The build-up to Pokémon: Isle of Armor has been a brand new experience for mainline Pokéfans. Whilst the gaming industry is well acquainted with expansion passes and DLC, Pokémon isn’t. Fans are used to travelling to games outlets for exclusive event Pokémon and playing improved versions of the vanilla releases a year after its release.
Going into the Isle of Armor DLC feels like a fresh experience, just like loading up Pokémon Sword and Shield for the first time. For half the price, players are getting an expansion pass covering two new storylines, hundred s of additional Pokémon and other features. The move into downloadable content is something that should’ve happened a long time ago for the series.
Techstomper’s review playthrough of the Isle of Armor has mostly been exploring and going off the beaten track. This new area of Galar is inspired by the Isle of Man, a once-popular holiday destination for the UK before the era of cheap package holidays abroad. As a tribute to this, smaller Islands and caves are scattered around Armor, most of which hold some cool items, Max Raids, useful NPCs and surprisingly… A Ditto Island!
Bizarro World
That’s right competitive and meta players, Pokémon: Isle of Armor has a Ditto Island. Not only do Ditto raids spawn on here, but Ditto (And Executor) spawn here and scale to a player’s level accordingly. One may have found a Destiny Knot on the ground there too, just saying. It’s great to see Game Freak tipping its hat to the breeding and competitive communities like this, plus it cripples the economy of cloned Ditto sales on eBay and shady Facebook groups.
The mix of existing and new Pokémon feels weighted heavily towards new content. One of my fears in the release of Pokémon: Isle of Armor was the advent of newly released Pokémon being harder to find. No one really wants to grind random encounters for a Jigglypuff, right? In fact, don’t answer that.
Although the whole area of this game equates to around the size of the Galar mainlands Wild Area, Armor feels like it’s brimming with content and new things to do and try. Many fans such as myself will be quite happy ignoring the DLC story for a while to take it all in and enjoy seeing some classic Mons return.
Start Afresh for Maximum ‘Monage
For a completely fresh experience, I would highly recommend doing a Nuzzlocke-style challenge and start with new Pokémon. Using a battle-hardened team on Armor feels like cheating, especially when wild Pokémon have an average level of around level 60.
Max raids, for the most part, feel the same, with the exception of the Mythical Sun and Moon Legendary Zeraora event. I’ve had some cool instances such as a five star Gyrados and a Gigantamax Charizard pop up, but nothing to write home about just yet.
Players will be quickly introduced to their new rivals, who, in my case, is the Psychic trainer Avery. Isle of Armor is quick to establish that Avery feels the number one trainer on Armor and wants rid of the player’s custom protagonist (Reggie). It’s refreshing to have a rival in a modern Pokémon game that isn’t super nice and friendly. Although it’s a shame I couldn’t name him ‘Poo’ like in Generation 1…
Polished Shield, Sharpened Sword
In terms of presentation and mechanics, nothing has really changed. Whilst Sword and Shield caused some controversy with some of its presentational choices, I think it’s familiar in a good way. It’s also crisp and runs at a solid, smooth frame rate for the most part. It’s great to see the upgraded Pokémon models after experiencing the fowl pixelation of the Nintendo 3DS.
All in all, I feel like I’m on holiday, despite the cloudy skies and the constant harassment of Sharknado. Pokémon titles have always nailed that feeling of exploration and wonder for me, Isle of Armor is no exception.
