The Pokemon Sword & Shield Nintendo Direct presentation unveiled a new line of Regi Legendary types, with the insinuation that they will be included in the game's second paid DLC expansion, The Crown Tundra. For those unfamiliar, the Legendary titans were first introduced in Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire, where players first had to unlock tombs that held the Pokemon by solving a puzzle in the Sealed Chamber. The extra steps in finding and capturing the Pokemon made them extremely popular among fans, alongside the fact that they featured a design that was very different for Legendary Pokemon at the time.
Now, Pokemon Sword & Shield are introducing a whopping 200 more Pokemon to the Nintendo Switch iteration of the franchise across two paid DLC expansions, Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra. There are a slew of features being added that have fans buzzing, including a potential new Exp. Share that will make leveling a team easier, but the most popular topic of discussion thus far has been the large number of Legendary Pokemon being added to the game. New Galarian versions of the Legendary bird trio Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres caught the eye of fans early before some new Legendary announcements also stole the show, but in between those was a nice nod to the Regi line of Pokemon Legendaries, including two new designs.
The Pokemon Sword & Shield Legendary titans appear to be new takes on the Regis, and there are a number of cool design decisions at play for them in their reveal during the Nintendo Pokemon Direct. First and foremost, they seem to loudly declare exactly what their typing will be, which is how the Regis were designed in their first iteration as well: the one with yellow jutting out from it's body everywhere is very likely to be an Electric-type, whereas the Regi with a dragon skull for an arm looks clearly set to be a Dragon-type. Both Regis appear to be available in The Crown Tundra as part of a callback to how the original trio was accessed, as their appear to be ancient ruins for trainers to explore as part of the Wild Area being added to the games. The original Legendary titans will also be available in Sword & Shield.
The Regis in Pokemon Sword & Shield also appear to feature a callback to another duo of Pokemon games, although not Ruby & Sapphire. Eagle-eyed fans will notice that the new Regis have an X and Y pattern as their eyes, which could be a subtle reference to another Pokemon series in Pokemon X & Y.
The Pokemon Sword & Shield Regis have fans talking, and that's good for the franchise, which is still recovering from the earlier Pokedex controversy that had fans upset over the future of the series. With that largely behind developer Game Freak - and a massive expansion of the Pokedex in-game coming - it's time for trainers to begin speculating over just what the new Legendaries could be. If nothing else, though, their aesthetic is on another level compared to recent designs, and should have fans excited for that reason alone.
Pokemon Sword & Shield is available now. Isle of Armor is scheduled for a June 2020 release date, while The Crown Tundra is scheduled for Fall 2020. A season pass for both is available at $29.99 USD.