So, I have thoughts. Please humour me:
I find these DLC expansions to be quite promising for the future of Pokémon. They really seem to be transitioning fully towards the direction that they were hesitantly taking the franchise with Sword & Shield. The feature that was the Wild Area becomes the standard method of traversal, exploration and the standard viewpoint, most importantly. I feel like they took a tentative step in that direction with Sword & Shield, and are now fleshing out that style into a full content pack, i.e. the expansions. My expectation is that this viewpoint, and the mechanics that come with traversal through such an area (what we saw in the Wild Area) will become the standard for the new games that they will make going forward. I fully expect gen 9 to feature only one viewpoint. Personally, I like this a lot: the Wild Area was my favourite part of Sword & Shield, and I just love running around the world and checking out every nook and cranny in search of Pokémon. This sense of exploration will only become more pronounced if we can also traverse buildings and cave structures in this style. Bonus points if they indeed make the world seamless, like they said in the Direct. All in all, I really love the direction they are taking the games into (assuming I'm not jumping the gun, of course).
What I also found interesting is that they did not seem to back away from including dungeons and mysteries. This is paramount: to me, Pokémon thrives when it gives you this grand adventure where you get to explore the world, and get to find new Pokémon you didn't expect. I'm glad these expansions are aiming to include them (it remains to be seen how intricate all of this will be, of course). Gives me good hope they are working hard on improving the formula of the games further.
That's all from me, hope it wasn't too incoherent. Anyway, the bottom line is I'm very pleased with the effort they are putting in and with the direction they seem to be going in.
