Everything from the Pokemon Direct

by Finn, Grade 6

A few days ago, Game Freak held its first Pokemon Direct since Sword and Shield came out, and they came out with a bang. Whether it’s the DLC or a new game or just Pokemon Home, this direct was amazing, so let’s go over everything it has.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

In 2006, the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon released, being Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, being a dungeon crawler Pokemon game. Now, it’s getting remastered in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. This game gets revamped into clean, 3D graphics. But that’s not all. Pokemon can now Mega Evolve for a little bit in the dungeons. The Demo is available and the full game will be released on March 6 of this year. But that’s not all the Direct has to offer.

Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC

Yes. That’s right. The new set of Pokemon games is getting 2 parts of DLC. The first part of DLC is called the Isle of Armor. In this DLC, you get to explore a bit more of the Wild Area, with things like free-moving camera and Max Raids coming to the Isle of Armor. With that, some new Pokemon will be available on the Isle of Armor and the 2nd part of the DLC. For example, the other Kanto starters, Squirtle and Bulbasaur, will also get Gigantamax forms. And your starters will also get a Gigantamax form. Along with that, there will be the Crown Tundra. It’s more of the Wild Area, but a bit more. You can explore small communities and explore ruins, which can host the Legendary Reggies and what it seems to be 2 more Reggies. And there appears to be Galarian forms for the Legendary Kanto birds. And after that, there’s a trailer, revealing other new Legendaries. And that’s from the trailers alone. After that, they talk more about other stuff. They first say that the Isle of Armor will be released in June and the Crown Tundra will release in Fall, with the Expansion Pass to both costing $30.

Next, they go into detail on the Isle of Armor. It’s more Wild Area like I said, but there’s a dojo where you will be in an apprentice of the Trainer who runs it, named Mustard, who trained Leon and even was the Galar Champion for some time. In your apprenticeship, you will encounter new rival/want-to-be-Gym-Leaders. In Sword, your rival is Kalra, a Poison type user while in Shield, your rival is Avery, a Psychic type user. And during your training, Mustard will eventually give you the Legendary Pokemon, Kubfu, a Fighting type Pokemon. It will eventually evolve into a Urshifu, a Pokemon with 2 different styles. There’s Single Strike, a Fighting-Dark type. There’s also a Rapid Strike style, a Fighting-Water type. Urshifu will also have a Gigantamax form. Also with the Isle of Armor, there will be Tutor Moves, new moves to be learned, Apricorns, you combine them to make Poke Balls, and Exp. Charms, they will increase your EXP gain.

Also with that, more customization will be available. And now for the Crown Tundra. It’s more of the WIld Area, but has a huge focus on it this time. But instead of just the Wild Area, there are new small towns/communities to explore. Also within the Crown Tundra, there are temples that can hold the Reggies and other mysterious/strange objects that could hold Legendary Pokemon. While in the Crown Tindra, you can join and lead a Rescue Team to explore the tundra or explore deeper into Max Raid Dens. Now, the Legendary Pokemon, Calyrex. Not much is known about it, but legends said it once ruled over part of Galar. Back to the Max Raid Dens. Joining a Rescue Team unlocks the co-op mode that allows you to explore these dens, where you can possibly encounter every Legendary Pokemon ever. And like the Isle of Armor, there will be even more customization options. And there will be new battles in the core Galar, where you could possibly defend your throne as Champion, and be able to gain sponsors. After the Direct, they announced a free update where you could catch a Galarian Slowpoke early and meet your rival. This update will also allow trades between copies with DLC to copies without the DLC when the DLC launches. And now, the final announcement.

Pokemon Home

Pokemon Home is a cloud-based service where you can trade your Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee Pokemon to Pokemon Sword and Shield if the Pokemon is in the core Pokedex or the DLC. This will launch in February, with more details later.

Max Raid Chances

They also announced that certain Gigantamax will be more common in certain versions. In Pokemon Sword, Gigantamax Coalossal and Flapple will be more common while Giganta Max Lapras and Appletun will be common in Shield.

And that’s it for the Direct. I don’t know how to do this outro, so, bye.