With Pokémon Sword & Shield recently releasing the Isle of Armor DLC, the tradition of releasing a third (or in the case of Ultra Sun & Moon, a third and fourth) Pokémon game near the end of a generation that is largely the same save for some enhancements and changes has officially been broken. It’s been great to see this new style adopted by Game Freak, but it does also make us miss enhanced releases somewhat, as well. Which is really the better method of giving fans more Pokémon? Let’s discuss.

10 DLC: A Brand New Story

When third versions of Pokémon games were released, they usually were forced to tell largely the same story as the games they were based on, save for a few changes or a different ending. With DLC, this isn’t the case anymore. Game Freak has the ability to tell a brand new story with DLC, and can leave the original story intact.

9 Enhanced Versions: Fixing A Game’s Problems

When Pokémon Platinum was released, it fixed many issues that Diamond & Pearl had, specifically, their story pacing. DLC, however, can’t do this. It would be very difficult to release a DLC pack that goes back and changes elements of the story. Players would be blocked off from it if they’d progressed too far, trying to get people to buy it wouldn’t go over well, the whole thing would just be off. Let’s hope new generations always ace their pacing from here on.

8 DLC: It Doesn’t Take As Long

Enhanced versions used to make players wait for quite a bit of time, usually a year or two, to return to the current region that was being featured. With DLC, this isn’t the case, as Galar got a sizeable expansion only seven months after it released, with more already on the way.

This certainly breaks up the pacing of things nicely, getting new additions consistently rather than once sometime later.

7 Enhanced Versions: A Clean Slate

One of the best things about Pokémon is that the games are infinitely replayable. Simply playing with a new team can wildly change how you experience a region. Things don’t work the same in DLC. While level scaling is a great thing to have in the DLC, the fact that you can’t start out with a brand new team and work your way to the end with them is certainly missed.

6 DLC: It’s Cost-Effective

If enhanced versions of Sword & Shield had been released instead of the Expansion Pass, players would have had to pay $120 to experience everything Galar had to offer rather than $90. DLC is cost-effective. Paying to play largely the same game twice doesn’t make sense, but paying to expand your game makes perfect sense.

5 DLC: Breaking Up That Yearly Release Schedule

The Pokémon series has been on a yearly release schedule for some time now, and while every single game that Game Freak releases in the series sells like crazy, it’s clear that the titles suffer due to this incredibly fast turnaround. Giving Game Freak time to create new animations and polish things a bit more would be great for the franchise, and DLC allows them to do so.

4 Enhanced Versions: An Altered Story

There was always something really fun about getting to play a story that you knew, but being surprised when changes and new additions would pop up. This isn’t how DLC works when it comes to Pokémon.

We aren’t ever going to get a retelling of Galar’s story where spoiler alert Leon is the villain instead of Rose, or where Sonia is our rival instead of Hop. These little changes were always super interesting in third versions, and we won’t get to see them anymore with DLC.

3 DLC: Don’t Need To Play Through The Game Again

Still, the fact that you don’t have to play through an entire story twice just to see what changed is certainly a blessing. Pokémon Ultra Sun & Moon were almost the same as their base games storywise until right up to the end, and this made playing them a slog. DLC remedies this situation, you only have to play a story once, unless you want to trek through it again.

2 Enhanced Versions: The Tradition

Getting a third version of a game used to be a tradition when it came to Pokémon. It was expected. Until Black 2 & White 2 shook things up in generation five, we had received an enhanced version with every set of games. However, this has to be let go now.

1 DLC: It Just Makes Sense

DLC just makes more sense all around. You don’t have to play the game twice, you don’t have to pay for it twice, Game Freak gets a little bit of a break, everyone wins. There were certainly a few advantages when it came to releasing enhanced versions of Pokémon games, but at this point, it’s very clear that DLC is the way to go when it comes to more Pokémon content.

NEXT: Pokémon Sword & Shield: The 5 Best Things About The Isle Of Armor (& The 5 Worst)