When Pokemon Sword and Shield revealed its expansion pass composed of the Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra, many fans were understandable shocked. This was a first in Pokemon history, meaning the games were moving away from its tendency to feature a third version.
Now, rumors are suggesting that it’s going a step further. Many believe that Pokemon Sword and Shield will feature a brand new DLC that brings Kalos from Pokemon X and Y back into the fold, fully expanding the game with a brand new region. For many reasons, this is a dangerously bad train of thought.
First, it’s worth exploring what these rumors suggest. In short, many believe that Pokemon Sword and Shield is effectively getting X and Y DLC that brings a brand new region, mega evolution, and more into the fold. The reasoning behind this belief isn’t necessarily concentrated on any sort of leak or anything remotely close to official; instead, these rumors seem to be based in simple fan theories.
For example, many think that Kalos and Galar (the Sword and Shield region) are physically close, as they are based on France and the UK, and there seems to be a train station in both that could, in theory, connect the two. Many believe the lore between the two regions are also more closely connected than past regions, with the Great War, the Ultimate Weapon in Kalos, the Darkest Day in Galar, and Melmetal’s time frame all taking place around the same time 3000 years back. Melmetal’s return now is described as something suspicious, which many fans interpret as a direct connection between the two.
Some have pointed out how Pokemon X and Y never received a “Pokemon Z” despite having a good mascot in Zygarde, that there’s cave systems that could potentially connect the two, and even pointed out ports that line up as a way to travel between the two. Others have clinged to a reported statement from Junichi Masuda that Pokemon Sword and Shield would also have a bigger endgame than past entries, but none of this is evidence. There’s more floating around out there, but for the most part, these are the biggest and most “clinged-to” reasons to believe in a third DLC.
A lot of these arguments can be deconstructed to show there’s nothing necessarily special about them. As far as the Kalos-Galar connections go, the argument seems to hinge on the fact that Kanto and Johto were closely related and able to be explored in one game. But the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions are all part of one country, according to Professor Oak in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. This means, because Kanto and Johto are representations of Japan, so too are Hoenn and Sinnoh. On other hand, Unova is based on NYC and Alola is based on Hawaii, both North American locations, yet there are no games where Hoenn and Sinnoh, or Unova and Alola, can be explored together.
While it doesn’t dismiss the idea, of course, it’s worth pointing out that many of these reasons hinge on lore that connect the two, but overarching lore has always connected games. Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire discuss how the very continent and seas were created, while Pokemon Diamond and Pearl also expand on this with a full blown creation myth. In other words, this connection has always existed, if just more directly (by interpretation) in recent versions.
As far as the Masuda comments are concerned, this may very well be fulfilled with Crown Tundra. It is introducing an endgame raid mechanic, which raids themselves also constitute post-launch support and endgame content (effectively), but Crown Tundra will be focused on legendaries, making it already a sizeable, endgame-level follow-up to Isle of Armor. And if a third DLC existed as part of this expansion pass, fans would likely already know.
Furthermore, these rumors are not new; they are merely re-surfacing. Many of these very reasons to believe in a third DLC existed before the game released as a reason to believe it would feature a third reason from the get-go. Much of the logic is the very same, and this doesn’t bode well for fans or Game Freak.
Pokemon Sword and Shield issued a massive audible with DLC. It stands to reason that DLC is going to be a part of future Pokemon games or could very well define future Pokemon games, but to expect a brand new region, brand new evolutions, and more is highly unlikely. The DLC would have to be the size of Sword and Shield to fully explore Kalos, while only sampling is theoretically still possible. Introducing Mega Evolutions means balancing them with Dynamaxing, and there’s little reason to believe more than one gimmick like this would exist in one game.
But, as with all massive rumors with games, Game Freak isn’t likely to acknowledge this. So this means fans will continue to think it, and if nothing comes of it, then the massive hype train turns into an equally huge disappointment. That’s not good for Pokemon fans, whatsoever. If these rumors had something more substantial, then chances are, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But the “evidence” ignores a lot of Pokemon lore and is mostly wishful thinking.
That said, it’ll be interesting to see what Game Freak does after Crown Tundra. Because it is the first generation to receive DLC like this, it’ll be interesting to see if it stops or if it does keep the DLC flowing. In theory, Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC could support it for years, but expecting content that is much bigger than the first two DLCs may ultimately be a pipe dream. It’ll be interesting to be wrong, but without something more concrete, fans should not hold their breath.
Pokemon Sword and Shield is out now for Switch.
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