Isle Of Armor: 10 Highlights From Pokemon's First Expansion

The expansion as a whole sets a wonderful set of possibilities for the franchise going forward, hopefully promising exciting changes for future titles.

Quite possibly the most tantalizing component of the whole expansion is what it means for Pokemon's future. Paid DLC was new territory for the franchise and pitched as a replacement for the 'upgraded' versions prior generations had used. More so than those versions, it gives the developers at Game Freak a chance to try new features and ideas with less risk, or implement ideas and mechanics that were left on the cutting room floor due to the strict time restraints their development cycle demands.

The Isle of Armor is, overall, a success, both a step up and a step in the right direction following Sword & Shield. While a greater variety of brand new Pokemon would have been welcomed, there's still time for that in the Crown Tundra later this year, which now will have quite a bit of expectation levied on it (not least in because it already promised to be the larger of the pair prior to release).

But going into 2021 there's a lot of potential where Pokemon's unsteady eighth-generation could go next; a third expansion and beyond are easily possible, especially if they were even more sizable than the first two and possibly revisited same classic locations. The prospect of Sinnoh remakes looms, but now they may not cancel out Sword & Shield like games have before. The path forward is not at linear as it has always been, making this a very exciting time to be a Pokemon fan.