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Take a tour of the real Galar in new Pokemon Sword and Shield video series

We all know that Pokemon Sword and Shield's Galar region was inspired by the UK, but a new video series explores exactly how Blighty's unique culture impacted the development of the most recent Pokemon titles.

Galar is an interesting place full of peculiar locations and impressive scenery, right? Well, a lot of that was taken almost wholesale from the rural and urban areas of the UK.

To show off just how much the nation impacted the development of the game, The Pokemon Company has released a new brochure that acts as a tour guide for the Galar region, revealing the real-world inspirations for towns and routes in last year's Nintendo Switch game.

Leafing through the brochure, you may see places such as Stonehenge, Bath, and London referenced as places that inspired the myriad towns in the game – as well as some less obvious notes, too. The impressive basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway inspired how Pokemon Dens appear in the game, for instance!

There are 28 pages of insight to read through that'll clue you up a little bit more on the newest nation to join the expanding Pokemon world map.

And if that's not enough for you, you may also appreciate a new video series that's been released alongside the brochure. The series follows two novices to the Pokemon world as they play both the video game and the card game and explore the landmarks that are represented – in some way – in-game.

It's all very wholesome!

This all comes ahead of the Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion Crown Tundra that will be released on October 22, in which man named Peony appointing you as leader of his exploration team and tasks you with investigating the frozen land.

You can pick up the DLC as part of the game's Expansion Pass, which is available for purchase in the Nintendo Switch eShop. It will run you $29.99 or the regional equivalent.

You can read our review of the last expansion, The Isle of Armor, at the link.

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Dom Peppiatt avatar

Dom Peppiatt

Editor-in-chief

Dom is a veteran video games critic with 11 years' experience in the games industry. A published author and consultant that has written for NME, Red Bull, Samsung, Xsolla, Daily Star, GamesRadar, Tech Radar, and many more. They also have a column about games and music at The Guardian.

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