I'll start things off with how Sword and Shield have changed since the... review? Though a proper review wasn't done, Keybug and I did a review of it in a podcast talking about the reveal of the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra. You can find that on the Youtube channel, link in the right sidebar. Thanks to the extra free time thanks to the lockdown, I've been playing a lot of Pokemon the last few weeks, both Rescue Team DX, and the Core Pokemon games by doing challenges in Pokemon Home. It's given me more time in Sword and Shield before going into the Isle of Armor, and my views on the game have changed a bit since then. Though some of the more foundational issues, such as the excessively linear design of Galar, and the somewhat tasteless way of handling the story's message are still big issues for me, there appears to have been some changes to the raid system, as Gigantamax Pokemon appear to have been made a lot easier to capture. At the time of the podcast review, I struggled to justify the effort to go and catch them due to the low chance of capture, and the fact that you only had one shot. It felt like the Safari Zone capture system, only amplified by the "one and done" system. Even Pokemon Go gave you a handful of tries to catch the Raid Pokemon. Two weeks ago (at time of writing this, the day before publication), I caught 1 of almost all of them, including several duplicate Gigantamax Pokemon, such as Lapras and Coalossal, with the only one giving me any major issues being Snorlax, and all without the Catching Charm (as I honestly forgot to go get it until the day of the expansion's release). I can't help but feel that this was an overcorrection of the issue. From my perspective, the same odds of capture, but the ability to try the catch multiple times would have fixed my personal problems with the low catch rate, giving it a satisfying feeling to capture them. I guess that might be because I haven't gone after Shiny versions of the Gigantamax Pokemon. Maybe I'll breed some at some point thanks to one of the Isle of Armor's new mechanics, my Masuda Method Ditto gets lonely in the daycare after all.
One of the other major issues I had with the base game was the availability of some items, particularly evolution items like the Sweets that you need to evolve Milcery into Alcremie. This hasn't been fixed in the base game, though the Isle of Armour somewhat fixes it, I'll save that for later. On the subject of the Isle of Armour though, the expansion itself is fine for the most part, but there were things I was hoping for that didn't end up happening. The main one for me was the potential for new Pokemon. While we get Galarian Slowpoke, Galarian Slowbro, Kubfu and the two Urshifu forms, we don't get any other new Pokemon. Instead, the rest of the IoA Pokedex is split pretty evenly between Pokemon you can already get in the base game, and Pokemon once missing from Galar that can now be brought over into Generation 8. While I appreciate the 100 returning Pokemon, the fact that half the Pokedex has Pokemon that can be caught in the base game already, 7 months after the base game launched when a large majority of the player base for the expansion already has all of the Pokemon in the base game does sour the mood for me as someone who plays Pokemon for the new Pokemon, to explore around and run into new species, or new versions of older species of Pokemon. While I still got those moments with the 100 new returning Pokemon, it was a shock for me to see Pokemon roaming around like Alakazam, Wailord (as soon as I got to the IoA, allowing me to marvel at it's size... when not in battle...), Sharpedo charging at me as soon as I got into the water, and even alternative forms of Rotom roaming around on this one random island in the middle of the ocean. I wish there was more of that, of those kinds of experiences, and fewer instances like Greedant and Blipbug, where my thoughts were more "Oh, I guess you're here as well huh?". Even if it was more regional variants of Pokemon, something that could be justified due to the climate of the IoA apparently being a lot hotter overall then most of Galar.
Aside from exploration, there are some things to do on the Isle, and... they're fine for what they are. You've got more raid dens for more raids, a sidequest for upgrading the main Dojo involving collecting ass many Watts as possible, the main story which is mostly a collection of smaller missions all about the process of getting, training and evolving Kubfu, and a rather tedious sidequest involving hunting 150 Alolan Diglet all over the Isle. In the same way that Wailord is rightfully gigantic in the overworld (something that I wish carried over into the battles, but unfortunately they shrink Wailord down in battle), Diglet's tiny. And it's very easy to miss one as you're walking, running or riding around the island. I appreciate the reward being high IV, hidden ability Alolan Pokemon, including Rowlet, Litten and Poplio, but did it have to be Alolan Diglet?
The cast is ok overall, I do find Mustard and Honey enjoyable, and Klara (the Sword exclusive trainer) works well as a rival, for as little time you spend with her as a rival. The Toxic Spikes fight was an interesting fight... or it would have been, if my Gardevoir wasn't Level 100, and 1 shot most of her Pokemon without needing to Dynamax... Hey, I worked hard for my ability to cheat! I have played both versions of the expansion pass, and I did not find Avery, the Shield exclusive trainer, to be as interesting. It feels like the story and interactions were written with Klara in mind, so the writing and character they give Avery don't fit as nicely, and his constant need to use Psychic moves in sentences was quite annoying. My one issue with the "story" was that there wasn't anything for those who beat the game already. The dojo was a place where Leon, the former champion of Galar before you kick his ass off his throne, trained at, and especially when Hop arrived on the island coming off as this being post epilogue Hop, I was hoping there was a line where he said: "Well, of course, he/she cleared the training, they beat my brother and are now the champion!". Would have given the rivals a good bit of character development when the realized they were fighting the region champion. Due to the expansion being designed with the ability to go to the IoA as soon as you get your starter, it's probably why there is no acknowledgement of your status as champion, which is a shame.
A few extra bells and whistles added into the expansion include a new look for your bike, new character customization options, the ability to turn any pokemon that has the potential to Gigantamax into a pokemon that can Gigantamax, and the Cram-O-Matic, a machine that can turn four random items into items like rarer Pokeballs, Alcremie Sweets, nature changing mints and even bottle caps, though the process is very RNG. Still, regarding the Sweets, it's easier than repeating the same three fights once a day and hoping you get some as rewards. I still would have liked the ability to just buy them, but I'll take what I can get. You also get the return of roaming Pokemon, but this looks to be only on the Isle. I really hope this ability gets added to the main Galar region at some point.
It's hard for me to recommend the Isle of Armour, simply because there's no way to buy it on its own, you have to get it via the Expansion Pass which comes with the Crown Tundra. Would I recommend it on its own? That depends on how you like to play Pokemon. For someone like me who gets the most enjoyment out of seeing new Pokemon, seeing how they move around. That's what's entertaining to me, why I keep coming back, and on that front, I can't help but feel disappointed, as we knew all the Pokemon that were going to be in the first part of the expansion back in January, the only thing we didn't know was what Galarian Slowbro was going to look like. This makes me less excited about the Crown Tundra because while we've seen a lot of new Pokemon, I'm now starting to think "have we seen ALL the new Pokemon?". I really hope the answer is no, as we've still got several months to wait for it.
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