Rumors about the future of Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are continuing to spiral as time goes on. While it isn't confirmed, many players believe that a third DLC for the games will be released after the upcoming release of the Crown Tundra DLC expansion.
The main subject of this prospective DLC is the return of the Kalos region as a fully explorable location within Pokemon Sword and Shield. This is due to the loose ends left in-game within Pokemon X and Y as well as the real life relationship between the United Kingdom and France.
A problem with the Kalos region returning, however, is the possible implementation of the three starter Pokemon introduced in it. These Pokemon are Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. While nothing initially seems to a problem with them, comparing them to the starters already available in Sword and Shield could lead to some trouble.
The Lack of Mega Evolution or Gigantamaxing
There are currently six starter Pokemon from the mainline Pokemon games available for players normally in Pokemon Sword and Shield. These are Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble. All six of these Pokemon have special Gigantamax forms after being fully evolved. In addition, Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise all have at least one Mega Evolution.
As Chesnaught, Delphox, and Greninja aren't available in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, they do not have Gigantamax forms. Additionally, although Mega Evolution was added in Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, the Kalos starters do not have the ability to Mega Evolve. This makes them much less appealing than the six starter Pokemon already in the game.
It is possible that the Kalos starters will get special forms if Sword and Shield were to add Kalos back in as DLC, but this itself presents an issue: would they be dynamax or mega evolution, and does this set a precedence?
The Obtaining of the Starters
The starter Pokemon of any Pokemon game marks the beginning of players' adventures in the game. However, if Kalos were to be released in a DLC expansion, players would likely have their party from the main game of Sword and Shield as well as from the other DLC entries. This would make the obtaining of one of these Pokemon a little less special.
One way around this issue would be to have players locked out of their parties and Pokemon from their Galar PC until beating the Kalos champion. This would force players to bond with their new partner from the Kalos region. Another possible option would be to not allow players to get one of the Kalos starters right away or not at all. This wouldn't be too great however due to how much the starters of specific regions in Pokemon are tied to the regions themselves.
The Other Region Starters
If the Kalos starters were to be added to the Sword and Shield Pokedex via the possible Kalos DLC, this would leave many of the other starters in an odd place. None of the other regions in Pokemon have popular rumors involving appearing as DLC, but not adding them would make the Kalos starters stick out a little.
The starters other than the Kalos starters that still aren't available in Pokemon Sword and Shield are:
- Chikorita
- Cyndaquil
- Totodile
- Treeko
- Torchic
- Mudkip
- Turtwig
- Chimchar
- Piplup
- Snivy
- Tepig
- Oshawatt
The best way to balance this out would be to allow the transfer of these starters when this DLC would be released. That way all starters could be made available for players to use after transferring them via Pokemon Home.
The Mega Evolution Additions
As mentioned before, the best way to make the Kalos starters more appealing would be to add Mega Evolution forms for all of them. However, this presents a different problem. If the Kalos starters were to get Mega Evolutions, then other Pokemon would likely get Mega Evolutions as well.
Overall, a lot of content will need to be added in order to make the generation six starters appealing. This will create a domino effect that would likely add changes to other Pokemon that either are originally available in Kalos or Pokemon originally available in Galar. These changes might be too much for just one piece of DLC if an entire region were to be added. That would make the Kalos DLC either much more expensive than the other two pieces of DLC or make it just not a possibility in the eyes of Nintendo and Game Freak.
This also extends to Gigantamaxing Pokemon. With the current status of starter Pokemon available outside of the Alolan starters, the Kalos starters would likely be given Gigantamax forms as well. This also means that other Pokemon from Kalos would also get these forms as well.
The Likelihood of Kalos Returning
Considering how many changes would need to be made overall with the currently available Pokedex, the amount of resources required in order to recreate all of Kalos, and the reintroduction of Mega Evolution, it is very unlikely that the Kalos region will return just as DLC for Sword and Shield. If it were to return, it likely would be within its own title that could interact with Sword and Shield instead.
The Kalos starters have a possibility to become available in Sword and Shield's future, but it probably wouldn't be due to any DLC relating to the Kalos region. If the region were to return at all via DLC, it likely wouldn't be the complete region either due to the scale of Kalos itself.
With all of these factors in mind, it is very likely that players won't be seeing the Kalos region as being playable in-game for an extremely long time. While some may cite the mysterious train station in Pokemon X and Pokemon Y as evidence for Kalos DLC, it is most likely that it was just the remains of something scrapped earlier on in development. The addition of no third DLC being mentioned in the recent Pokemon announcement video is also evidence for Sword and Shield's new content ending with the Crown Tundra.
Pokemon Sword & Shield are available for Nintendo Switch.