- Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX. I thought you guys were just meming when you thought there'd be something PMD-related coming, but I guess I was wrong. I've heard a lot of good things about the Mystery Dungeon series, and with it getting a free demo I may just check it out. Good stuff.
- Pokemon is finally doing DLC. I always wondered why they never did that to begin with. I mean, every second version of a game includes new formes and even new Pokemon, making the older ones obsolete and kind of screwing over early adopters. If they weren't going to just make the second game a patch for the first version, they could've at least put the new formes into the game's data so the two could battle and trade with eachother.
- The Expansion Pass is kind of awful. $30 dollarydoos for more **** to do after the main game was revealed to be a hollow, barebones experience leaves me with the distinct impression that this won't be much to write home about either. And for those keeping tack at home, that's ~$90 USD for a slightly better than SwSh experience that isn't nearly as good as even Ultra SuMo. ****ing KEK.
- Klara and Avery already have R34. Nothing else to say about them, just thought you should know that. Also, Mustard is an actual character name in this franchise now. Thanks, I hate it.
- There's going to be another ~200 Pokemon reincorporated into the game. Since they're doing the series tradition of reintroducing all of the Legendaries with the updated version, that means ~50 of those ~200 returning mons will be Legendaries, including the Genies of Healthy Meta. I found it quite amusing that most of the returning Pokemon shown off were the more popular ones such as Volcarona, Garchomp, Lycanroc, Slowpoke, Kingdra. It's almost as if they're doing major damage control or something. I like how they're at least not technically hiding these reintroduced Pokemon behind a paywall, since you'll be able to trade with players who don't have the Expansion Pass, but it could set a bad precedent for future games and really **** everything up if they're not careful.
- The new Pokemon shown don't look too bad. Kubfu and Urshifu look alright, but I find it hard to enjoy them with Meinfoo and Mienshao crying in the corner. I'm also happy to see Celebi and Xerneas' love child is finally making a name for itself. But seriously, Calyrex looks weird. I find it a bit odd that they gave Slowpoke a Galarian Form, and they're technically making it's evolutions DLC exclusive. Like I understand what they're going for, Armor for Slowbro, Crown for Slowking, but it still seems a bit weird.
- Speaking of weird, Galarian Legendaries are a thing now. Honestly didn't think they needed a Galarian Form, but okay I guess, at least they look kind of cool. The new/Galarian Regis have me intrigued, though. Hopefully this means they'll give Regigigas some love, because it's ability is way too crippling and it being basically a titan, it sort of deserves to have a Gigantimax Form. Speaking of Gigantimax or alternate formes in general, I really hope they reintroduce Ultra Necrozma in some way, because it's kind of bull**** to include Necrozma's other formes but skip out on it's best forme. Also, I hope you guys are prepared for Dynamax Complete Form Zygarde: a 50% HP boost when it drops below half health combined with a temporary HP doubling when it Dynamaxes. You'd better pray that all Legendaries can't Dynamax.
- The new areas look alright. I like that they're using the Wild Area camera the whole time, it'll really go that extra mile to making this DLC feel different. Not sure how big these areas actually are, though. Also a bit unclear as to what you'll be doing there. Also unclear as to how challenging it'll be. I mean at this point in the game, people will most likely have very high-leveled, competitively viable Pokemon in the box just ready to be used, so unless they're going to do something to prevent you from gaining access to your boxes until you've finished this new campaign, it's basically going to be clear and move on for most players, lasting an hour or two if they're lucky. I also find it kind of hilarious that the second half of the pass is all about exploration, again almost as if they're trying to damage control for Galar being too linear and restricting.
- I'm suprised they didn't mention anything about fixing or polishing up the main game. Like, announcing that they would be allowing you to turn off the EXP Share, or that they were fixing some of the animations or cutscenes. That would've been nice to hear, but oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see if they do that or not.
Overall, I'm not too excited for this. They didn't outright admit it, but all of this just smacks of damage control. Like they know they ****ed up with the base game and are trying to fix it by adding more stuff to do and bringing back more old Pokemon, but at this point it's tantamount to putting Band-Aids on a bullet wound, it's too little too late. The new content, while certainly nice in and of itself, won't be enough to fix the terrible main adventure and barebones postgame, and having to pay basically the same price as a new DS/3DS Pokemon game in order to get a better overall experience just doesn't sound worth it so far.
All I can hope for is that Game Freak continues to take this criticism to heart and makes their next Pokemon Switch games, either DP remakes or an entirely new generation, a much better experience that core Pokemon fans would actually want to play, rather than another empty, linear stopgap game that's forgotten in about a year or so. I haven't bought either of these games yet, and I'm currently not planning to until we learn more about the new DLC. If they're ****, and there aren't any new Mythical Pokemon added, then they'll be the first main series Pokemon game I've skipped over since Diamond and Pearl. (For clarity's sake, my first Pokemon game was SoulSilver)