Today was Nintendo's latest Pokemon Direct, and with it came two major announcements! First of all we have the brand new expansion pass(es) coming to both Pokemon Sword and Shield. These passes will be sold for 30 bucks, and will introduce us to brand new areas to explore as well as new Pokemon to catch. The first area is an island called "The Isle of Armor" while the second is a snowy location titled "The Crown Tundra." From what little we've seen, both locations seem to be much more open, and more similar to the wilds area rather than being the linear paths the main game forced us down. These locations will bring not only new story content and rivals to fight, but also brand new Pokemon to catch which were not originally in the base game. Of course both Sword and Shield will have their very own expansion passes with differences between the two, which also means you'll need to rely on trading to collect all of the new Pokemon (just as always). On the plus side, even those who do not own the expansion passes will be able to trade for these Pokemon, so the passes themselves are not required if you only want to complete your dex. While the exact number of Pokemon has not been disclosed, the direct did confirm it is at least 200 returning ones. This will bring the total up to 601. For now.
For more information check out the trailer:
On top of this news a remake of the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon was announced as well. The game features new and improved graphics over the original, and new features such as Mega Evolutions. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Mystery Dungeon series, or if you simply want to check out the remake for yourself, a demo version has gone live on the Nintendo eShop. It's a lot different than other entries in the series, but may be familiar to those of you who have played other games in the rogue like genre.
For the complete Pokemon Direct, see below.