The Lonely Isle of Armor is tasked with inaugurating the first ever expansion of the world of pocket monsters more than six months after the release of the main titles, Sword and Shield Pokémon. That the new island of Galar posed itself as the less interesting content of the two that make up the expansion was not a state secret: we will therefore explore the Snowy Lands of the Crown in winter, which at the same time greatly fuels expectations about the content itself. that its existence thwarts the possibility of future chapters.
Will it be worth the wait? Not so much.
Broken promises
In essence, The Lonely Isle of Armor is but a great wilderness with a micro-story within it. The worst thing is that they lied to us: level scaling does not exist, or at least not entirely. The news that the difficulty of the DLC would be calibrated according to your team, up to level 100, caused a sensation - we also reported it, excited before the bitter rectification.
We tried it on our skin: the opposing Pokémon were and remained about 30 levels below our trusted team; our fault was to finish the main game in November, and keep playing. As a result, the experience was boring and watered down by large yawns. We are convinced that if he had offered a level of challenge worthy for all those who finished and overwhelmed Pokémon Sword and Shield we would have enjoyed a different Lonely Island of Armor, but it did not.
The difficulty of Lonely Isle of Armor seems to be based on the medals obtained rather than the level of your team, which are two very different things: this makes the integrative DLC of Sword and Shield more digestible to those who are at the beginning of their journey to Galar rather to those who became Champion and spent the rest of the time ringing one Dynamax Raid after another. We will not go further to explain how important setting the difficulty otherwise would have been, and how much effort this would have required.
After the main adventure, the wild Pokémon on the new island will reach level 60 (with a small surprise) and the only semblance of challenge will be represented by a final fight: reluctantly, therefore, we recommend immediately to deposit in the box the More powerful Pokémon, replace them with others at the DLC level and then head to Brassbury. The train waits.
The Desolate Isle of Armor
Accessing the Solitary Isle of Sword and Shield Armor is simple and Game Freak has made it available from the very beginning of the game. It is not necessary to have obtained any medals, but just have arrived in the Wilderness and download the latest update. Once these requirements are met, the Brassbury station will host a stowaway, a Galar Slowpoke escaped from the island together with a new character, Sofora (Klara) or Savory (Avery) who, depending on the version played, will become the rival of this new portion of game. Sofora, specialized in Poison-type Pokémon, will be Sword's rival, conversely it will be possible to face the psychic Savory only in Pokémon Shield. Once Slowpoke has been captured and the Armor Pass received, it will be possible to leave for the infamous Lonely Island, where an old League Champion is said to have founded a dojo and dedicated himself to training.
Once at our destination, due to a naive misunderstanding we will be identified as the new member of the dojo, which stands in the center of the island. This is in effect a vast area like the Wilds that you can explore at will, even changing the camera, complete with new Dynamax lairs scattered throughout the atoll. Unfortunately, the times of the Middle Cave and the Lapras every Friday of the second generation seem to be gone, and the DLC is quite empty and uninteresting: the superficial caves (we dare not call them dungeons), the thin forests and the wild Pokémon as the only forms of life contribute the bare minimum to make it inviting and almost devoid of secrets. The first DLC of Pokémon Sword and Shield suffers from the same syndrome as the main game.
Another thing that should be noted is a worsening of the technical sector: it was our first instinctive thought as soon as we arrived on the Isle of Armor, probably given the size of the new area, which we can even explore by taking the first Pokémon in the team out of the Poké Ball to there Pokémon Let's Go. Qhis is a great little news of the DLC, although it is not implemented very well and many creatures struggle to keep up, eating the dust of our bicycle.
Sofora and Savory will weakly try to sidetrack us along this glorified wilderness, but once we get to the dojo we will make the acquaintance of the new characters, including the master Mustard, who in a flash will elect us as the best apprentice ever - to the immense jealousy of the rivals, who from then on will try to hinder us as they can. The characterization of these new faces, while being quick, is not evil, and they are in their own way incorrect or likeable depending on the character. For example, under the direction of Tania, Mustard's wife, it will be possible to add services to the dojo making it a base of operations to feel more like home, after Watt's payment. Hyde instead will open the doors of the Cramobot, a bizarre creation that creates a new item from items in the inventory, whose combinations are yet to be discovered. A new NPC will also have the ability to teach Pokémon new moves exclusive to the DLC at the cost of Rockarmature, minerals found only on the island.
The new Pokémon, Kubfu
The Pokémon emblem of this new adventure and on which the dojo revolves is called Kubfu, a little monster inspired by a bear that must be conquered by passing three quick and easy tests. If a good job has been done on the design and presentation of the new legendary, it also cannot be said for the rest: once fate binds us to the new creature, the rest of the content is based on building a stronger bond. with it - which we found not very credible and forced on the rapid times of this DLC, whose duration is around 4 hours about to be generous.
In fact, it will be enough to explore the island for about ten minutes, avoiding the traditional methods of increasing friendship, for our new friend to be ready for the next phase. The ultimate mission will in fact be to gain confidence in Kubfu, and train him just enough to climb one of the Towers of the Two Fists. On the top of the Towers it is in fact possible to evolve Kubfu in one of the two available forms. You will have to choose which path to take between the Dark Tower and the Water Tower. The other tower will close forever and decide the fate of Kubfu and its evolution, Urshifu. If trained in the Dark Tower, the Pokémon will be able to evolve in the Single Strike Style, Fighting / Dark type, if instead the choice falls on the Water Tower the legendary will become Urshifu Multi Strike Style, Fighting / Water type.
The new Pokédex and the new challenges
There is no doubt that the greatest attraction of this first additional content of Pokémon Sword and Shield is represented by the new Pokémon resurrected after the so-called "Masudian genocide", or the notorious cut in the number of creatures. With the Lonely Isle of Armor you unlock a separate Pokédex with many welcome returns: Pokémon like Buneary, Scyther, Staryu, Abra, Cubone and even the evolutionary line of Chansey with their incredible experience points they have been recovered and now live in the different habitats that the island offers. I about 100 free Pokémon are also available for those who do not intend to purchase the Expansion Pass: just have a friend with the DLC or hope for a prodigious exchange.
Despite this we can say that the new Pokémon are still what makes this content stand out, because unfortunately the Lonely Island of Armor lacks trainers. For a place where fighting is central it is funny that coaches can be literally counted on the fingers of one hand: the truth of the facts is that this content is aimed at the competitive, with the new Pokémon to be caught in the Dynamax Raid and the possibility to Gigamaxize any Pokémon that can do it with the Zuppamax, whose mushrooms used for the preparation are found only on the island. These include the first generation starters Squirtle and Bulbasaur, which thus complete the original trio, and also the octave starters (Rillaboom, Cinderace and Inteleon) who will get their Gigamax forms with a ladle of soup.
Finally we point out a new challenge called Limited Trial, which is passed by winning five battles in a row with only one type of Pokémon. This monotype challenge actually offers an excellent test case, because it not only takes into account the moves of the Pokémon (to ensure coverage) and its second type but especially when to heal your team, a function limited to a couple of times.
To sum up, we believe that a deeper job could have been done to justify the selling price and the wait, filling the new island far and wide with goodies to discover. This DLC could have been the opportunity for Game Freak to deliver into the hands of fans, who have been calling for a return of the obstacle mode of Pokémon Black 2 for years, a new level of difficulty, but the possibility of something like that returning is receding further and further.
Lonely Isle of Armor is nothing more than a larger Wild Land where you can catch a hundred new Pokémon, more suited to competitive players. The story is short and the clashes against the other coaches served with a dropper. If the most iconic moments of the DLC are represented by a life-sized Wailord or the relentless Sharpedo we consider this content as a starter before what should be the real DLC of Pokémon Sword and Shield. But be careful, the cost of this appetizer is quite expensive considering the portion.
