Crown Tundra, the second half of Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s expansion pass, is heavily focused around finding and capturing Legendary Pokemon. Every major Legendary from previous games shows up in the new Dynamax Adventure feature, and the DLC’s story revolves around three legends scattered about the snowy landscape. The key narrative addition is the King of Bountiful Harvests, Calyrex, whom the player must help regain its powers to revitalize Crown Tundra’s farmland.
The crux of this journey to help Calyrex ultimately comes down to reuniting it with its trusty steed, as the Pokemon is downtrodden over no longer being able to tame them. As players came to discover, Calyrex and his steed are “fusion” Legendaries; they can be used separately in battle or joined together using the Reigns of Unity key item. However, from a narrative perspective the nature of this pairing is different than its predecessors, and offers a glimpse into what could be a fun Generation 9 mechanic: Tag-Team Pokemon.
The first thing players do when they arrive in the Crown Tundra is try out Dynamax Adventures, following former Gym Leader Peony on his quest to ‘save’ his daughter Nia. Afterward, the girl pawns off her involvement in Peony’s quests to the player, whom can henceforth choose to help Calyrex, find the Galarian Legendary Birds, or access the ancient temples of the Regis. Alternatively, there is also a side-quest to assist Sonia with researching the Swords of Justice trio from Generation 5.
When choosing to help Calyrex, the player will come across numerous stories about its steed, with the Pokemon no longer sure whether the Ghost-type Spectrier or the Ice-type Glastrier is its true partner. This is an obvious extension of the series’ history with version exclusivity and trading requirements to fill one’s Pokedex, but it doesn’t matter for the narrative which horse the player chooses. Either way, Calyrex will reunite with its steed in the castle atop the area’s highest point by the end of the adventure.
While 90s properties like Yu-Gi-Oh! are better known for fusing monsters as a mechanic, Pokemon has dabbled with the idea a few times. Many Legendaries have had alternate forms over the years, such as Deoxys in Generation 3 and Shaymin in Generation 4, but Kyurem from Generation 5 is able to fuse with Pokemon Black and White box art monsters Reshiram and Zekrom. This is done through the use of a “DNA Splicer,” which was originally harnessed by Team Plasma boss Ghetsis to revive an ancient, unified dragon.
Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon played with a similar idea years later by having Necrozma absorb either Solgaleo or Lunala in its attempts to regain enough energy so it could transform into Ultra Necrozma and steal the world’s light. Calyrex’s fusion acts much the same way mechanically, turning two Legendary Pokemon into one entity, but in terms of lore is more akin to a team up rather than a fusion. This idea, too, has precedent in the Pokemon world, but not in quite the same way.
Some Pokemon have been found in unified forms since the beginning. Not only are there collectives of singular monsters, such as Magneton or Wishiwashi, there are also Pokemon featured in one another’s models. Early examples include the Slowpoke line brandishing transformed Shellders, or Mantine featuring a pair of Remoraid. However, the tradition continues into Sword and Shield, with Cramorant sometimes catching a Pikachu in its gullet and Dragapult launching its pre-evolution Dreepy like missiles.
What makes Calyrex special compared to these examples, and perhaps even groundbreaking, is that the player can choose to “fuse” them while retaining both monsters’ individual abilities thanks to the new “As One” ability. In terms of lore, Calyrex and his steed work together rather than being a part of one another. If they can do this, who’s to say it wouldn’t work as a future mechanic to expand upon the idea by letting players pair up their Pokemon on a larger scale.
The aesthetic of Pokemon team ups was explored via a set of special cards released during the Sun and Moon era of the Pokemon TCG: Tag-Team Pokemon. Some of the Tag-Team cards were obvious inclusions, such as Latios and Latias. Many were more unique team ups, including Wailord and Magikarp; Gardevoir and Sylveon; as well as Gengar and Mimikyu. Legendaries played a prominent role in these cards too, with team ups like Reshiram and Charizard, or Celebi and Venusaur.
In the video games, letting players slap monsters together would need to be regulated, otherwise these tag-teams could be obnoxious combinations of Legendary Pokemon that destroy any sense of challenge or competitive balance. However, the idea of Pokemon combining their skills on the battlefield is not new. Generation 3 introduced double battles, later extended to triple battles, and even quadruple-trainer teams for Max Raid Battles. Different attacks and abilities benefit partners rather than doing damage, and many competitive players build teams around gimmicks like Trick Room or weather effects to emphasize unity.
Even if a tag-team mechanic in Generation 9 did not emulate Calyrex’s As One ability, it could at the very least give some less viable Pokemon a shot at relevance by buffing up their niche skills through something like extra stats. The game could even take cues from Fire Emblem: Awakening and other entries in that JRPG series, which allow units to pair up, bolster relationships, and provide combat utility like guarding against attacks. Balance may be difficult to attain, but players would likely relish the opportunity to take more partners on the field at once.
Pokemon Sword and Shield are available now on Nintendo Switch.
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