Sword & Shield **Official news only** DLC Crown Tundra 22nd October

[Worldie]

While SwSh has done better financially than most mainline Pokémon games, I wouldn't have too much trouble believing this if there's proof because bad image is still bad image. For all the money they made it's not hard to imagine that there's a lot more money they could have made from people who may have been heavily put off from an array of bad reception -- Pokémon hasn't had a 'controversy' this big for a long long time and the exposure of it between news sites picking it up and negative reviews mentioning it and the sheer volume of people still going on about it is to the extent that it likely put off a lot of sales.

You could argue that it may not be that much sales at the end of the day to merit some sort of massive overhaul or upheaval, but the thing is in the case of this controversy is that the big thing was Pokémon not being in the game -- ie, they just needed to add a lot more models; something that's not too terribly hard to outsource to another company. I imagine the potential sales boost, regaining of reputation and marketing they could get from 'every Pokémon is back in this one' would supersede money spent on getting another company or two to pitch in on animation manpower.

I agree and it's why I don't consider the rumours baseless or unbelievable.

While SwSh did sell very well, there's still a significant amount of people who refused to buy it due to the controversy (and still do to this day).
While it's a minor %, it's still missed income after all, and it also includes people who could have committed to acquire a Switch just for Pokemon otherwise, thus also directly impacting Nintendo's sales as well.

Considering publishers nowadays do like to pull the old "yeah, you sold 100, but you could have sold 105", I can definitely see Nintendo, TPCI or GF themselves wanting to push for more.

(And that's without factoring in the psychological aspect of the controversy on GF's employees to begin with: while luckily nothing bad actually happened, I'm quite confident their employees would have benefitted from not having incurred in death threats)


That said, whenever the rumours/speculations are baseless or not, we're not likely to know until the next title releases (as in, whatever's after Crown's Tundra). I'll be looking forward to see if moving to Nintendo's building will positively impact the quality of the products and maybe of the press and advertising as well (which let's be honest, REALLY needs help)

 

[Kurona]

I agree and it's why I don't consider the rumours baseless or unbelievable.

While SwSh did sell very well, there's still a significant amount of people who refused to buy it due to the controversy (and still do to this day).
While it's a minor %, it's still missed income after all, and it also includes people who could have committed to acquire a Switch just for Pokemon otherwise, thus also directly impacting Nintendo's sales as well.

Considering publishers nowadays do like to pull the old "yeah, you sold 100, but you could have sold 105", I can definitely see Nintendo, TPCI or GF themselves wanting to push for more.

(And that's without factoring in the psychological aspect of the controversy on GF's employees to begin with: while luckily nothing bad actually happened, I'm quite confident their employees would have benefitted from not having incurred in death threats)


That said, whenever the rumours/speculations are baseless or not, we're not likely to know until the next title releases (as in, whatever's after Crown's Tundra). I'll be looking forward to see if moving to Nintendo's building will positively impact the quality of the products and maybe of the press and advertising as well (which let's be honest, REALLY needs help)

Even beyond base sales, it's very much an image thing. These days for a company your image and your brand is everything, and any damage to that is something you want to very quickly sweep under the rug so that as many people as possible can have a positive impression of you -- the more your brand is sustained and the less controversies and criticisms of you getting hashtags on twitter, the easier a time your company will have selling products, getting good marketing and retaining trust & assured stability with shareholders.

So even if they didn't get that many more sales from the next Pokémon game having every Pokémon, it will likely still be worth it. You'll get people changing their opinion and a lot of people finally letting down their BBNT placards - whether through genuine appeasement or being too exhausted to continue protesting the other issues when the main one is solved - and once again just make Pokémon look like good games. You'd probably get a thousand articles talking about how awesome it is that every Pokémon is back in this instalment, and how great Game Freak are for taking in criticism, and maybe we were too mean on them anyway. You'd get a bunch of twitter replies professing love through that one Futurama take my money gif, with the few dissenters looking stupid and whiny and like they're asking for too much. Once Pokémon's brand image is restored, they can continue looking problem-free and sell a lot more merch and all the rest of it. SwSh's controversy is a blot on Pokémon's otherwise friendly-looking and happy brand image, and for all companies involved that's something that has to go immediately.

 

[Codraroll]

If anything, I think the good reception to Isle of Armor shows that it's not beyond Game Freak's capabilities to make games the fans really like, but the production needs to have some resources they may not be able to deliver. Time seems to be the most notable one here, but I suspect that some of the ... not-so-good features of base SwSh were the result of poor executive decisions too. The plot appears to have been thrown together at the last minute, the area design is wildly inconsistent, several plot-relevant battles completely lack backgrounds. These flaws aren't deal-breaking, but they suggest that the games were poorly produced and the development badly coordinated. And I would think that Nintendo's internal reaction to the Dexit debacle was something along the lines of "Guys ... get a PR team. Or at least ask ours before delivering any messages like that."

I would imagine Nintendo realized that GF shouldn't be expected to do a solo run of the Pokémon main series anymore, given how much more difficult it is to design for consoles, and given that Nintendo has a bunch of in-house competence that Game Freak lacks. The aforementioned PR team, for instance, but also probably a bunch of know-how about 3D area design, efficient coding, maybe entire game engines. It seems likely that Nintendo would follow up the development of the next Pokémon games a lot closer, to find out what support GF needs and when they need to be pushed.

Of course, the biggest hurdle of the Pokémon games is the need for merchandising which demands regular releases of new material, but I'm not sure if I agree that this means an entirely new game released every year. Look at Disney, another big merchandising giant. They're masters of getting mileage out of their existing characters (Case in point: Mickey Mouse has been featured in only four films since 1953, only one of which was made on this side of 2000). There is so much Pokémon material to recycle now that they could easily make smaller promotions between games and make huge bank from merchandising. Heck, I'm surprised there hasn't been more interaction between the merch and Pokémon Go. This would be the perfect time to make more Gen V merch to coincide with the roll-out of Gen V 'mons in Go. "Go catch a Petilil, then buy the plushie!" or something like that. Or what about the need to release new Mythical Pokémon for the movies? I say the same, make new movies starring old Mythicals again. Mew is still widely recognizable, it shouldn't have to be relegated to movies 1 and 8 forever.

So all in all, I think Nintendo could give Game Freak a little more resources, and a little more time, to make better games without restricting the merchandise sales. The games may be the motor of the merchandising empire, but cranking them out this often at the cost of quality may be more damaging to the brand than taking their time. At any rate, I don't think the philosophy that led to SwSh or even SM would be sustainable for very long. At some point, they would have to reconsider their strategy; might as well do that while they still have a good image and economy.

 

[dodiabla]

I think the biggest tell in the “How much will Nintendo manage/support GameFreak” conversation is Masuda. Masuda is very influential in how the games are designed and he has, more or less, a rigid design philosophy, and he seems to have a say in almost every part of the process. The guy has also stated that he prefers small teams (remember the big fuss that was made when news broke that programmers felt like they were overworked?) and is a loose cannon in interviews and a walking PR disaster (“Yea not every Pokémon is in the game” off the cuff in the last few minutes of an interview/live).

So yea, if news breaks that Masuda is taking a break in involvement in some future Pokémon game or that he is stripped of some authority take that as a sign that Nintendo is reigning in the company.

 

[R_N]

I think the biggest tell in the “How much will Nintendo manage/support GameFreak” conversation is Masuda. Masuda is very influential in how the games are designed and he has, more or less, a rigid design philosophy, and he seems to have a say in almost every part of the process. The guy has also stated that he prefers small teams (remember the big fuss that was made when news broke that programmers felt like they were overworked?) and is a loose cannon in interviews and a walking PR disaster (“Yea not every Pokémon is in the game” off the cuff in the last few minutes of an interview/live).

So yea, if news breaks that Masuda is taking a break in involvement in some future Pokémon game or that he is stripped of some authority take that as a sign that Nintendo is reigning in the company.

Not that it wasnt a PR disaster but I guarantee that wasn't off the cuff. They already had interviews in motion with other (japanese) outlets and they likely ran it by the NoA folks that they were going to talk about it.
And he was definitely not the only one saying these kind of things, throughout the cycle.

Also I'm pretty sure Masuda was already, before their move or anything, in a different position. He's not the director of SWSH, Ohmori was. He was one of 6 producers (in addition to the 3 other General Producers and the 3 Executive Producers)
For contrast, Masuda directed DP, BW1, XY & Let's Go.

This isn't to say he doesn't have sway on the games, of course, but he's sharing a lot of weight and his direct involvement seems slightly lessened. He's likely not our canary is I guess my point, outside of maybe going "hey what if we just...DIDNT say all these things". lord knows if theres one thing nintendo is good at its saying nothing at all

 

[Yung Dramps]

I remember reading a rumor saying that because of SwSh’s reception, Nintendo stepped in and mandated that GF work with another studio for the next console games.

However, keep in mind that this is a rumor, and consider that SwSh is a success revenue wise, there’s an extremely good chance this is false.

While SwSh has done better financially than most mainline Pokémon games, I wouldn't have too much trouble believing this if there's proof because bad image is still bad image. For all the money they made it's not hard to imagine that there's a lot more money they could have made from people who may have been heavily put off from an array of bad reception -- Pokémon hasn't had a 'controversy' this big for a long long time and the exposure of it between news sites picking it up and negative reviews mentioning it and the sheer volume of people still going on about it is to the extent that it likely put off a lot of sales.

You could argue that it may not be that much sales at the end of the day to merit some sort of massive overhaul or upheaval, but the thing is in the case of this controversy is that the big thing was Pokémon not being in the game -- ie, they just needed to add a lot more models; something that's not too terribly hard to outsource to another company. I imagine the potential sales boost, regaining of reputation and marketing they could get from 'every Pokémon is back in this one' would supersede money spent on getting another company or two to pitch in on animation manpower.

I agree and it's why I don't consider the rumours baseless or unbelievable.

While SwSh did sell very well, there's still a significant amount of people who refused to buy it due to the controversy (and still do to this day).
While it's a minor %, it's still missed income after all, and it also includes people who could have committed to acquire a Switch just for Pokemon otherwise, thus also directly impacting Nintendo's sales as well.

Considering publishers nowadays do like to pull the old "yeah, you sold 100, but you could have sold 105", I can definitely see Nintendo, TPCI or GF themselves wanting to push for more.

(And that's without factoring in the psychological aspect of the controversy on GF's employees to begin with: while luckily nothing bad actually happened, I'm quite confident their employees would have benefitted from not having incurred in death threats)


That said, whenever the rumours/speculations are baseless or not, we're not likely to know until the next title releases (as in, whatever's after Crown's Tundra). I'll be looking forward to see if moving to Nintendo's building will positively impact the quality of the products and maybe of the press and advertising as well (which let's be honest, REALLY needs help)

I was gonna put a disclaimer about how I don't wanna seem rude, but at this stage I'm too exasperated to care. Everyone involved in this discussion directly or indirectly from the person who came up with the rumor to the people talking about "image", please stop. Just please stop.

For starters, I'm shocked that Worldie is buying into this horse-hock seeing how well-versed they are in the fact the Pokemon fanbase is laughably out of touch. I'm going to let you all in on a secret: As much as the still-active BBNDers may try to sway you, there was no fucking ""image"" damage, at least not on an anywhere near big enough scale to invest the resources to correct it. Ever since the first sales reports came out the aforementioned """"movement"""" has been ridiculed and scorned as a complete fucking failure (because it is), and that's assuming the average Joe in question is even aware of any of that shit happening. As for those who are aware, things like this article are a pretty good summation of their thoughts on the matter. There is such a thing as diminishing returns and the amount of work that'd have to be done to bring back the minuscule fractions of a percent who stood by their laurels and didn't buy the game because of the issues is not worth all this proposed major restructuring. Oh, and in case you think there's even a remote chance of long-term reputation damage, yeah no, that's not happening (user-voted poll for the biggest gaming publication in Japan btw).

In fact? When all is said and done? I am firmly convinced that Sword and Shield wouldn't have sold as well without the outrage. Think for a second about how relatively sparse marketing was for the game compared to Sun and Moon. Now think about how much Dexit kept the game in the public consciousness, how online outlets were constantly reporting on it, how many people who may have not even cared about Pokemon in years, if ever, were exposed to news about the newest release via the rage-fueled osmosis that would've probably never happened under a normal situation. Sure, the reports may have turned people away, but there's just as great of a chance it drew in those with bile fascination, or for those who were gonna buy it anyway set expectations so comically low (IT'S LIKE, TOTALLY GONNA BE THE NEXT SONIC 06 GUYZ) that the final product had no trouble surpassing it for them. In fact, there's a situation that happened much more recently that's eerily similar to all of this: The Last of Us 2. Like SWSH unfavorable news about the game appeared before launch and got people extremely riled up, with boycotts being advocated and memes, rants and articles about its supposedly irredeemably bad nature being circulated. The result? One of Sony's biggest launches ever, beating the lifetime sales of games like FF7 Remake over the course of a month.

Honestly I'm not even against the idea of GF working with Nintendo to change things to make the dev process smoother. But if that happens, I guarantee it'll have nothing to do with the companies involved feeling the Pokemon brand is in any danger or bad light whatsoever.

It's been well over a year since the initial announcement. The least you guys can do is finally get past stage 1 of grief.

 

[R_N]

Honestly the more likely explanation is the outrage barely left the sphere of Very Online Pokemon Fans. & when it did it was usually paired with "those shitty fans!"
It was a big new fancy title for Switch, and a clear next step to everyone involved after the weird half step of Let's Go. It's pokemo nso everyone recognizes it anyway, the nonsense PR cycle just proves you kind of barely need to show anything for Pokemon, just show Enough to get it out there.


So yeah if Nintendo steps in its because SWSH clearly had development problems and Nintendo wants their shining jewel to work through those problems before they become unmanagable as the games become larger and lead to bigger problems.

 

[Worldie]

Honestly I'm not even against the idea of GF working with Nintendo to change things to make the dev process smoother. But if that happens, I guarantee it'll have nothing to do with the companies involved feeling the Pokemon brand is in any danger or bad light whatsoever.

It's been well over a year since the initial announcement. The least you guys can do is finally get past stage 1 of grief.

You're not wrong, and probably I am giving too much credit to socials (which nowadays honestly are getting worse and worse).

I'll hope youre right and I myself am overselling the flames.
But i definitely think that fandoms are a mistake

 

[DreamPrince]

Maybe not actually sales, but maybe another reason why Nintendo would wanna get involved more is because of crunch time. It’s very obvious that SwSh were rushed, and it’s very obvious that several employees were worked overtime on this game. I wouldn’t be surprised if the employees were paid very little or anything at all. Japan is known for that extremely stressful work culture, and GF should be no exception considering how traditional the culture is. For example the anime industry, has been widely criticized for using anime fans to work overtime for no money, which effectively a form of modern day slavery. It was also reported that GF employee moral was at an all time low prior to the launch of SwSh thanks to Dexit. Maybe Nintendo stepped in because the employees really needed some Moral support?

We’ve seen that Nintendo has been trying to give more of its employees breathing support with longer deadlines, notable games include Fire Emblem: 3 Houses as well as Animal Crossing: New Horizions. Even Next Level Games, who makes Luigi’s Mansion series have also been notable for being fair for their employees. Nintendo has been doing it for two reasons: To avoid getting EA reputation as well as trying to combat Japanese Workculture ethics. Pokémon probably doesn’t have that luxury, well, because of the merchandise. Maybe SwSh was the last straw for a small development team, and it really set employees back, hence why Nintendo would want to get involved. At the very least, Nintendo could make them with a larger studio that has more experience with console development.

 

[Zowayix]

So yea, if news breaks that Masuda is taking a break in involvement in some future Pokémon game or that he is stripped of some authority take that as a sign that Nintendo is reigning in the company.

A bit tired of repeating this, but again: Masuda is on Game Freak's board of directors. The only person who has power over him is the CEO, Tajiri, who hasn't said or done anything public in over a decade, so he might as well be a figurehead and Masuda might as well be at the top. No one at Nintendo has any power over him at all. (If anyone other than Tajiri tells Masuda to do something he doesn't want to do, he can just say no. What's Nintendo going to do, refuse to publish the games and throw away $1 billion?)

 

[DreamPrince]

Its been a few weeks, so I decided to publish my thoughts on the Isle of Armor.

What I liked:

1. Returning Pokemon: Its a great pleasure seeing some my favorites like Dragalge, Alolan Sandslash, Lilligant, and Wigglytuff return after being dexited. Whether Dexit was a marketing move to make money off cut Pokemon or not remains up for debate though.
2. New Moves! The new moves are fun and add a layer for competitive battling, with Grassy Glide and Expanding Force being the defining moves. The others are more niche, though definitely viable.
3. An EV resetter! Great that they added one, since resetting EVs via berries is very tedious and this saves a lot of grinding.
4. Love how they have give the Home-Exclusive Pokemon ( exception of Legendaries ) are available. The Diglett quest, while tedious, at least gives a reason to visit the areas again and again, with the prize being Alola Pokemon. They even come with HAs! Its great for someone
5. The Isle of Armor looks much more cohesive than the wild area. There are caves to explore as well as islands to discover- it genuinely feels like your are discovering new areas. The textures seem to be slightly better or par on the Wild Area.
6. Restricted Sparring! A great challenge and shows that Frontier-esque challenges are not completely gone. A lot of people have managed to accumulate 60 + Winning Streaks on our RS + BT page. I'll be attempting that soon as well.
7. G-Max Soup makes Gigantamax significantly more accessible, especially if you don't have Switch Online.
8. Like how you can access the island as soon as you get to the Wild Area. There''s much more flexibility and variety for choosing Pokemon for playthroughs,
9. Animations for the moves like Urshifu's signature moves, Kubfu's introduction, and Mustard's battle pose are really fun to watch.

Things I feel neutral about:

1. The story isn't really anything to write home about. The trials are effectively generic sidequests in RPGs, which isn't nesscarily a bad thing, but it should not be the primary reason story for the first half of the game. I liked it, but nothing to write home about.
2. Not too crazy about Galarian Slowpoke and Slowbro. Galarian Slowpoke is not even that different from regular Slowpoke, its just a pure Psychic with some yellow on it. Slowbro Galar is another case of fan service, since it already got a Mega. At least Galarian Slowking to look forward to. Kubfu and Urshifu are fine, but they don't really feel like Legendaries. If anything they feel more like Riolu to Lucario- These Pokemon feel like Legendaries, but they aren't. They are just important. Its going to hurt Kubfu in the future.
3. While the Diglett quest gives good reason to visit areas, 150 does feel a bit excessive.
4. Cramoratic is nice for getting things like Ability Capsules through use of 4 rare candies, the apricorn balls are so terribly handled. You have to insert an apricorn and hope you get a special ball, and the poke ball rates are super small. Things like the Safari/Sport ball have less than a 1% chance of being formed.

Things I didn't like:

1. Despite Gmax Soup, I still think the new Gmax forms were still poorly handled. While the game gives you Squirtle/Bulbasaur for free, it never tells you that your starter can Gmax, so if you went into this DLC blind, you would have no clue that the starters could G-Max. Speaking if which, I find the Urshifu Gmax sidequest a waste of time. Your telling me I have to do a bunch of generic and useless quests just because my Urshifu is a picky eater? Not to mention that Vespiquen raid was so easy that it felt unsatisfying as a climax. What's worse, you can only Gigantamax one Urshifu per save file, so if you traded a non-Gmax Urshifu, you can't Gmax with Max Soup.
2. The towers are poorly handled as well. You can only do one, and once that Tower is done, you can't do it and the other tower ever again. So if you trade a Kubfu from another player, it can't evolve.
3. Following Pokemon is back, but it is poorly implemented. For starters, it literally just feels they just inserted the Pokemon model with the running animations in the overworked without any thought or care. I mean look at Falinks on slopes. The Pokemon can't interact with you they did in HGSS, they just show a Camp animation. And why is this part of the Isle of Armor only? It should been part of a free update especially because it seems like this was implemented last moment.
4. Despite of Isle of Armor being more cohesive, it still suffers all the basic problems of the Wild Area. Too much lag while playing online, the games freezes frequently, and notable framerate drops.
5. The spending to upgrade the Dojo feels really unrequired. Things like the PC should have been from the start, while Vitamins can be bought at Hammerlocks for 2BP so its much cheaper. These should been truly unique or available from the starts.
6. The level cure is awful. The only curve that it checks is to see if you beaten the darkest day. If not everything is under leveled, and if not everything is overleveled. Regardless, most people should have beaten the game by now, so all challenge is nullified.

I liked the DLC. The additions were fine, but most of my joy has something to do with the competitive side. Things like the new moves, Pokemon, QOL improvements, and Facilities are great and are practically a requirement for a competitive player. As for a casual player, I can't say this is a must buy. But if you enjoyed the SwSh and wanted another reason, this couldn't hurt. Whether it worth 30$ though, no, at least not until the Crowned Tundra. If you did not like SwSh, this won't change your mind.

 

[Nokocchi]

Hide

-What's worse, you can only Gigantamax one Urshifu per save file, so if you traded a non-Gmax Urshifu, you can't Gmax with Max Soup.
-The towers are poorly handled as well. You can only do one, and once that Tower is done, you can't do it and the other tower ever again.

Hide

You can obtain more Max Honey from Isle of Armor Combee and Vespiquen Raids(Which is also why Max Honey also can be used like a Max Revive in battle and can be tossed, traded away, and sold), and you can also re-enter the tower you initially chose if you get another Kubfu, there's just no battles just touch the scroll and evolve it, you just can't choose the other tower

 

[DreamPrince]

Hide

You can obtain more Max Honey from Isle of Armor Combee and Vespiquen Raids(Which is also why Max Honey also can be used like a Max Revive in battle and can be tossed, traded away, and sold), and you can also re-enter the tower you initially chose if you get another Kubfu, there's just no battles just touch the scroll and evolve it, you just can't choose the other tower

Oh wow, I didn’t know that thanks.

 

[Pikachu315111]

PART 6: GIGANTAMAX FINALE & FINAL THOUGHTS

So normally this part would be saved for post game, but since I'm doing Isle of Armor after post game it unlocks as soon as I evolve Kubfu.

Reason it has to be post game? Cause Hop suddenly appears in the Dojo saying he's on research assignment cause he's now Sonia's lab assistant. She sent Hop to the Isle of Armor as she prefers someplace colder (hmm, so Sonia is going to appear in the Frozen Tundra?). Mustard invites Hop to stay with them while researching and tells us that Urshifu can Gigantamax. However, Urshifu refuses to eat Max Soup as it doesn't like mushrooms (had no problem eating the Mushroom Curry I made) so need to add something "sweet & sticky" to get it to eat the soup. But before you can roll your eyes about what is "sweet & sticky" a bear Pokemon would like to eat, Hop says he read in a book that Urshifu like honey. So, off to find Bug Poke... I mean Grass Pokemon cause Hop decides we should first look for nectar.

In the Forest of Focus we help a Lilligant find its child Petilil (great, GF is messing around with the idea of escort missions...) and chasing around a Applin that bops you on the head. We taste the nectar both gave us but it's not what we're looking for, Hop realizing we should be instead looking for Bug Pokemon, specifically Combee (I do like the game let's us call out Hop on it). We go to Honeycalm Island where Hop's Power Spot radar goes off the chart and we enter a Max Raid against a Vespiquen where we earn a Max Honey.

We bring back the Max Honey to the Dojo and mix it with the Max Soup, allowing Urshifu to Gigantamax. And now that Urshifu can Gigantamax, it is time. Mustard invites us for one final battle. For most of his team I wipe them aside with Cinderace, but then it comes time for Urshifu. Both I and Mustard send out our Urshifu and we both Gigantamax, I with Single Strike and him with Rapid Strike. Now, I knew this was going to happen so thought ahead. Unlike last time, since Single Strike is weak to Fighting that means it'll use Max Knuckle. So this time I gave Urshifu a Chople Berry and, knowing I can't 1HKO it, decided instead to start off with a Max Airstream to assure I had the faster Speed. As predicted his Urshifu uses Max Knuckle, Chople Berry reducing the damage though it does raise its Attack. Taking the risk, I do a G-Max One Blow... but doesn't knock it out. It does another Max Knuckle, but thanks to the first not doing as much damage my Urshifu is still up! I do a final G-Max One Blow and win the battle! And with this final battle I'm given Mustard's rare card, unlock Restricted Sparring, and I'm free to do whatever I want on the Isle of Armor. The End!

... WELL not yet. I still got the Dojo upgrades! After grinding Max Raids all over the island to get Ore to give to Digging Pa, I get enough Watts to upgrade the Dojo. This isn't my video but here's how the upgrades go and my thoughts on them:

• 5k Watts: Hairstylist at Dojo. Odd upgrade but at least you don't need to leave the island to change your hair. At first I thought the cutscene was glitched and the hairstylist model didn't load, but then it reveals they were talking through the door... and that we may not speak what we see inside. Well I guess if you're going to be lazy with the presentation you might as well try to be funny, I do the same with my writing except instead of being lazy it's making meaningful commentary.
• 10k Watts: Rotomi Terminal. So, apparently if you want a Rotami Terminal you call the Pokemon Center, odd, I would have thought there was a branch of Macro Cosmos that made the machines (like PokeJobs shows they have a Tech division, it has its own logo). Well, anyway the Dojo gets the Rotomi Terminal but Honey notices it's not working right. Turns out there's additional software we need to purchase, much to Honey's agitation. Gotta admit that was a bit funny. Would say a little jab at real life but then again I never bought a device that didn't already have the operating system already installed. Also, considering we got this from a Pokemon Center, that's a pretty skeevy thing fro the Pokemon Center to do.
• 20k Watts: Working Rotomi Terminal. After giving some sass to the Pokemon Center, we get the Rotomi up and running (wait, since Rotomi need Rotom to run it, does that mean they just gave us a trained Rotom?). But, oh no, now we need to purchase the Poke Ball Interface Module in order to transport Pokemon between our party and PC! Nah, just kidding (especially since we have the Portable PC so that would be a kind of pointless add-on). So now we have a working Rotomi to I guess edit our League Card and play the lottery.
• 30k Watts: Vending Machine with Fresh Water.
• 40k Watts: Soda Pop added to Vending Machine.
• 50k Watts: Lemonade added to Vending Machine. So Macro Cosmos Living apparently handles Vending Machines in Galar. Dojo has a Vending Machine now and Honey tells us that all items in the Dojo Vending Machine will be at a discount so if we want drinks (and later Vitamins) best to use the Dojo's vending machine. This is the first major benefit of the upgrades that isn't just for convenience and I think is a pretty good one that players raising a competitive team would likely use once they get access to the Vitamins! But for now Honey mentions she wants something to nosh on.
• 100k Watts: Fridge filled with Camping Ingredients. An alright upgrade if you still have some missing Curry recipes... if that Curry needs Fruit Bunch, Moomoo Cheese, Large Leek, or Sausages. Because that's that's the only four items you can get from the Fridge. I thought it was going to offer a new batch of items each day, but turns out its only those four which is kind of lame. The only point of all the different Curry is to fill your Curry Dex, otherwise its how well that you make it which counts. So if anything the ingredients you get should be ingredients to make a Curry you're missing from your Dex, including the rare and version exclusive ingredient (which is still a stupid idea and this could have been a way around it).
• 200k Watts: Second Vending Machine with Protein and Iron.
• 300k Watts: Calcium and Zinc added to Vending Machines.
• 400k Watts: HP Up and Carbos added to Vending Machines. And here are the Vitamins! 400k may sound like a lot but if you didn't already have that much you can easily get up to that amount after a few tries with the Digging Pa. Not sure if adding a second Vending Machine was necessary, though it was just now when we're looking at the vending machines close-up I noticed something odd: all vending machines have 6 kind of drinks in them. So aside from Fresh Water, Soda Pop, and Lemonade what are the other three drinks and why aren't we allowed to purchase them? Are they the PP restoring drinks?
• 500k Watts: Master Dojo background for League Card. Neat little reward, I'm sure some people will think of something funny to do with it.
• 800k Watts: Honey's League Card. What happened to 600k and 700k? You can still add PP Up, PP Max, and Rare Candy (and let's not pretend the Rare Candy is this special item anymore when you give out Dynamax Candy by the truckloads) to the Vending Machines. Well, anyway Honey calls the Pokemon League and the dialogue gets a bit odd:
  

  Hello, hello? Is this the Pokemon League?
  It's me again! Yes, me - Honey!
  There's actually something really special I'd like your help putting together...
  Oh, you! Now, don't tease!
  No! I swear it's not like that! Heehee...

  I'm not sure what the implication is supposed to be. Like are we to think the Pokemon League guy she's talking to was suggesting she do some kind of swimwear photoshoot (and I say swimwear as I doubt she would be responding like that if they asked about a nude photoshoot)? Also after giving us the card Honey mentions her initial plan was to give these out to promote the Master Dojo but the card didn't come out right, "they caught us in such a random moment". We're told to keep the card as a keepsake and not spread it around. But if you look at the card there's nothing really that off about it, it's just Honey posing and Mustard in the back making himself something in the kitchen. Really strange.
• 1 Mil Watts: Battle with Honey. So this one also starts out strange. Honey says she's going to give us a chance to battle the "strongest of Trainers" and calls up "her favorite Pokemon League". Whoever answered the phone recognizes her voice and she asks them for a favor. Well whoever it was couldn't get their region's Champion to come to Galar cause it was too far away. So apparently Honey looks to have some clout with other Pokemon Leagues if she can at least try to request a battle with that League's Champion. I'm curious if they actually had a certain League in mind or it's left to be ambiguous (she mentioned it was "the strongest of Trainers" and usually that refers to Red). Anyway instead she offers to battle another "Top trainer".
  The above video never does that battle, so here's another video of the battle. Honey takes you to the Dojo battlefield but before she could reveal who we're battling the guy we saw at the beginning of the DLC shows up (and oddly it starts playing the "Follow Me" theme). Turns out, after chickening out joining the Master Dojo, he joined another dojo: The Wile Dojo. He's the top trainer there and is here to challenge Master Mustard to show the Wile Dojo is better. Tired of his attitude, Honey beats him up (well, they have a Pokemon battle, but she's probably also able to whoop him and throw him out the dojo herself). After beating him, Honey asks if he would like to start again at the Master Dojo, saying they'll "tear him down and build him back up as a proper trainer" with a sinister smile. The guy runs away and this apparently something Honey keeps on doing for potential students. And so Honey reveals herself to be that "top trainer" and the battle begins... really, the normal Trainer theme? If you didn't want to give Honey her own theme at least give her the battle theme Master Mustard first used (and the Galarian Slowpoke used). So I proceed to wipe her team with my Cinderace, once again didn't other Gigantamaxing against her G-Venusaur as I still took it out with one hit. Apparently Honey throws her Pokeballs so hard they warp in shape (and when she Gigantamaxes she chucks the giant Pokeball with one hand into the stratosphere). Honey mentions she's just as strong as Master Mustard and, after threatening she won't let us rest on our laurel, we go back inside. Now we can challenge Honey once per day which I think is a neat reward, always nice to have these bonus boss battles we can do again!
• 3,280,000 Watts: Stroll with Honey & Honey's Rare League Card. And the final reward is just Honey thanking you for your help by walking along the beach with her (plus getting her rare League Card). Honey tells us how she had her doubts when Mustard first opened the dojo, she was still working at her previous job and the dojo would require her entire attention. But despite concerns whether anyone would want to attend a dojo on an uninhibited island they gave it their all, and by the time Hyde came along they had many students who all helped out with the dojo. She finally gives us her Rare League Card and mentions how nice it is to just talk and take a stroll away from work. She says it's time to head back and we're given an option to agree or ask if you can stay out just a little longer. Because I knew the game wanted me to, I picked the latter option and she teases me for wanting to hog all of Honey's attention for myself. Laugh and end scene.

And that's it for the Dojo Upgrades! You can upgrade more Watts but it does nothing else (and I doubt they'll add more). So, guess I'll finally end this my my thoughts on Honey, Mustard, and the Isle of Armor DLC altogether:

Honey: When I first saw Honey and heard she was Mustard's wife I rolled my eyes and wondered what joke we were going with: Was she a younger woman married to an elderly man or was she older than she looked. It turned out to be the former though, while eye-rolling at first, once you see Mustard enter his serious battle stance you can see what she saw in him so I guess it's not too joke-y. And from what we saw/heard of their relationship its sweet. Through the League Card she also has a complex background to her, being a former CEO of a trading firm which she resigned to help build the Dojo (though is now planning on selling the Max Soup). Her rare League Card doesn't really reveal anything else more about her except she became a trainer cause she wanted to spend time with Mustard. It mentions she gained her strength from taking care of the Dojo's Pokemon and can handle strong Pokemon herself, specifying Gallade for some reason even though her Kanto Starter, Blissey, and Togekiss is higher level than it (would make more sense if it said Urshifu considering they appear on her rare League Card). The Dojo Upgrades also did a lot good with fleshing out her character, mostly for comedic effect though her battle shows she is not someone to mess with. I guess the final thing to mention is that, yes, throughout Dojo Upgrades they do play around with how sexy she is, and while she is good looking, I don't know she's not like "WOW" attractive. They try to play her as a somewhat seductress/femme fatale but I never quite bought it. *Shrugs*

Mustard: While Master Mustard was mostly what I expected him to be, I do like what they did with him. He's of course the wise master, but he's more playful with his approach which gives him some unpredictable moments like when he had the Galarian Slowpoke steal Avery/Klara's training clothes or how he dashed across the battlefield too fast for anyone to notice. His "serious mode" was also expected but still a cool transition nonetheless that hypes you up for both major battles with him. I also like his backstory which you only get a full picture of once you get his Rare League card. 50 years ago Mustard was the Fighting-type Gym Leader and, after beating the Fairy-type Gym Leader (Opal?) went on to become Champion for 18 years. He reigned for 18 years until he then lost his partner Pokemon (getting some Alder vibes here), he then started losing but didn't retire being Gym Leader until the Chairman at that time asked him to win in a rigged match. After that he globe-trotted when at some point, after seeing many ways people were "strong", decided to open a dojo wanting to see them all. So, yeah, a lot of drama to unpack there. Though not to be all serious, in his retirement he gained a liking for video games which we see in the DLC where he's playing Pokemon Quest, lol. I also find it interesting that he's a former Champion which I think is the first time we saw a former Champion aside from the one we defeat. Leon is too young to be the one who defeated him so that does mean there's at least one more former Champion (though more likely several as they make it sound 18 years may be a record) and would like to see GF maybe do something with that idea. But as for Mustard, I like what they did with him though there's one mystery about him that remains unanswered. Throughout the DLC Mustard says things like "the time has come" and "when the time comes" but it's never clear what he's talking about. He doesn't retire from being the master of the dojo so am I missing something?

THOUGHTS OF ISLE OF ARMOR: So, lets get to the big question: Was Isle of Armor with 15 bucks? Well obviously that depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for a deep story, no. If you're looking for hours upon hours of new content, sadly no either. HOWEVER if you're just looking for a quick side adventure for a few hours with a story that has a few fun characters, gives you a nice sized island to explore, side activities to do, and some neat mechanic additions than I think that's where you'll get your money's worth. To make Isle of Armor "worth it" you really should take it easy and do everything that you can. Complete the story, upgrade the dojo, find those Alolan Digletts, participate in some Restricted Battles, explore the island seeing all the different following Pokemon animations and finding the cameos from the Gym Leaders (BTW I read Bea's dialogue for the DLC and it's kind of strange she never mentions the dojo that's being run by a former Fighting-type Gym Leader, also sad they don't have Opal as curious if she would have anything to say). The Isle of Armor vastly improved the Wild Area concept with actually having different terrain and environments to explore with secrets hidden here and there! I also liked that, in addition to just bringing back some Pokemon species, they also have characters which gift and trade you special Pokemon. Finally I like them allowing you to choose what Pokemon get to Gigantamax & adding in new Legendaries, regional variants, moves and a new battle style, a willingness to expand upon on things more than just bringing old Pokemon back.
The Isle of Armor has restored a bit of my faith in GF and I'm looking forward to see what the Frozen Tundra has to offer, especially since it's supposed to be the DLC that's even more about exploration!

 

[Kanburi]

Pokemon Sword and Shield has sold 18.22 million copies as of June 30th, 2020.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/finance/software/index.html

#bRiNgBaCkNaTiOnAlDeX

 

[DreamPrince]

Pokemon Sword and Shield has sold 18.22 million copies as of June 30th, 2020.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/finance/software/index.html

#bRiNgBaCkNaTiOnAlDeX

So it finally outsold DP. Still nothing on the Expansion Pass, I'm guessing those sales are going to come out when the Crown Tundra is released. Anyway, its nice to see how high Animal Crossing has sold, its surpassed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

 

[Kanburi]

So it finally outsold DP. Still nothing on the Expansion Pass, I'm guessing those sales are going to come out when the Crown Tundra is released. Anyway, its nice to see how high Animal Crossing has sold, its surpassed Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

We don't have the precise numbers yet, but we do know that digital sales accounted for 55.6% of their game revenue this quarter, a 17.3% increase from last fiscal year's Q1. The last bulletpoint in the screenshot states that Isle of Armor increased DLC sales, which honestly doesn't say much since it was obviously expected.

 

[Kurona]

It’s such a hilarious joy to me to see MK8 still topping the charts by a large margin. iTs a PoRt iT woNt SElL

 

[Worldie]

It’s such a hilarious joy to me to see MK8 still topping the charts by a large margin. iTs a PoRt iT woNt SElL

I consider things like those just another proof that the vocal shitstorms on reddit hardly represent the actual playerbases and in fact are mostly composed of people who wouldnt have bought the game anyway.

Kinda like most of the bringbacknatdex is made by people who havent bought a pokemon game since gen 5 :P

 

[R_N]

I genuinely dont remember the same fervor for MK8DX as I do things like swsh

 

[earl]

I genuinely dont remember the same fervor for MK8DX as I do things like swsh

Nobody’s amped to buy Mario Kart for their nintendo consoles, it just kind of happens subconsciously

 

[Deleted User 465389]

Nobody’s amped to buy Mario Kart for their nintendo consoles, it just kind of happens subconsciously

helps that this came out for the first second holiday season

 

[GG Unit]

I consider things like those just another proof that the vocal shitstorms on reddit hardly represent the actual playerbases and in fact are mostly composed of people who wouldnt have bought the game anyway.

Kinda like most of the bringbacknatdex is made by people who havent bought a pokemon game since gen 5 :P

I’m not sure how that would be particularly novel or surprising at this point - you’re talking about a game whose median player is literally too young to legally have a social media account haha.

I think even of the responses on social media you’re drastically overestimating the proportion of people who are like “OMG Pokémon/Gamefreak is dead to me, those bastards” versus “These games don’t look that great to be worth my entertainment time/money, and to be honest I’ve probably been giving them a pass just because it’s Pokémon for too long already. Plus I can just immediately jump onto showdown or start playing one of the games I already have for free.”

 

[Pikachu315111]

So from now till August 9th (so ends this Sunday) they're having a Pikachu-based Wild Area Event. You have a chance of catching Pikachu, Pichu, Raichu, Alolan Raichu, and Mimikyu (very funny, GF). In addition some 5 Star Pikachu have a chance to be Shiny.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Sorry for double posting but I found this really interesting (sorry if you already knew this but just discovered this now):

What happens if you don't have Kubfu in your game before completing the Isle of Armor? Whether by putting it in HOME or actually releasing it, you'd be surprised what you're allowed to do:

Watch Before Reading

So GF did think of adding in dialogue mentioning the absence of Kubfu and letting you complete one of the Towers with any of your other Pokemon... but that's it. Without evolving Kubfu into Urshifu you can't go any further.

Now I'm curious if this is a permanent lockout of the remaining story or you can continue the story by getting another Kubfu and then evolving it with the scroll. OR if the next part of the story just requires having an Urshifu so Hop appears post game to help you Gigantamax it. Is having Urshifu part of your party required to unlock the post game story with Hop or do you just need to have Urshifu in your box/registered in your dex because Urshifu doesn't appear anywhere in the post game story.

EDIT: According to sb879, you can do the post game part without evolving Kubfu, guess whoever made the video didn't complete the main game yet (guess they're on a new file and didn't know that the rest of the story was post game?).