Isle Of Armor: 10 Highlights From Pokemon's First Expansion
2. Varied And Entertaining Missions
Considering how XP Candy means any player can wander round with a super-buff team of Level 100 Pokemon these days, filling the Isle of Armor with an endless parade of trainer battles would have been a grating move, once which the expansion wisely sidesteps.
Instead story missions (a generous term in any Pokemon game, but hey-ho) function more like mini-games, or emphasize exploration. The most touted example of this is an early mission which tasks players with chasing down a trio of hyper-speed Slowpoke. Aspects of the game that make of its core gameplay loop are generally shunted off to the sides, since msot players will have ground that side of things to dust in the seven months since release. Not that battles never happen, but the few instances where they do in the Isle of Armor's story carrying significance or unique circumstance to stand out.
Its not only a departure from the way a Pokemon game would normally play (at a point where its not longer rewarding to players) but also a fun new angle to experience the world of Pokemon from.