Mustard (yes, that’s apparently what his parents decided to name him), the dojo master, has you run a bunch of errands and compete with your classmates to show who’s the best and will qualify to be the ultimate trainer of Kubfu, the new legendary Pokémon introduced in this DLC.

I actually found the Isle of Armor to be a little lackluster. It added some nifty things, like a big new wild area to explore, the ability to have Pokémon follow you around in the DLC area, and several new Pokémon (which were actually quite well done). But the actual substance was a bit underwhelming. And the new features weren’t as cool as I might have hoped.

For example, the fact that your Pokémon can follow you around the overworld is really cool (in theory). But it’s not as cool as in past games because, unless you always have the camera pointed behind you, you can’t even see your Pokémon following you. In the Let’s Go games and HeartGold/SoulSilver, the forced perspective made it easy to see the Pokémon you had with you. Not so here. So, while it’s cool to see legendary beasts following you around, I would frequently forget I even had a Pokémon out of its ball.

The Crown Tundra, on the other hand, was really fun. I played it sort of expecting more stuff like the Isle of Armor – little story, but a fun new area to enjoy. Imagine my surprise, then, when the Calyrex storyline turned out to be so delightful! I really enjoyed interacting with Calyrex. To my knowledge, it’s the first time in a Pokémon video game that a Pokémon has spoken to you with human language. Granted, Calyrex had to psychically possess Peony (your mentor of sorts in this area) to do it, but that just made the whole situation much funnier.

Calyrex used to be revered as the King of Bountiful Harvests. He would make the crops of the Crown Tundra grow. Now, however, he has faded into legend, and his powers have diminished. He needs your help to recapture his loyal steed and his powers so he can bless the residents of the Crown Tundra once again.

On top of that, Peony has enlisted you to help him discover the other legendary Pokémon dwelling in the tundra. Two new Regis have been added, as well as Galarian versions of the original legendary bird trio. There are puzzles to solve in order to find and catch them.

While the puzzles weren’t anything special, I did have a lot of fun tracking everything down. The new Pokémon introduced were great, and the old ones that have been returned to life were pleasant additions to the roster. The general experience of the Crown Tundra, in particular, was extremely positive. The music was excellent, Peony cracked me up, and the environment and lore of the Crown Tundra were just plain fun. Overall, I would say that I enjoyed the DLC quite a bit.

In Support of DLC

But I think there’s a bigger thing here than just whether the DLC was worth buying. I’m excited to see Game Freak embracing the DLC model. I just hope that they will make some improvements the next time around.

You see, the reason this is Pokémon’s first DLC is because in previous generations, Game Freak would release a third, definitive version with some additional content. Emerald version added some new plot elements to Ruby/Sapphire, but it also added some postgame content. Platinum version fixed some of the performance issues with Diamond/Pearl, added the distortion world, and added some nifty new content as well.

The trouble with this model is that, if you wanted to get the additional content, you would need to buy a whole new version of the game. That’s a lot of money, especially since the additional content was never particularly overwhelming. If you’re buying a Pokémon game for the first time years after it was released, this won’t matter much. You just pick up the definitive version of the game from eBay, and that’s that.

But if you’re buying the games as they release, it’s frustrating to have to buy essentially the same game all over again just to experience one small addition that (hate to say it) wasn’t worth the price.

Using DLC kind of fixes this issue. All of the content introduced in the DLC, for better or worse, is brand new. You don’t even have to play through the entire game again to get to it. It’s available from the beginning, as soon as you have access to the train station.

And, although it costs $30 to get both DLC packs, that’s still cheaper than the third version. Plus, there’s much more content in the DLC pack than any third version had previously introduced. So, the price per content has definitely increased.

The only thing I wish Game Freak had done was take advantage of its opportunity to patch up a few things. One of the benefits of the third-game release was the opportunity to fix things. For instance, Diamond/Pearl were sort of snail-paced games. It took forever to get around, and movement and text speeds were slower than taking a nature walk with a toddler. Platinum came along and fixed all of that up.

I loved Sword and Shield, and I’ve already played through them a couple of times in the year since they were released. But folks had some problems with the performance of these games that Game Freak could easily have addressed with some patches and updates. Or the DLC could have showcased what the team could provide given the chance. It’s a shame they didn’t take advantage of the opportunity, but I did really enjoy the DLC. I hope they keep with this model, if they’re going to introduce new content after the fact, because I liked how much lore was added and all of the new experiences I got to have. I recommend the DLC if you’re already a fan and have the games, but I wouldn’t say it’s an absolutely “must have, buy it instead of food” sort of a thing.

Who to Game With

Well, it’s Pokémon. You can play it with anybody (and, indeed, Geekling thoroughly enjoyed playing the DLC with me). Except, I don’t recommend playing it with your sassy wife if you get easily offended when she gives mean nicknames to your favorite Pokémon. Not that I’m bitter.

If you have thoughts on the DLC, let us know! We’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Just keep the rude Pokémon nicknames to a minimum.

You can pick up your copy of Pokemon Sword and the Expansion Pass here.