The newly announced Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion pass is bringing many new and old Pokemon to the games, including what look like Galarian forms of the Legendary birds from Kanto. Nintendo revealed the expansion pass, which includes two DLC packs, in a Pokemon Nintendo Direct this morning.
Part one of the Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion takes players to the Japan-inspired Armor Island, where they'll train in a dojo and raise a new Legendary Pokemon. In part two, players will travel to The Crown Tundra, a snowy area focused on exploration. Here, players will even be able to explore inside the Pokemon dens where Sword and Shield's Max Raid Battles take place, and they'll be able to catch Legendary Pokemon from previous games, like Mewtwo, Palkia, and Groudon.
Among these Legendaries, Game Freak said there appeared to be "brand new" Legendary Pokemon, but the ones shown on screen as this was said actually bear a strong resemblance to pre-existing creatures. Around the 15 minutes into in the Pokemon Direct, Game Freak showed five new Legendary Pokemon - two that resemble the "Regi" golems from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire and three that resemble the birds of Pokemon Red and Blue's Legendary trio. The two "Regis" look different enough from their non-Galar counterparts that they could be entirely new Pokemon, but the three birds are so similar in appearance to the Kanto Legendaries that it's more likely they're simply Galarian forms of those Pokemon.
While Pokemon has not introduced regional forms of Legendary Pokemon before, there are plenty of Galarian variants of old Pokemon in Sword and Shield, such as Galarian Yamask and Pokemon Sword's Galarian Farfetch'd. The new expansions seem to be shaking things up pretty significantly, with both of their new areas taking on the form of Sword and Shield's open-world Wild Area, so it wouldn't be too surprising if Game Freak decided to mark a first for the franchise with regional forms of the Legendary birds.
Pokemon Red and Blue's Legendary birds, Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos, began the franchise's tradition of introducing multiple, lesser Legendaries alongside the games' main Legendary monsters. Today, the Legendary birds are perhaps best known for their role as the mascots of Pokemon GO's Team Mystic, Valor, and Instinct. In-game, they are unfortunately among the weakest Legendary Pokemon, so perhaps a Galarian-flavored rework is exactly what they need to be relevant again outside of Niantic's spin-off.
Pokemon Sword & Shield are available now on Nintendo Switch. The Isle of Armor will be available in June 2020, and The Crown Tundra will be available in Fall 2020. An expansion pass for both games is available for $29.99 USD.