We caught up with Game Freak after the release of Crown Snow, the second part of the Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass for Switch.
Pokémon has closed its trip to the Galar region this November, a territory that has hosted the Sword and Shield editions for Nintendo Switch from start to finish. Eight generations, the third in three dimensions, and a style that is gradually being forged to lead to the future that all fans expect. The Expansion Pass, comprised of The Isle of Armor and The Snows of the Crown, has shown that Game Freak knows where it wants to direct the series from now on. FreeGameTips has had the opportunity to speak with the Japanese study to answer some of our questions.
Las Nieves de la Corona, a variety of ecosystems and biomes
The main objective of Game Freak with Las Nieves de la Corona was not only to make a snowy territory, but to be able to offer an environment completely different from what we experienced a year ago in Galar. Cold, very cold, reminiscent of that unforgettable Puntaneva City of Sinnoh, but full of Legendaries. “The Snows of the Crown offer players a real change in the way they experience other environments in the Galar region, as well as a wide variety of new ecosystems that they had not seen in Sword and Shield,” they begin by saying. “The Snows in the Crown and the Pokémon that reside in it are incredibly rich and varied, which players will be able to enjoy and discover for themselves.” In fact, the long hundred new creatures included in the Crown Pokédex come from the previous seven generations, but why those and not others? Because they looked for coherence in that selection and everything felt natural.
“The Galar region is inspired by a variety of areas around the UK,” while The Isle of Armor was inspired by the Isle of Man, that British Crown dependency made up of several islets in the Irish Sea. Now, The Snows of the Crown is inspired by Scotland, so the tribute to British geography is amply demonstrated, both on map and in ecosystems.
Although they could not tell us the number of people who have worked on this Expansion Pass, they have assured us that “the team in charge of Las Nieves de la Corona is made up of members who have already worked on Espada y Escudo”; It is not a new team, but the ideas embodied in this territory are a direct inheritance of what we saw in the traditional Galar. Generally, the old third editions were delegated to younger teams with respect to the main deliveries; this time Hiroyuki Tani was in charge of directing the Expansion Pass. We’re talking about one of the designers of the stage and event planning system from the latest installments. He entered the Japanese studio in 2014 and has participated, for now, in Pokémon Sun and Moon (2016), Ultrasol and Ultraluna (2017) and Sword and Shield (2019). In the past, he was a member of CyberConnect2, so he has experience not only in Japanese-style video games, but also anime-themed ones.
The challenges of designing Las Nieves de la Corona
One of the aspects that we usually like to ask of development studies is their difficulties when carrying out this work, especially when it comes to maintaining the pulse between the traditional and the innovative; between the classic and the disruptive; be conservative and what can allow the saga to advance. In Sword and Shield, the concept of the open world in camera and motion was introduced, the environments we know as Wild Area. However, even greater difficulties derive from that idea, such as the integration of such a number of Legendary Pokémon. As they explain, “Legendary Pokémon often have unique moves and abilities; or some can even change their size, so recreating those moves and abilities for each Legendary in Pokémon Sword and Shield has been a challenge for us. “
“On The Isle of Armor and the Crown Snows, players can have any of their Pokémon follow them as they walk. Implementing this for the larger Legendary Pokémon was another great challenge, ”they continue. Sometimes, the size of many of them is several times that of a human body, so elaborating a scale according to what we see on the screen has also been an aspect to consider with each 3D modeling individually. All in all, the biggest wish on the part of Game Freak is for fans to complete the Corona Pokédex, get hold of all the legendaries through the Dynamax Adventures and fully explore The Snows of the Crown, which holds various secrets and species Unless they tell us, we don’t even know they’re there.
The map is varied and rich in ecosystems.
The origin of the Dynamax Adventures, the evolution of the Dynamax Raids
Now, where did the idea of the Dynamax Adventures come from? Some believe it is the natural evolution of Max Raids; others resemble it to the arcade mode of a fighting game and others, directly, have considered it as the roguelike mode of Pokémon. Surely all the options are valid, because in all of them the power of the unknown, chance and randomness are combined. What Legendary Pokémon awaits us next time? Also, if lives are over, it’s time to start over; not to mention that the four lives are shared by the four members of the team. “The idea for the Dynamax Adventures began when the team wanted to introduce new elements to the Dynamax Raids,” they report. With Sword and Shield already on sale, there is popular consensus that there was room for improvement, that it could become monotonous and that, above all, the challenge could be diluted when our team became very powerful.
By offering loan equipment, the strategy is massed, as well as cooperation between everyone to take advantage of each attack and develop synergies. “We thought it could be a challenge if, instead of using their own Pokémon, players had to choose from a list of randomly selected Pokémon for combat,” they add. “We also wanted to change the way Legendary Pokémon are captured. […] The basis of this idea was to promote strategy and teamwork to kill the most powerful Pokémon in the game. We believed that the Dynamax Adventures could be the best way to achieve it ”. When asked if we will see more expansions or types of adventures, Game Freak alludes to having “nothing to share right now.”
The future of Pokémon in its main saga is currently unknown, although we do know that Pokémon Unite will soon arrive for Nintendo Switch and mobile devices as well as the highly anticipated New Pokémon Snap, currently in development for the hybrid, which we will talk about in depth in this article .
Pokémon Sword and Shield are available exclusively for Nintendo Switch. The Expansion Pass can be purchased separately; although as of November 6, a physical pack will also be sold that will include the game and the Expansion Pass.
