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Welcome to the Pokemon Direct. Are you excited to see what Nintendo and Game Freak have in store for the future of Pokemon? Let's find out what's planned for announcement in this new Nintendo Direct.

The first announcement is a remake of the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games from the GBA and DS, now in 3D. It's called Rescue Team DX. It'll release on March 6, 2020, and will come with a demo available after the Direct.

An expansion pass has been revealed for Pokemon Sword and Shield. This will allow for new adventures, at a cost, in the latest Pokemon games. Instead of saving this content for an updated re-release, the expansion pass will feature the re-addition of many older Pokemon, new costumes, brand new Pokemon, areas, and Gigantamax forms. This content will be split into two pieces: The Isle of Armor, due June 2020, and The Crown Tundra, due Fall 2020. There will be new places within these content packs, and they'll have unique differences between the Sword and Shield versions of the expansion, which are sold separately.

The Isle of Armor focuses on growth, where you'll allowed to challenge a new Pokemon Dojo. Kubfu is a new Pokemon, with its evolution, Urshifu. It has two different styles; it's either fighting/dark or fighting/water. The final evolutions of the starters will get Gigantamax forms, too.

Meanwhile, The Crown Tundra is about exploration. Calyrex is a new legendary Pokemon. There's new Pokemon Dens and older legendaries you can catch underground. There's also new unrevealed battle challenges to take on. More wild areas will be added.

Over 200 older Pokemon will be added back to the game in these expansion updates. Those who don't wish to buy the expansion pass will still be able to get the newly announced Pokemon via link trades, in a free update that'll be coming.

Pokemon Home is launching next month, but no other news is scheduled for it right now.

Galarian Slowpoke and certain Gigantamax forms will be more common, such as Lapras, in an update later today.

Pokemon Sword and Shield's Expansion Pass will each cost $29.99 per game for the Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra separately. You can pre-order them now.

If you own both games, you'll need to buy the Expansion Pass for both Sword and Shield seperately. Each game's DLC is $29.99, meaning if you play Sword, and buy its respective Expansion, it'll cost $29.99 to play the Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra.

 

[codezer0]

That's how it worked in nearly every previous Pokemon game, though - you got a regional dex with some oldies and newbies, and then you could expand it by transfering/trading mons from other games. Only this time, newcomers can actually just buy the DLC and complete dex (mostly) solo without purchasing prev-gen pokemon games to forward-transfer their mons.

Except it was part of the game before. Masuda paywalled it this time around. Making this a mandatory dlc.

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Rescue Team DX...currently playing that, and I hate how they removed the A-button attack. In the original GBA/DS games (and the Explorer of games, and I believe also Gates to Infinity), the player could press A to do a simple attack that dealt less damage than regular moves, but was excellent for finishing opponents off after using a move since you'd still gain boosted EXP (for using a move against the foe at least once) and for saving PP.

Why'd they remove this?

They want to sell you pp ups via lootbox.

 

[Pickle_Rick]

GAME FREAK: Let's release an unfinished game while saying it would be too much work to add in everything. Then slowly sell them back all the content as DLCs. Customers now spend more than 2x the price for less content. (It's still missing stuff.) We have to have $$$$$$$$$.

The Mystery Dungeon remaster looks cool though. Probably because it's not made by Game Freak. LUL.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

GAME FREAK: Let's release an unfinished game while saying it would be too much work to add in everything. Then slowly sell them back all the content as DLCs. Customers now spend more than 2x the price for the less content. (It's still missing stuff.) We have to have $$$$$$$$$.

The Mystery Dungeon remaster looks cool though. Probably because it's not made by Game Freak. LUL.

Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness (two GameCube games that utilise all the same mechanics as the GBA games, whilst adding in Shadow Pokemon and Shadow moves) were also not made by Game FrEAk - rather, by Genius Sonority. And those two games are still pretty dang enjoyable, even now; I'd gladly replay them over LGPE or Sword/Shield any day.

 

[Pickle_Rick]

Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness (two GameCube games that utilise all the same mechanics as the GBA games, whilst adding in Shadow Pokemon and Shadow moves) were also not made by Game FrEAk - rather, by Genius Sonority. And those two games are still pretty dang enjoyable, even now; I'd gladly replay them over LGPE or Sword/Shield any day.

Agreed on the GameCube titles. I played the crap out of both of them back in the day.

 

[medoli900]

I don't get what people are whining about. Every Pokémon will be available for free. In previous version of Pokémon, a lot of Pokémon couldn't be found inside the game itself, you had to transfer them from other game, which you can also do with Pokémon Home. For the slowpoke, they never said that you need to level them up in the region. You need an item in the region, and I'd go out on a leg to say that it's very probably like the crown item for the normal Slowking evolution, where you have to trade the Pokemon with the item.

As for the remake of Mystery Dungeon, I personally really like the new art style. The only thing I can't unsee is Pikachu's mouth looking like the red Mii lips.

 

[SonicRings]

Switch games are too expensive. Can't believe the prices they're charging for these meh games lmaoooo

 

[AkiraKurusu]

I don't get what people are whining about. Every Pokémon will be available for free. In previous version of Pokémon, a lot of Pokémon couldn't be found inside the game itself, you had to transfer them from other game, which you can also do with Pokémon Home.

...Except that in every previous Pokemon game (except for LGPE), the games still had data for all 251/386/493/649/721/802/807 Pokemon without needing an update or DLC or anything. Meaning you could hack unreleased Legendaries or older Starters and Legendaries or whatever into your games, or simply trade them over from future games.
Heck, Ruby/Sapphire completely revamped the inner mechanics (fully separating Special into Sp. Atk and Sp. Def, changing Stat Exp. to EVs, increasing IVs from 0-15 to 0-31, separating gender from stats, etc.), meaning it was impossible to transfer GB/GBC Pokemon to GBA. Yet Ruby/Sapphire still had data for Bulbasaur to Celebi, despite the majority of them being completely impossible to get at the time (FireRed/LeafGreen, Emerald, Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness provided the missing Pokemon). Compare this to Sword/Shield, where it is possible to transfer 3DS Pokemon to Switch (via Home), yet not all 807 older Pokemon were included.

Even with the $60 DLC and accompanying update, there's still going to be ~270 Pokemon still unobtainable. Unless they surprise us, useful moves like Return and Hidden Power will still be unobtainable. Sword/Shield are still not worthy of purchase, and neither are the $60 DLC.

 

[medoli900]

...Except that in every previous Pokemon game (except for LGPE), the games still had data for all 251/386/493/649/721/802/807 Pokemon without needing an update or DLC or anything. Meaning you could hack unreleased Legendaries or older Starters and Legendaries or whatever into your games, or simply trade them over from future games.
Heck, Ruby/Sapphire completely revamped the inner mechanics (fully separating Special into Sp. Atk and Sp. Def, changing Stat Exp. to EVs, increasing IVs from 0-15 to 0-31, separating gender from stats, etc.), meaning it was impossible to transfer GB/GBC Pokemon to GBA. Yet Ruby/Sapphire still had data for Bulbasaur to Celebi, despite the majority of them being completely impossible to get at the time (FireRed/LeafGreen, Emerald, Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness provided the missing Pokemon). Compare this to Sword/Shield, where it is possible to transfer 3DS Pokemon to Switch (via Home), yet not all 807 older Pokemon were included.

Even with the $60 DLC and accompanying update, there's still going to be ~270 Pokemon still unobtainable. Unless they surprise us, useful moves like Return and Hidden Power will still be unobtainable. Sword/Shield are still not worthy of purchase, and neither are the $60 DLC.

Again, you don't need those DLC to get those Pokémon. I don't think those two DLC are the last ones, it would be pretty dumb. I'm pretty sure they'll add the rest in due time. Really, all I see is whining for the sake of whining.

 

[GbaNober]

Again, you don't need those DLC to get those Pokémon. I don't think those two DLC are the last ones, it would be pretty dumb. I'm pretty sure they'll add the rest in due time. Really, all I see is whining for the sake of whining.

it would be better if they release the next Dlc for free but if they charge the customers again..

 

[OblivionReign]

Didn’t read my fallowing post? And reread my post you quoted too. the game’s trailer looked poor quality compared to the actual demo. I have seen played the demo and i would agree it’s worth 45-50 max. i don’t like playing full price for remakes. Finally where did you see the engine? The demo doesn’t even have the unity logo. If it is unity, than i say it’s worth 5-10 dollars less. Unity is a fast and easy engine to work with. Just look at all the indie trash that’s made quickly with it. Not saying DX is trash. What i am saying is unity means potentially less work was done to create it.

Dude... Just dump and open up the game demo and you will see its unity..

 

[Pipistrele]

If it is unity, than i say it’s worth 5-10 dollars less. Unity is a fast and easy engine to work with. Just look at all the indie trash that’s made quickly with it. Not saying DX is trash. What i am saying is unity means potentially less work was done to create it.

In other words, developers should take less money for using a better game engine?

 

[pedro702]

Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness (two GameCube games that utilise all the same mechanics as the GBA games, whilst adding in Shadow Pokemon and Shadow moves) were also not made by Game FrEAk - rather, by Genius Sonority. And those two games are still pretty dang enjoyable, even now; I'd gladly replay them over LGPE or Sword/Shield any day.

they are still the best looking pokemon games graphicaly speaking which makes gamefreak be put to shame when they cant get better graphics on a switch vs a gamecube...

 

[Pluupy]

I would rather have a 3rd iteration than to have to buy DLC. A 3rd iteration is a solid, complete product. DLC will die when servers die. People who want this developer to "get with the times" are clowns who enjoy wasting money for themepark experiences.

On a side note, WE WERE ALL FUCKING PLAYED. PEOPLE WERE RIGHT ABOUT SWORD AND SHIELD BEING AN UNFINISHED GAME. Developer saying they would never have DLC. All this street theater about not realizing fans wanted all those missing pokemon. Here they were hiding all of those pokemon in DLC. Incoming Pokemon Sword and Shield, Game of the Year edition with all DLC included. DLC season passes. Disgusting. They're not getting a single fucking cent out of me.

I'd rather pay Atlus tax for Shin Megami Tensei V because at least I know i'll be getting a complete product.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Didn’t read my fallowing post? And reread my post you quoted too. the game’s trailer looked poor quality compared to the actual demo. I have seen played the demo and i would agree it’s worth 45-50 max. i don’t like playing full price for remakes. Finally where did you see the engine? The demo doesn’t even have the unity logo. If it is unity, than i say it’s worth 5-10 dollars less. Unity is a fast and easy engine to work with. Just look at all the indie trash that’s made quickly with it. Not saying DX is trash. What i am saying is unity means potentially less work was done to create it.

Not necessarily. Sure, a ton of trash IS made using the Unity engine, but quite a few amazing games are too.
Cuphead, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rust, Dusk, Escape From Tarkov, Guns of Icarus, Superhot, Cities: Skyline...
Haven't personally played most of these, but they're still quite highly praised games, so I'll take the general public's opinion on them for now, even though I disagree with them quite a lot - Breath of the Wild is pure trash with no focus compared to every Legend of Zelda game since the third one; Super Mario Odyssey and Galaxy are inferior to Super Mario 64 DS; I would've been happier if Rosalina never made another appearance after Galaxy 2 due to how useless and unnecessary she is. Anyway, I digress...

The difference is that the free version of Unity requires the Unity logo be shown; the paid version that actual developers use allow the logo to be omitted. This dumb decision means that garbage trash scams actively advertise Unity, while quality games don't, leading to Unity having a truly awful reputation.
Compare this to, say, CryEngine, which was popularised by Crysis. There's plenty of garbage trash scams running on CryEngine, but it's not what the engine's remembered and known for due to Crytek being smarter than Unity Tech is.

 

[Pipistrele]

A 3rd iteration is a solid, complete product. DLC will die when servers die. People who want this developer to "get with the times" are clowns who enjoy wasting money for themepark experiences.

DLC is just that - downloadable content. It won't magically disappear from your console once Nintendo closes support for Switch servers, and it's not dependent on always-online connectivity either. You're probably confusing it with live service games.

 

[chartube12]

In other words, developers should take less money for using a better game engine?

nice twist of words......

 

[osaka35]

better than omega sword/shield, eh? as long as the dlc is substantial, I'm fine with it. gives the programmers some money flow while development of the next game takes place. as long as it adds 5 or so hours of gameplay per expansion, minimal, I'll consider it worth it.

 

[Hephaestus]

So now we know why they gimped the pokedex like that.
...so they can sell it back to us as DLC.
*slowclap* Well done Pokemon Company, very well done indeed.
You shoved that rusty piece of pipe up our ass quite expertly.

 

[_v3]

So they cut Pokemon from the final game so they could sell them back to you down the line for extra $$$???

Man, Nintendo's become just as scummy as EA and Ubisoft...

 

[chaoskagami]

Pokemon is dead to me.

You know, a second version would have been better. I could at least buy that used to punish them.