There is good news for players who have wanted more out of Pokémon's Sword and Shield's storyline: Thanks to the newest installation of DLC, The Crown Tundra, Pokémon has introduced a new Wild Area, mini-story, and plenty of new and returning Legendary Pokémon for players to catch. However, there is another feature that has both given players new post-game content and given much-loved characters more screen time. The Sword and Shield's Galarian Star Tournament is fixing one of Pokémon's oldest issues with new character interactions.
To enter the Galarian Star Tournament, the player must complete the primary story for Pokémon Sword and Shield and finish both The Crown Tundra and Isle of Armor DLC. The tournament then boasts double battles with characters the player has encountered through those storylines, including gym leaders and rivals. The player then faces off against other familiar faces in an elimination-style competition.
The reason the Galarian Star Tournament is such an important addition to Pokémon is that it focuses on characters players have previously built relationships with. In past generations, players' interactions with deeply loved characters like gym leaders are limited primarily to gym battles. While games like X and Y and Sun and Moon expanded the interactions players can have with their rivals, the stories have always felt a bit lacking. For characters outside of rivals and antagonists, narrative was basically nonexistent. Sword and Shield has already broken that mold with the interactions players have with the champion Leon throughout the primary story, and the tournament enhances this further.
Pokémon's Crown Tundra Enhances Character Stories Post-Game
When The Crown Tundra DLC is completed, the player is called back by Leon - now officially confirmed as Chairman Rose's successor - for the tournament. During a cutscene, the player learns what the other characters have been doing since the end of the main story. Leon then explains he believes training together will make everyone stronger and sends the player to the arena lobby to select a partner and begin the tournament. Only a few characters are available to ask at the start, but more are unlocked to team up with as the tournament progresses. This allows players to build relationships with the characters through short, between-match scenes instead of just battling consistently through difficult tiers.
While hunting the Legendary Birds in The Crown Tundra is certainly exciting, getting a chance to learn more about these influential characters is revolutionary for the franchise and fixes that age-old issue of lacking narrative for its characters. Players have an opportunity to learn more about the personalities of these characters and how they mesh with other, well-known faces in Galar. Through these scenes, Galarian Star Tournament takes ideas like the Battle Tower and gives them new life, making the battle more interactive than ever before while players connect emotionally to their battle partner and opponents.
The Galarian Star Tournament has opened a new set of doors for how the Pokémon franchise could improve and mesh better character stories with the classic game mechanics players have come to love over the decades. The addition of character story through The Crown Tundra post-game gives fans a chance to reconnect and interact with their favorite gym leaders or rivals and to learn more about the sort of people these characters are on a one-on-one basis. By exploring this content, Pokémon Sword and Shield may possibly be the gateway into seeing more character-driven story elements in later Pokémon games.