Pokémon Direct 01/09/2020 — Armed with Mystery

When The Pokémon Company announced today’s Pokémon Direct on Tuesday, Pokémon fans largely reacted with surprise that announcements were being planned so soon. It hasn’t been two months since Pokémon Sword and Shield released, so this did happen quickly by the franchise’s standards. But no one should be surprised about this. Pokémon is a hot franchise with installments that sell in massive numbers, the newest installment included, so TPC wants to keep this going. Besides, the announcements were largely welcome ones — one of which was out of the ordinary for the franchise’s history.

The Direct started with the announcement of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX for Switch, a remake of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red and Blue Rescue Team titles originally released for Game Boy Advance and DS, respectively. It will keep the same style of the original, which involves Pokémon venturing through randomly-generated dungeons and fighting turn-based battles against enemy creatures. I’m a big fan of the new watercolor-inspired art style, which distinguishes it from other Pokémon titles and spinoffs and makes it by far the prettiest mystery dungeon roguelike game around.

The game will release on March 6th, but a demo is now available on the eShop. This will be the first Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game since Super Mystery Dungeon on 3DS in 2015 when it releases, and the first installment released for a high definition platform. There were Pokémon fans speculating that TPC would fully fade this spinoff series into the background in favor of more mobile-friendly alternatives (not to say the Mystery Dungeon games can’t be that), and I’m sure they’re all happy to see how this series has life left in it — even if this is a remake.

The biggest announcement on the Direct was for the $30 Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield Expansion Passes. This downloadable content will come in the form of two ostensibly robust expansions, both of which will take the place of the updated iterations and sequels that have released over the years. Sorry, there won’t be a Pokémon Gun definitive installment, though a Pokémon does get a gun after a Dynamax transformation now.

Isle of Armor will be the first expansion, an island promised to include a bevy of new locations to explore, and new outfits and designs for the main trainers and their bikes. Among the locations will be a dojo run by Mustard, mentor of the main game’s Leon. The new rivals will be poison-type user Klara (already a new favorite for fan artists) and psychic-type user Avery for the Sword and Shield versions, respectively. I think there’s a clear favorite here.

The focus of this expansion will be on growth, which only means one thing within the confines of Pokémon. The new legendary Pokémon will be fighting-type Kubfu, which can evolve into Urshifu. Both have stances that resemble those from the Virtua Fighter series’ Akira Yuki, and I’ll be disappointed if he doesn’t reference at least one of his moves. Between this and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it feels like Nintendo thinks of the franchise more than Sega does these days. Urshifu will also have a Gigantamax form that will add more unique techniques.

The first three Pokémon from the main game’s Galar Region will have final evolutions here, specifically known as Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Pokémon-with-a-gun Inteleon. They’ll also have new techniques in their Gigantamax forms.

The Isle of Armor expansion will release in June 2020, so TPC and developer Game Freak should show more very soon. They didn’t announce everything here.

The second expansion will be The Crown Tundra, the focus of which will be on exploration. This will occur in a largely snowy realm full of mountains and small communities. Here, the Pokémon trainer will be appointed the leader of an exploration team, who will be tasked with exploring the fields and underground Pokémon Dens. The Dens themselves will include legendary Pokémon from previous games, including those that modders have already added to the main game after they were disappointingly excluded from it. Never forget Dexit. This feature will also involve a new form of co-op, but details about this are currently vague.

The new legendary Pokémon in this expansion will be Calyrex, which most-likely-true legends say once ruled over the region. It’s a Psychic and Grass-type Pokémon with movements described as “graceful.”

This expansion won’t release until fall, so TPC has plenty of time to provide more details.  Keep an eye out for future Pokémon and Nintendo Directs in the near futurewe are seriously due for a new “traditional” Nintendo Direct.

Both the expansions and free updates (including an update that arrived today) will involve the return of Pokémon that weren’t previously included in the game, including Galar Slowpoke, which can evolve into Galar Slowbro. But there’s nothing suggesting that all Pokémon that didn’t appear in the Galar region will be included here. The details for Pokémon Home, which will arrive in February 2020, specify that users will only have the option of adding Pokémon that otherwise appear in this game. Fans will likely have to adjust to all Pokémon not being available in future games and expansions.

Not all the predictions from certain Pokémon fans came true — Diamond and Pearl remakes are clearly still a while off given the existence of the expansions, and who knows whether a new Pokkén Tournament game is even planned. These announcements appear to be satisfying most fans, though I haven’t ventured to every place on the internet (nor will I); but I’d be surprised if even several of these especially critical of Sword and Shield weren’t there on or near day-one for these expansions. Hopefully they impress most fans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5afasEAiN0

If you want to watch the Direct, feel free. The uploaded one is free of the video issues that plagued the streamed one, tough those were humorous.