Take a break from the madness of 2021 with "Calico"

 

The Cat Returns meets Animal Crossing

Ever wanted to run your very own cat café? Liked watching magical girl shows as a kid? Loved “The Cat Returns”? Meet Calico. Not to be mistaken with the cat, it’s a game lovingly crafted by two individuals in the Seattle studios of CatBean Games. The game was also developed and produced by Whitethorn Games and Peachy Keen Games. It’s set in a magical, open-world kingdom where you can befriend all manners of people and fuzzy creatures alike. Furthermore, this is a game that also promotes LGBTIQ+, and does a brilliant job at introducing various pronouns the characters go by. While a limited number of cat cafe games already exist, this is the first (to my knowledge) in the gaming market that takes on a unique approach.

The story starts off the same for everybody. Firstly, you have recently moved into town and you’re taking over your relative’s cat café. Your goal is to rebuild the town’s cat café. There are many ways you can achieve this. Such as by experimenting with different types of furniture and recruiting all kinds of cute and cuddly creatures. Along the way, you’ll be meeting residents and helping them with various tasks. Therefore, you may be asked to help unlock different areas, cook some tasty snacks, or find items to make some very interesting spells. What happens next is up to you. Live your story out any way you’d like.

A warm and cosy cat café simulator just for you.

So let’s look at the gameplay. Upon booting up, the game immediately informs you that you are free to choose to play with your keyboard, but using a control would be ideal to play the game. The game menu was adorable and fun to look at, and it gave me a good chuckle. Since the current update, control buttons work well, but there’s no key mapping yet. I had lots of fun creating my character and was happy to note that the developers provided a lot of options for customization. In addition to controlling yourself, you have the option to pet, carry, and befriend pets. If they are large enough, you can also mount certain animals. Once you meet a certain character, you also have the ability to customize the pets by using various potions. But, beware! Some potions are not fine-tuned, so strange and wonderful things can happen!

Then, there’s the decoration of the café itself. The controls seem simple enough to use whether or not you are using a keyboard or controls. The game helps users who don’t remember key or button placements by offering to hide or show what each key does, so you’re never really in a pinch. Then, there is the cooking mini-game! You shrink to about the size of a salt and pepper shaker and you carry your ingredients into a bowl. After a few recipes, you have a little more creative control (especially when it comes to coloring your cakes).

Time to pawse and breathe……

…and now, onto graphics! To start off, the game uses the Unity engine. The color palette and overall art style look absolutely lovely. I found little to no problems with how fast the game would both load and run on the PC, and I love the dreamy cartoony look that is going on as a whole. I did notice a couple of glitches while playing the game, the rare case of animals or people clipping onto each other. However, this was not a common occurrence and did not significantly affect my gameplay. I was able to resolve the glitches by saving where I was, exiting out of the game, and re-entering the game.

Let’s discuss music. The music helps so much with creating a calm and fuzzy vibe when playing the game. It’s the kind of soundtrack you’d hear when you are taking a break in a cafe, drinking a warm cuppa. The game made me do something I don’t often do when playing games: humming along to the track. It was a clever and wonderful choice to use Emi Evans as a vocalist for the main soundtrack, and she nails it.

Here comes the moment of truth… to buy or not to buy?

The developers have clearly put in a lot of love into this project. In my opinion, they have 100% achieved making me feel warm and fuzzy as I play this game. I personally am enjoying the game a lot and can’t wait to learn more about its world. It is a change of pace from the daily stressors of the outside world. It promotes a safe place for all players, no matter the gender or shape they may be. If you love animals, chilling out, bonding with various characters and exploring the world at your own pace, Calico is 100% for you!

You can purchase Calico on PC & Mac via Steam.

Week #5: Community Content Review & Community Event Winners

  

Stay tuned at the end of this post for our community event winners! As noted last week, both the community content review and community event submissions will be combined.

 Azure Stars Continues

Here's a hint and preview of some of the reworked race details

Sylvia is plugging away on her original web novel, Azure Stars, and I genuinely urge you to give it a read. For anyone who checked it out last week, she reworked a few things regarding how the fictional species works so check it out for more details! Things got a bit more.. snake-like. I'm sure you'll enjoy this ongoing sci-fi drama about a young Basilosauri woman.

The story will be posted regularly at https://azurestarsv.blogspot.com/. You can read the first part here. The series is currently on Part 3 with a fourth to be uploaded soon.

PlayingViking Streams on Twitch

As always, be sure to check out our friend Viking on Twitch playing Pokémon Unite! His main is Alolan Ninetails but he also gets in time with other Pokémon including Mr. Mime. His streams are pretty time zone friendly, especially for Europeans, but you can always check out his archived VODs on his channel! Please drop him a follow and join us.

"Onwards to battle!" Viking calls out! Watch him climb closer and closer to Master rank!

PlayingViking on Twitch.

MissMijo Streams on Twitch

Speaking of streamers, I'm happy to introduce to you our longtime friend MissMijo! She has a really fun stream you should check out where she often makes crafts and games. This week, she was gluing together a really adorable little RV while the stream chatted. Check out the VOD and drop her a follow here at MissMijo on Twitch!

EX Co Intro

TheEXGamemaster would like to share with us this neat intro they made for their friend. Really cool stuff!

Hitsu Streaming on Our Discord!

Last but not least, join our Discord (here if you haven't already) for ongoing streams by our own Hitsu. He likes to stream VR games including but not limited to Beat Saber! If you're lucky, you might even catch him sneaking in the occasional work stream. Our handsome Finn keeps us entertained no matter what he's streaming by hanging out with us and chatting.

Voted On By You

Now for the moment we've all been waiting for! The community event winners of this week! The event's theme was COMPUTERS AND HARDWARE as voted on by you lovely people in our Discord poll.

Be sure to join and participate if interested! There's still time to vote on next week's topic!

Top winner of 1000 EXP!

Kriss Tone: A cop playing Deus Ex Human Revolution in Murdered: Soul Suspect

Second Place Winners of 375 EXP Each

Xeloses

Slide

Third Place Winners of 250 EXP Each

JapaniKatti

ZoKO (Why did this count? We just love pets I guess xD)

Random Voter Bonus! Urusam: 250 EXP!

See you next week!

Don't forget to join our Discord at https://discord.gg/mvKnpva to join in the community to share your pics, your projects, and your passions! More info located at our Discord and in the intro of the first community post. 

Thanks for being part of what makes this community great! 

Gina out! 💜

Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories [Demo Impressions for the Switch]

 

Is any of this for real? Or not?

Today we are going to be doing something a little different. We shall be doing a first impression on the latest released game in the Kingdom Hearts series: Melody of Memory. Released in November 2020, it is the latest of 24 released games of the series, if you include the repackaged/remastered versions of prior games. Despite my disappointment with Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts III‘s base game, as a long-standing fan of the series, it still is an exciting experience hearing about the newer titles. However, this came with a caveat.

Like Chain of Memories, this kind of game defers from what the series is used to, and focuses primarily on a different experimental mechanic. This time, Tetsuya Nomura looked at their previous material, and thought to himself, “Yes. A rhythm fighting game for the Switch would make a perfect addition to the series.”

There’s more to a heart than anger and hate.

Let’s delve into the gameplay as a whole. You have three different difficulty modes, and the demo offers a handful of songs for you to sample. Additionally, the gameplay starts with a mandatory tutorial mode that visitors must complete before accessing the main content. I was surprised that there was no beat calibration system to set up prior to this tutorial. Some games do offer that kind of option after all. Therefore, I wasn’t overly surprised to find out that the beats were not registering properly on the TV (2-3 seconds delay). It won’t take long to realize that the button prompts are based entirely on Playstation. There were no universal prompts that people can follow regardless of console. As someone who also plays on the Playstation, it was a confusing and disorientating experience at first. I was thankfully able to adjust the settings after completing the tutorial mode.

There’s a light that never goes out.

Since there’s no story to review based on the demo, I shall move right on to the graphics. The models of the characters used during each musical playthrough were older models, as opposed to the newer updated models. I didn’t find any issue with this since the models provided fit with Nintendo and the classic Kingdom Hearts look. There were also no noticeable dips in FPS while playing through any of the modes or songs. The demo offers players a variety of songs from different Kingdom Hearts games to choose from. I found no issues with the overall quality of the music and audio. However, I do wish that there was more of a broader selection to choose from, but that is my only gripe regarding this.

Final impressions…

All in all, my experience of playing the demo was mostly a fun one. I was concerned that the experience was going to be like Chain of Memories. For me, Chain of Memories felt more like a grindey chore than something exciting to play. I am glad to have been proven wrong. Despite initial confusion with the buttons and the lag, it was mostly an enjoyable experience. There’s even a two-player mode! Here’s my recommendation if you do decide to pick up the demo or full game. Check out the settings and calibrate it so it matches input lag to your TV/Monitors. Also, be honest with yourself on whether you will truly enjoy another rhythm game.

You can buy the full game for Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories on the Switch, Xbox One & Playstation Store here.

Week #4: Community Content Review & Community Event Winners

 

Author's note: I wanted to quickly say sorry for today's post being a day late. From now on, all of the GGP Discord community event winners will be posted and announced at the end of every week's community content review as well, so consider these posts to be overall community posts from now on!

 Azure Stars

Sylvia's basilosauri avatar

I'm happy to introduce an exciting bit of OC. Our own Sylvia Vynters is writing her very own sci-fi novel "about a young Basilosauri woman entangled in an intrigue on the highest levels of intergalactic politics. Faced by looming conflict, she goes on adventures to save the galactic peace, trying to make sense of what she got dragged into."

The story will be posted regularly at https://azurestarsv.blogspot.com/. You can read the first part here, of which I already took a dive, and was immediately sucked in. We are very proud and excited to read the continuing adventures of Sylvia and we think any sci-fi fans new and old would agree.

PlayingViking Streams on Twitch

If you haven't already, be sure to check out our friend Viking on Twitch! He's still going at it regularly with Pokémon Unite and is now two ranks away from Master rank! He's climbing up the charts. If you miss his streams, he's also uploading VODs for you folks to catch the fun later. Please drop him a follow and join the fun.

"Let's see how high a Viking can go!" he triumphantly says.

PlayingViking on Twitch

EX Co Beats

Last but not least, TheEXGamemaster would like to share some cool beats with us. They made audio spectrum visualizer videos using the songs 'Astronaut In the Ocean (Remix)' by Masked Wolf (above) and 'JUJUTSU KAISEN RAP Walking with the Dead' by RUSTAGE ft. Richie Branson - which you can watch here.

Voted On By You

Now for the moment we've all been waiting for! The community event winners of this week! The event's theme was ROBOTS 🤖 as voted on by you lovely people in our Discord poll.

Be sure to join and participate if interested! Next week will be Computers & Hardware!

Without further ado.

Top two winners of 500 EXP EACH!

JapaniKatti

KrissTone

Second Place Winners of 375 EXP Each

Sylvia

Xeloses

Third Place Winners of 250 EXP Each

Smythe

Zoko

Random Voter Bonus! La Volpe: 250 EXP!

See you next week!

Don't forget to join our Discord at https://discord.gg/mvKnpva to join in the community to share your pics, your projects, and your passions! More info located at our Discord and in the intro of the first community post. Thanks for being part of what makes this community great! 

Gina out! 💜

Chicken Police: The Review [For the Switch]

Paint it RED

Ever been curious about the dark side of Zootopia? From the perspective of an alcoholic anthropomorphic detective chicken? Love Film Noir, Jazz, or feeling sometimes confused and mesmerized by what you’re looking at? Well, Chicken Police will definitely have you hooked if so! The game, developed by the Hungarian Indie team “The Wild Gentleman“, certainly strikes as unique, stylish, and a one-of-a-kind experience in the gaming market.

Meet Detective Santino “Sonny” Featherland, a burnt-out famous detective and raging alcoholic living in a dystopian city called “Clawville”, a place where humans are mythological creatures. We learn that Detective Sonny is currently under suspension from the police force, when he is approached by none other than Deborah. She’s a personal assistant coming on behalf of her boss, a famous nightclub singer called Natasha Catzenko. Also, Natasha has been concerned for her safety and has received numerous threats, and she needs someone to look into this “off the books”. Bored out of his feathers, Sonny accepts the case and hunts down his estranged trigger happy partner Marty McChicken. What starts out as a simple case soon turns into something far more complex, and has the retired Chicken Police pulling out their feathers as they travel across Clawville, investigating both the elite and poor alike.

Can I get a cluck yeah? Cluck yeah.

Let’s get into the meat and bones that is the gameplay. Each section or area in the game is static. You can interact with anything on the screen. With the switch, we can control where our cursor goes with the left analog stick on the controls. Sometimes, when you click on certain objects or individuals, you can catch a little bit of exposition, obtain collectibles, and so on. Though there will be times where you will need to look closer, solve riddles or rummage through drawers and books to look for clues. For investigative purposes, you also have the option to question, acquire information, and interrogate individuals based on what you’ve already learned about them.

From here on in, you have to navigate conversations between suspects and tease the answer right out of them. You’ll be given multiple ways to guide the conversation, and the game will rate your detective skills with a +/-. This is to keep you on the straight and narrow. Once you’ve finished questioning, you’ll be rated out of 5 stars and presented with a helpful summary of your findings.

The first thing that struck me as a little jarring with the art style was the fact that from the get-go, each character I was interacting with had a human body with an animal’s head fused on top. The weird hybridization of the characters are nicely paired with believable surroundings. The natural swagger of your character breathes fresh life into this world. While this is not groundbreaking, it’s a brilliant style for a visual novel.

Witness the love child of L. A Noire and BoJack Horseman come to life.

The music, paired with the vibe that the visual novel noir thriller gives, is just atmospherically magnificent. I absolutely adore the smoky jazz soundtrack in this game. It was brilliant finding out that this soundtrack is in fact, original. It blends so well into the overall gameplay experience and adds a sense of suspense as you solve different aspects of this bizarre case.

I did notice some spelling mistakes in the English edition of the game. The spelling errors were not frequent nor were they significant. They were, however, noticeable to me for the English localization. I loved the chill vibe that came with the music, the well-designed rooms, and solving each riddle as they came. There is an achievement section for the game, where you can try and collect or complete various tasks so I think there’s a good level of replayability in it. It took me exactly 9 hours to complete the first run, but that was without completing all of the achievements. I’m not clucking with you on this one, this is quality tier gaming. If you’re unsure about jumping into this, dip your toes in by downloading the free demo they have available. Give Chicken Police a chance, and you won’t go regretting it.

You can grab a copy of Chicken Police on the Nintendo Switch.

You can also find it on Steam, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. 

Humble Choice August 2021

Humble Choice brings you 12 games for a fixed price every month. So, for many people the first Tuesday of the month is Humble Hype day - as a new bundle is released with a semi-random collection of indie games. Sometimes great titles, sometimes less so - but it's generally a pleasant surprise of mixed games for a decent value. Let's look at a few titles for the current month.

In general you'd pay about 9-12$ for 12 games depending on the deal you get from Humble when you pause a month. Otherwise it's around 18$ a month. You can always pause, and see whether you like the games - otherwise they unlock and you can simply claim the whole month and get straight to playing.

This month's titles

I'll keep this list short, and add the video at the end for all the details. The main titles this month seem to be Bloodstained and Superliminal. For myself Out of space, carto and Blue fire look to be the main chunk of "worth playing" for this month. But the others may still surprise you.

Bloodstained: ritual of the night

- A great metroidvania and one of the main titles for this month

Last oasis

- An average rated early access title MMO

Superliminal

- An overwhelmingly positive narrated puzzle game that will remind you of the portal series, or the stanley parable.

Out of space

- A fun multiplayer coop game about managing your shared habitation areas.

We need to go deeper

- A Cooperative 2D game that may remind you of Barotrauma.

Carto

- Cute hand drawn puzzle and exploration game.

As far as the eye

- Singleplayer strategy, building and survival game.

Cepheus protocol

- Another Early access game, this time a real time strategic game with zombies

Drake hollow

- An open world sandbox survival and adventure game

Nowhere prophet

- This is a roguelike deck builder. I'm not sure what to compare it to - certainly not Slay the Spire, which has a similar tag.

Blue fire

- 3D single player action adventure. Lovely graphics, worth checking out if you'd enjoy Hob with less puzzles and more Hack and Slash.

Encodya

- Point and Click adventure. Nicely drawn, but also a bit drawn out in the tutorial department.

Bombchu

For a more in-depth review about this month, I'd like to present you with the Bombchu crew review. They do a good job at playing all the games for a while and really getting you a good idea of what to expect this month from Humble Choice.

Community Content Recap Week 3: Peekaboo Cats, Steam Profile Artwork, and Pokémon Unite!

 Peekaboo!

Church playing pee-a-boo with my sister over our stairs.

As we all love pets so much, I feel I want to start off most pets with a pet from now on, so keep them coming!

This week we have my very own black kitten Church. Yes, he's got a spooky name if you're a fan of Steven King novels and no I did not support that name personally, but he's much sweeter than his namesake! He's more like a puppy than a cat and he charms every human he sees.

I'd also like to share a reminder to spay and neuter your pets. Rescue them or only get them from responsible breeders. Church's entry into this world was difficult and we had to bottle feed him when a neighbor removed him from his mum far too early. This could've easily been avoided and I don't recommend treating kittens this way. Look for resources and info in your area on how you can help responsible pet shelters if you're not in the market for a new one yourself.

JK's Steam Profile Art Service

My new profile art (center) courtesy of JK.

Are you looking for new steam profile artwork? JapaniKatti is hooked on making these already and she used me as her first "guinea pig!" I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted but I gave her the idea of "feminine but not too girly, neon, crown, frog, and a background that can go with anything." What she came up with is seriously impressive! But the more specific, the better.

She says you can come up with any theme you want and if you want art that matches your profile background seamlessly and looks like one whole image, she can do that too!

She is looking for trades for games or Team Fortress 2 keys. You can reach her in multiple ways but here is her main method of contact and more examples plus info here at her thread on steamtrades.com.

PlayingViking Streaming on Twitch

Victorious! Watch the full clip here!

If you have a Switch or are a Pokémon fan, I'm sure you've heard about Pokémon Unite. Viking has recently made a return to Twitch with the new game. Even if you're not familiar with it (it's basically a Pokémon MOBA) or you're unsure, feel free to join the stream and ask questions. Personally, I didn't know the first thing about the game but Viking happily and helpfully explained everything I need to know and I could follow along quite quickly.

We had a good time chatting during his stream about all sorts of topics while he kicked butt with his Alolan Ninetales and his soothing voice put me to sleep, honestly! So come drop a follow on his Twitch and hang out with us next time whether you're looking for banter, excitement (he's quite good at the game if you are familiar with it), or a chill stream to put on in the background. 

Europeans need not worry about not being able to catch him streaming at a good time, and even I was able to catch him in the morning for us in the Western hemisphere!

PlayingViking on Twitch

Closing thoughts

Don't forget to join our Discord at https://discord.gg/mvKnpva to join in the community recap to share your pics, your projects, and your passions! More info located at our Discord and in the intro of the first community post.

We want this community to grow, to come together, to share. Don't be shy about sharing your passions and don't forget that these posts will be regularly scheduled every Sunday! Thanks for being part of what makes this community great! Gina out - and see you next week!

A truck of nostalgia - Secret of Mana

Most people will fondly remember their first console, and the first games they played on it. For myself that'd be an Atari, but honestly I've few fond memories of waiting half an hour for a game to load through a tape deck, making screeching sounds like a 14K4 baud modem. Only to fail to actually load.

No, proper fond memories usually don't start until your teen years, where you're young enough to have spare time by the buckets, and the clarity of mind to understand most of what you're doing. I was a bored teen, had some birthday money to spend, and a brand new Super Nintendo with a lack of games. Mother took me to a store in Amsterdam which specialized in games. Upon entering I was greeted by a WALL of many colors and games. To my young self it seemed immense, but looking back the wall was probably only a few meters wide. Still, after a short back and forth, the store clerk advised me to get this game called "Secret of Mana". It was to be the first action RPG I'd ever play and would re-play a good few times.

A piece of art

Opening the game would greet you with a hauntingly beautiful opening song, promising a green world, an adventure, mystic beings. I would prove to be all that and more. Nostalgia is funny like that, and you can look back at it with rose tinted glasses knowing the game was far from what you imagined it to be some 25 years ago, but for me it will certainly be a game I'd never forget. Square Soft, now Square Enix has since tried to re-create the game for modern machines, but not exactly succeeded. Personally I would recommend you play the original rather than the remake, or one of the newer titles. (See the end of this post for details)

You can play it with friends

Most RPG games at the time were titles like Final Fantasy, or Zelda. And while yes I've played both of those, they were in a sense limited. Great games none the less, but all generally single player. Secret of Mana was a three player game. You'd need friends, a bomberman controller splitter as well as extra controllers, none of which I had at the time - but a spare controller and a younger brother go a long way.

There's three characters. Simplistically put as Randy the swordsman, the character you start the game with. Primm the princess, who specializes in healing and support magic. And Popoi the sprite, who specializes in offensive magic. Both of which may be found in any order, but the game will force them on you in order to progress. Still, it's a measure of choice which gives you a sense of freedom. Not so much a set path to follow as much as a result of your own actions. Plus it adds a little replay value in seeing the alternative path to take.

If you're running the game in single player, the CPU will control the other characters and you can configure them to some extent. Aggressive/Passive, charge weapon or attack at 100%. The CPU won't use magic, so you'll have to micro-manage your team in that regard with the radial menu.

Graphical changes

Now, it should be very obvious that the current graphics of the version available on steam are nowhere near what the game originally looked like. Your super nes could do 3D, but certainly not to the extent of the modern version. In fact, the game had a built-in limit of three monsters on-screen at the same time. This allowed you to run past some content while being chased, and reach the boss areas wholly unprepared and under geared.

The original looked a bit more like this:

When you're used to playing a NES over at friends, obviously this 16 bit color depth was amazing! But obviously it doesn't quite compare to some high end 3D Ray traced graphics that we have available in 2021 - if you're lucky enough to get a graphics card, what with all the shortage and all...

Hack and slash

Secret of Mana was in a sense a hack and slash game before Diablo 1 was ever a thing. And it might be part of the reason I enjoyed the Diablo series and game style. SoM allowed you to smack enemies with your sword with no real delay. Whack, 14 damage, 1 damage, 1 damage. To be sure, it wasn't the most effective way of killing a rabbit with teeth a street wide. (Monty Python reference there) But it would keep them down and prevent them from counter-attacking you. To really kill something quick, you'd want to whack 'em for 14, wait a second or two while your stamina quickly rebuilds to 100%, or overcharge your weapon by holding the button and dealing a powerful overhead attack.

The combat system is and was enjoyable diverse, and you were in "control". If you did something stupid, like stand in front of a critter and let it counter-attack you, well that was just your own dumb fault. In games like Final Fantasy, you didn't really have a choice. You attack - you wait your turn. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the heck out of Final Fantasy 1-7, but turn based combat gets stupidly boring if you are thrown random encounter after random encounter to slow your progress towards the end.

Boss fights are a little trickier however. As you can't really avoid the boss casting big spells at you, while you need to buff, charge your weapon to deal a big attack and micro manage your counters, heals etc. It can be fun chaos. And you can always run back and forth between the different towns to gain some more XP and train your weapons and magic. Upgrade weapons and gear, buy consumables - there's a lot to manage.

Similar but different

Once you've finished Secret of Mana you'll enjoy knowing that Secret of mana was actually a "part two" in the mana series. Part one was supposedly called Final Fantasy Adventure. Yep, that took me by surprise as well. Mostly because there was a Seiken Densetsu 3, later known as Secret of Mana 2, which was later re-made and released as Trials of Mana on the PC. Still with us? Because yes the numbering that Square Enix did was just,. weird. They also did a Legend of Mana on PlayStation and also recently got a remade for PC. And beyond that there was Children of Mana, Friends of Mana, Heroes of... Circle of... the list goes on - Most of which passed by my attention if not for the wiki. So I can't really tell you much about those - but there's a LOT.

One noteworthy in the SNES era however, also by Square - is Secret of Evermore. It's not the same universe, but the gameplay is very similar to SoM. It's using the same engine, 2 player mode, and just a wholly different game - but worth looking into. Advertisements for it at the time were - wildly weird though.

Secret of Mana was released in 1993, remade and released on steam 15 Feb, 2018

Trials of Mana was released in 1995, remade and released on steam 24 Apr, 2020

Legend of Mana was released in 1999, remade and released on steam 24 Jun, 2021

System specs should be fairly redundant depending on how you plan to play these games :)

A look into the Pokémon Sword / Shield DLC Expansion Pass

 Is the Isle of Armor & Crown Tundra as charming as stated in the trailers?

Some info before I start: For those of you who haven’t played the main Pokémon Sword/Shield game, worry not. I’d definitely recommend playing the base game first before deciding to jump in on additional content. If you’re looking to get the game’s downloadable content (DLC), you can access this after first reaching the Wild Area for the first time. You do not have to finish the game to unlock it! In saying this though, I highly suggest you buy and play the original game first before deciding if this is worth the purchase.

It doesn’t feel that long ago since the initial release that was Pokémon Sword and Shield, back in November 2019. The game was a much-welcomed addition to the Nintendo Switch and had wonderful new additions to the series such as the Wild Area and Dynamax Pokemon residing in special dens. The DLC brings a new flair to the series and was clearly designed with hardcore poké-gamers in mind. The Expansion Pass comes with access to two brand new locations to explore: The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra.

Two brand new stories and multiple challenges to face!

Let’s start discussing the first of the two: The Isle of Armor. It’s set on a tropical island to the right of the mainlands of the Galar Region. Depending on which version of the game you have (Sword or Shield), the rival throughout the playthrough will differ. Just like in the original game, some Pokémon you encounter will also be different. Your character will head to a dojo, where you’ll train a cute legendary Pokémon called “Kubfu“. You can choose what form he will evolve and attack in. If you are a competitive player and wish to find out which is best, I’ll recommend you to this website. There are a few additional things you can do on this island. You can hunt down the 101 Digletts hiding across the island, find ingredients for Max Soup, and upgrading the Master Dojo using the Watts you have collated from the game.

Now let’s look into the more recent release: The Crown Tundra. Unlike the Isle of Armor, it’s set to the south of Galar’s mainlands. The climate is harsh and snowy, and absolutely gorgeous. In this part of the DLC, you will encounter a father attempting to rope his daughter into an adventure. She finds a way to worm out of participating by having you join her father instead. The father sets various missions for you to hunt down legendary Pokémons, both new and old. The newest in this collection is none other than Calyrex. Each mission has its own hints, and the game does a brilliant job at not holding your hand. Another huge mechanic added into the DLC was “Dynamax Adventures“. You and your friends can dungeon crawl and track down legendary Pokémon from prior games. Last to be added was the Galarian Star Tournament.

The story itself is kind of short but makes up for it with the additional content added.

I did quite enjoy the content that came with the DLC, despite some of its faults. Just like in the base game, I felt that the story itself was very short and linear which was a little disappointing. In saying that though, there’s more than enough content to make up for the purchase of the DLC. We have new Pokémon to catch, new riddles to solve, and many more tasks to complete. There’s also the addition of new hairstyles and clothing, which offered us some new choices on what to wear. Both DLC’s offer a lot in terms of content, and gameplay too! The open world is absolutely gorgeous, and I’m still finding out things about this game even now. You bet your butt I’ll be having fun playing a whole lot more of the DLC content, and I hope you will too!

You can find the Pokémon Sword / Shield Expansion pass on the Nintendo Switch Store.