I seriously beat the crap out of this one kid with severe self-loathing issues at his hometown while taking with me a mythical creature that he's been obsessed with all his life, only to then follow him to his own school where I then destroy his whole career in front of a live audience. Oh he tried to fight back; but he couldn't stand up to my twelve foot, one-eyed bear that unleashes a giant laser from the power of a bloodmoon, plus the very same mythical creature from earlier but now she brought a fiery spiked club with his name written on it. This is probably the funniest plot since X and Y.

They couldn't get the landing quite right with Part 2.

Structure of the DLC is pretty much the same as the base game, "do battles against boss characters in any order, then proceed to the finale". I liked the new characters enough but it feels we didn't get enough time with them. Seems like there are post game conversations to be had with them at least, even found out the red-head has a crush with one of the others. That's cute, kind of wish it was integrated into the main story among the many other interactions that I might never see. Plus the plot with Area Zero had nowhere near the punch that the base game had during its finale.

Will give credit though, this DLC doesn't mess around. I personally never came close to losing, but that's only because I'm an obsessive freak who gulps EV trains all their Pokémon, plus alters their natures and hyper trains for perfect stats. But both regular trainers and boss trainers use competitively viable Pokémon and intricate strategies that adds a level of complexity to battle that you seldom see in these games outside the post game. They will use both Pokémon with their hidden abilities and held items that makes them more dangerous. This is ontop of every fight being a double battle which allows for a lot more possibilities for both your opponents the players themselves. As an example, I used a Great Tusk with Earthquake alongside a Levitate Vikavolt with Discharge, meaning that both of their attacks hit both opponents while being immune to each other. Like any Pokémon game, you can still power level your team to crush your foes with raw numbers, but with how high leveled everyone already is it's a lot tougher then usual. What I do like about these battles the most though is that they're also great teaching tools in the ways you can use certain Pokémon. They show you how strong reflect and light screen are, how to utilize terrains and weather, and what moves are great for certain Pokémon.

The BBQ quests are kind of a huge mess and the biggest fumble here. Firstly, don't do what I did and start trying to fill up the Pokedex till you unlock these quests by doing the very first story mission you get. That was a big mistake and wasted a lot of time. These quests are simple tasks that, very slowly, award a currency that's used for basically everything. Do you want to decorate your room? Do you want to change how your player character tosses a Poke Ball? Do you want new photo filters? Do you want to unlock post-game rematches with old Gym leaders and the Elite Four? Do you want to 3D print items, up to and including Master Balls? Then you're going to be grinding out a metric ton of these quests. Every ten small ones gives you one larger quest with a extra payout. For the most part though things are reasonably priced, except for the terrarium upgrades.
SO! Based on the Part 1 of the DLC, I knew coming in that there would be a special Pokémon or two unlocked by reaching a certain percentage of Pokedex completion. That is indeed true. If you catch 200 out of 240 Pokémon, you can catch two new paradoxes. Here's the thing: despite your best efforts in catching, evolving, and trading you can only get about 160. And that's where upgrading the terrarium comes in. For each of the four biomes there is a upgrade to add several wild starter Pokémon from all the past games to catch. Cool, right? It would be if they weren't 3000 points.
Each.
A single quest earns you 20 to 40 points, while the tenth special quest can earn you up to 200 or so. You see the problem, right??
But what can you do to make this tolerable? One is beating every trainer in a biome. Every five or so earns quite a lot of points. Problem: this is one-and-done. Once you exhaust all the trainers then your out of luck. Almost. The real way to wrack up points is to play with friends. There are special multiplayer quests that will earn you an actual reasonable sum of points. What if you don't have friends who play this game or have online?... ummm...
On one hand, this is mostly only a pain for completionists. If you just want to reach the end then you'll need about 200 or so points. That's completely reasonable. On the other hand, Pokémon hasn't had such a pain in the ass economy since the Battle Frontier that gave you pennies for playing battles that feel like their cheating at points. It's a regression that feels very disappointing. I ended up upgrading two biomes and managed to trade for a few more Pokémon to reach the 200 quota. Was it worth it? I don't think so. If you have friends then it's probably much more tolerable. The quests may be short and simple, but they're not interesting challenges and they can make you run all over the place. And and and and! If you want to catch all the past legendries' in the post game, then you need at least some group quests completed. I would not be surprised if these quests get an overhaul in a future patch, cause as they are now they're a unremarkable grind.

But enough of that, can we talk about the Synchro Machine? It allows you take control of any of your Pokémon. "Is it useful?" If you're asking that question then you've already failed. You can toss a ball with ZR and play with it. You can play as a Joltik whose as big as a flea and hops around like a tiny bug. You can play as the slowest Pokémon imaginable or one who zooms through the sky. You can play as a Alolan Exeggutor, the funny tall palm tree dude. It's stupid fun and I wish more games in general had things not tied to any progression or goals but instead just allows you to fool around with something silly. As an aside, I saw online how one person controlled one of their shiny Pokémon and fooled their friends into thinking they found a glitched shiny that they couldn't catch. That's why you do stuff like this. (Also I caught my first shiny in Gen 9, a shiny, female Meowstic (https://www.serebii.net/pokedex-sv/meowstic/#))

Also did you know that Meloetta is in this DLC? Probably didn't since it some cryptic bullcrap you hear on the school playground from a kid who says he beaten every game in existence. No that's not physically possible Michael you stupid ass- erm anyway nice to see devs continuing to include some wild mysteries to their game and see how long it takes for people to find them. Not long in this case, if only this game was made a decade or so sooner then this would've been the wildest shit imaginable.

Wrapping back to the intro here, Kieran is one of the more interesting characters in Pokémon mainline. He's probably one of the more, for lack of better words, realistic characters for his age. I can somewhat emphasize with him as someone who used to have a severe inferiority complex, feeling as if there are people who are factually better then you in every possible way. When that belief embeds itself in your mind it can be hard to pull it back out, taking over every fleeting thought in your damaged head. Still, he's a kid. Completely immature and rash. Lashing out at others who try to look past and question his façade. He uses a Porygon-Z with Adaptability, a Life Orb, and Hyper Beam; in other words, completely fucking overkill. He created a persona of a tough guy when in reality he's a huge dork. He is someone who says "Wowzers" unironically, that's the level we're dealing with.
Whether you actually like him is a different story, for me I was both laughing at and with him. Anytime he gets those distressed anime eyes where his pupils shrink and his eyes bulge is really entertaining. I like the times where he breaks his "badass" caricature and is real bad at recovering from that flub. And you know, even if you do hate him then he's a good foil as he takes his losses really badly. So either way I feel he works as a character.

I will say, maybe I'm a very distrustful person but I counted three characters I was expecting to be twist villains. In hindsight I'm glad that wasn't the case since that might've been pretty lame, but apart from Kieran and his sister Carmine there's a lot of characters that don't get much, if any, satisfying developments or memorable moments. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but Pokémon can and has done better in the past. I don't need a ton of story sequences in a Pokémon game, but I feel a few more here or there would've gone a long way to make this a much more satisfying conclusion to Gen 9.

And what a Gen this has been. It's real close to the apex of the franchise, it just needs more polish in both an aesthetic and technical level. Plus I'm a big advocate for adding voice acting to these games. When there's several cutscenes that show a much a higher level of character acting with them seemingly lip synched to their dialogue, the exclusion makes it all the more baffling. Wishing the devs the best, and here's hoping Gen 10 can deliver something new and exciting.

Also I didn't make Michael up. He was a real kid at Elementary school.
Kids sure are something.

To my own internal sadness and despair, I cannot get into this one.

Riding high off of Teal Mask's success, I began the dlc with a lot of curiosity and expectations for how the year long story-in-the-making would conclude. Teal Mask took the emotional highs and perfect character arcs of the base game and carried it on perfectly; the map was lovely, the environments looked far prettier than they originally did in Scarlet, the small improvements to the camera and clothing options were wonderful. It concluded with a cliffhanger that left me very intrigued as to where it would lead. The opening to Indigo Disk was not so bad, but slowly I began to feel very overwhelmed by the amount of things being thrown at me. I could really tell that they put the most effort into making sure players had enough to keep them occupied and spent little time on anything else. New gameplay introduced like the BBQs are not a bad idea in theory, but they end up becoming grindy through lack of options for obtaining them. Defeat 10 pokemon through auto battle is not something I'd ever do, ever. Doing it 30 times in a row for what feels like a measly 10 points feels harsh.

The terrarium was very impressive at first glance, but over time I started to feel claustrophobic and very weary of the glass ceilings and blocky architecture. On paper I very much appreciate the love Unova gets here but walking through a savanna and having it suddenly cut off by these weird copy and paste mega exposure producing cubes makes the area feel enclosed and artificial. It is, of course, a terrarium but it gives off such an oppressive feeling... the map design itself is good I feel, but theres something empty about it and it doesnt help that the only thing to break the mold are the same old boring cube structures youll run into anywhere else on the map. Kitikami had a varied selection of different environments and things to see while still withholding its theme, but Blueberry Academy doesnt feel aesthetically strong or interesting enough.


The new characters you meet feel rushed and pointless. I want to appreciate them and like them, but you only get to spend a negligible amout of time getting to know them and then its off to Area Zero for more rushed development. And its so dissapointing how they drop Kieran on his head, especially after how he shined in the Teal Mask. Everything he goes through is absolutely streamlined and he comes out the other side not feeling changed at all. The story beats are so quick and its disheartening that this is what they were building up to since base Scarlet. What is Terapagos? Whys it important? Whys it there, how does it generate the terrestrial power? Dont know! They did not eleborate. I know they put more effort into things like the battles and the club, but the way the story is organized is such a let down for the finale of my favorite pokemon game. I was really hoping for more.

In terms of what I am enjoying, I think all the clubhouse stuff is my favorite part of the expansion. I never got a proper sendoff to all my Paldean buddies so its very nice that I can invite them over and see how theyre doing, refight them and whatnot. Im impressed that they have situational dialouge for if two characters are in the clubroom together, that is a lot of writing and a great deal of effort so im glad they spared some on this behalf. I also like the old pokemon added back in, its been fun seeing them again

Overall im pretty bummed with this final dlc. The terrarium area overall feels overbearing and I dislike being in it, on top of the Blueberry Academy stuff being notably grindy for a pokemon game. Its a sad way to send Paldea off, but hopefully the next game builds on the progress SV has made and is just as great, if not better.

"Kieran will never go hard."

SPITS CEREAL

*This review will contain spoilers, but I think the story is predictable enough that no one will care, and I will also warn before I get to them

This update genuinely shocked me with how much content was added. Seven new Pokemon, over a hundred returning Pokemon that weren't already in the game, a new Pokemon League, the story (although, barely one at all), a brand new location, quests that give you new customization options and cosmetics, the ability to invite major characters to a club and interact and battle them, three new sidequests for the base game friends, including a subplot for Team Star, way more new clothing items, a new ability for Koraidon/Miraidon, an update to the school's tournament, and probably even more things I'm forgetting. I might not be selling it well here, but there really is so much added here that I didn't want to stop playing; it's safe to say that the majority of the money you're spending for this game's DLC is for The Indigo Disk.

I definitely have complaints, though. The new quests, BBQs, are a good addition on paper, but with how grindy and minimal they are, it's extremely unfun. The points gained through quests can be used to complete sidequests and inviting special characters from Paldea to talk, battle, and trade. That's fine and dandy, but to get everything that requires BP, you need roughly 28K of the stuff (I calculated), and that is just so, so rough considering how few points you get for each quest. Take a picture of a Pokemon swimming, 20 points; defeat a wild Pokemon by Terastalizing, another 20 points; catch a wild Pokemon 20 points. Does this sound fun? No? Well, sorry, you're gonna be doing that for hours and hours and hours if you want to do everything. After doing ten quests, you'll get a bigger one that'll reward you with 200 points. That might sound good, but it's still so much grinding it out, and it's hard to keep track of ongoing quests without just looking at the menu for it every two minutes. The most efficient way to grind up points, and how I'm sure they intended it, is to do multiplayer. Every quest counts for all players involved, has increased points, and there are another set of even bigger quests that give a lot more points. It does go way faster, but it really sucks that you really have to play with other people in order to not spend your pre-retirement life grinding out points. There is potential with the quest system, but it needs fine-tuning to be good.

Secondly is kind of a "me" issue. While there are over 100 returning Pokemon, the selection is actually rather shallow in practice. Of these returning Pokemon, 72 of them are the starter Pokemon. Just personally speaking, I've used almost all of the starter Pokemon so much that I have no interest in using them in the games anymore, so that takes the available Pokemon to under 100 Pokemon, and by a decent margin. Then, eight of the remaining ones are version exclusive, so might as well cross off four of whatever version you're playing if you can't trade with people (not to mention the trade evolutions, but those can still mostly be caught). This left very little Pokemon to choose from, especially if you also don't like to repeat types. I still managed alright - I decided to use a gift Pokemon from Teal Mask, and a Dipplin so I could use the new evolution, and I had already planned on using Milcery, so I only needed three other spots filled. I know this won't be an issue for most people though, a lot of people love reusing their favorites, even if that means using Cyndaquil for the 47th time in their life, but it is somewhat annoying for me.

(Spoilers moving forward, but it's nothing you wouldn't expect)

The story is, in true Scarlet and Violet fashion, non-existent until the end. Well, ok, that's not entirely true. This expansion continues the events from The Teal Mask where Kieran wants to take revenge on the player character by beating them in a League Champion battle, and to get to that point you must defeat the Elite Four members of Blueberry Academy. So... basically just the bog standard story of Pokemon in general. But wait, after you beat the Champion, you now go on a sudden adventure to Area Zero to discover its secrets with your friends. So... basically just a copy of Scarlet and Violet's base game. But here it's even more out of nowhere as, up until the end, there was barely any reference to Area Zero, nor the idea that you'd be going back there, nor does it really feel like it fits with the rest of the adventure. This is just fundamentally the same story of the base game, but with a new location and characters; which to be fair, the characters were what you cared about from the main game, not really the story. But still, seems like a weird way to wrap it up.

The final issue is one that permeates all of Scarlet and Violet: the performance issues. The game ran poorly to begin with, and then with Teal Mask the game would turn into a slide show if you jumped in water, and now with this expansion there are some circumstances in which the game will freeze entirely for up to ten seconds (or so it felt when I had it happen). Scarlet and Violet's performance seem to just get even worse as time went on. To be completely honest, though, the bad performance is something that never bothered me too much. Perhaps I'm too forgiving, but if I find a game fun, I can put up with slowdown, and I find this game fun. I also sincerely hope nobody actually thought the performance would be any better with this update.

Soooo that was a lot of complaining, which might make the rating of 4/5 stars seem weird. But in all honesty, those flaws are all things I either expected or didn't mar my enjoyment of the DLC too much; the first issue is really only for completionists, and the rest I more or less expected would be a factor. In the end, The Indigo Disk did what I wanted it to and way more: (mostly) end the stories of the characters I loved, brought in new amazing characters, and added a ton of new content. More content than I expected at all. The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero ended up kind of being a mini Scarlet/Violet 2 and... I can't say that isn't what I wanted, because I find this game so incredibly charming and fun and I'm very excited to see what's next.

I guess you could say that the true Hidden Treasure of Area Zero were the friends we made along the way...

Much better than DLC 1.
Although DLC 1 set the build-up, this delivered the rest.
Overall, the DLC felt more entertaining and engaging in general, not to mention how challenging it was compared to the base game.
The forced doubles format makes it so you can't just go and steamroll through everyone, you have to actually come up with good strategies.
The story was nice, if a bit anticlimatic regarding the BBA arc.
Whereas I didn't care at all for Sword and Shield's DLC 2, I completed this one in two days only

The Pokemon Scarlet and Violet story finally comes to a close - barring a one-hour epilogue which I'm baffled as to why they'll be releasing as a limited-time event. But to tell the truth, there are a lot of baffling decisions with the Indigo Disk.

First, the story. The first half I think is great. Huge fan of the Terarium, loved battling and completing the trials of the Blueberry Elite Four, working my way up to the new and improved Kieran. The final Champion battle is probably one of my favourites in the franchise. Maybe we should just let Double Battles be the norm going forward?

The problem is everything after that. So far, Scarlet and Violet have masterfully developed the mystery of Area Zero. It's been fascinating watching the build-up, seeing the community theorize, and this DLC promised to answer all our questions while delivering a satisfying final chapter of this story.

I personally found it to be neither of those things. Even from a gameplay perspective, the return to Area Zero was a huge letdown for me. It is, in essence, a one-trick pony. In contrast to the base game's portion of Area Zero, it's a highly linear area with very little variety or new/interesting Pokemon to see, with few secrets to come back and discover.

I'm so mixed on how I feel about it. There was so much potential for more here. When you make the Teal Mask look like a more complete and fleshed-out story, you've gone majorly wrong. That said, a postgame cutscene that rewards a different title screen did help me come around a little. I really love that scene, and it does feel like a great book end to this tale.

As for the gameplay, I feel like I've put enough time into it now to get a feel for it. As I said, love the Terarium, along with all of its Unova references. Flying feels like the natural extent of our movement abilities, and it just feels good. Grinding BP is pretty fun in multiplayer. It's a real neat gameplay loop, and there is, surprisingly, a lot to do with these points. The Synchro Machine basically fixes my problems with Auto Battle, and makes it feel genuinely engaging.

However, the lack of a battle facility just feels like levels of incompetency that I can't fathom. A school that's described as having powerful trainers, with a club that mimics the Pokemon League, which reintroduces BP (though renamed as Blueberry Points), does NOT have a battle facility? Kinda absurd.

I have enjoyed my time with Indigo Disk, though. There's a ton of content and a lot of it makes me smile. If there's anything it does right, it's making me realize just how much I've loved this journey, very messy as it has been. Despite their problems, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, the Paldea Region as a whole, now holds a very special place in my heart.

El mejor de los dos DLC, fácilmente. Más difícil, con más cosas nuevas y con historia y momentos más interesantes.

Sigue arrastrando las mismas cosas malas del juego base (mayormente a nivel técnico), pero también arrastra las buenas, así que es divertido.

Al igual que el primero, si os gustó el juego base, esto también. Si no, no os perdéis gran cosa.

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The best of the two DLC, easily. Harder, with more new stuff, and more interesting plot and scenes.

It keeps dragging the bad stuff from the base game (mostly on a technical level), but it also drags the good ones, so it's a fun time.

Just like the first one, if you enjoyed the base game, you'll enjoy this too. If not, you're not missing that much.

Great dlc, love the Terrarium as an environment, the world design works well with the pokemon distribution giving me the biggest feeling of "yeah these pokemon naturally belong here" I've ever felt in Pokemon. Lots of great stuff for exploration just like in Paldea.
Battling was really great, every battle being a double battle with actual strategy and items was really interesting to play. Hope they do this more going forward. Actual ending section felt a lot weaker but the environment once again did a great job assisting the feeling.
Story was great too, Kieran is an amazing rival, Carmine is a great supporting character and the new characters are great too. This game really nails its cast overall I feel. The actual Treasure part at the end was kinda meh story wise but it works well with Kieran so it's fine.
Grinding BP sucks ass I imagine it'll be worse for the legends maybe.
The performance is even worse in this one but whatever it's SV.
A few notable issues, but an overall fun time that keeps all the good things Paldea and Kitakami content had for it. In a perfect world, these games had great production and were on better hardware, then I'd have no qualms calling them among peak pokemon and a favorite in general.

Story beats were very underwhelming.

Gameplay loop is mostly good because of the difficulty of most trainer battles being higher than most of the entire series. However the Blueberry Quests are a really dumb and grindy system for those looking to 100% this.

Overall this DLC feels like some isolated diet version of the base game in both story and gameplay ideas. Teal Mask, while short, was at least more unique and sweet.

Now that all the dlc is out I can think about doing the replay because as a whole I do enjoy Scarlet in spite of its unignorable flaws but I doubt I'll play either dlc again when that happens as both I didn't really find all the good. I'm sad Nidoking didn't make the cut, my dream of playing through a game (pokemon must be catchable before post game) with my 6 favorites without needing to trade or import is never gonna happen it seems.

Specifically here, I didn't care for it being all double battles or influenced by the cancer that is competitive pokemon but I could just breeze through it with my maxed out team so it was a non issue. Well, except for when the game wanted to waste my time and was forced to use a new team so I was petty and just perish songed the whole ordeal with a Lapras. The day the mainline games succumb to that minority of online fans who want these games to "push people into the VGC" or defaulty be difficult to the point you can't viably run with a team of pokemon you like without force feeding them vitamins or selectively fighting specific pokemon for EV yields is the day I leave this series for good. They don't understand why most play pokemon to begin with. Even with how much easier it is to get a team competitively trained, its still such a mind numbing grind that I'd rather have a nail go through my foot again.

The BB quest system's payout is way too small too since its needed for biome improvement, buying items and doing the legendary quests. Its a grind so boring I opted to clean my house over partaking in it once I got the dex completed. Once again its them trying to push co op cuz those pay out more which I am not a fan of in the slightest. Also you NEED to do co op to get all the legendaries which is straight up ass. I found the story to be weaker in this part compared to the Teal Mask as well and I wish you could have walked around with your group at the end like in the base game instead of them teleporting to the next objective.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are interesting games to examine. They’re flawed, noticeably bug ridden, and the game’s performance can take extreme dips. The open world of the game is fun to explore at times, but at others it felt like the environment was lacking. There’s a whole section of the map that you cannot access, and has no reason to even be there. And even though the game is this severely flawed, I’d still say that I enjoyed playing through the game. The story is one of the best that Pokemon has to offer, and being able to freely explore the world and do things in any order you wish is amazing. It’s interesting in this regard, if it wasn’t for all of the issues that Scarlet and Violet have, these games probably would’ve been the best Pokemon titles on the Switch.
And then they got DLC. I thought the first DLC expansion, the Teal Mask, was charming, but it left me desiring more. Kitakami as a region was rather small, I believe a good half of the region was empty space. The new characters were fun, and I really like the Ogerpon storyline, but there was very little afterwards that kept me wanting to explore this new region. On top of this all, this DLC suffered from the exact same performance issues that the original Scarlet and Violet did, which didn’t really help in its favor.
This large preamble leads me into what the actual topic of this review is about, the (presumably) final DLC for Scarlet and Violet, the Indigo Disk. This DLC may be the best that Scarlet and Violet will ever be. But with saying that, I think the performance issues in the Indigo Disk may be worse than in base game. When I explored Blueberry Academy, specifically the Savannah Biome, the game did more than just drop frames, it actively froze for a second or two. This though I would say is probably the biggest criticism I have for this DLC, especially as it has been an issue that persisted since the game’s original release. But yet again, there’s so much better here than in any other part of Scarlet and Violet that I just appreciate.
First, and most noticeably, is the difficulty in this DLC. As this is meant to be after the main story of Scarlet and Violet, the levels of wild and trainer Pokemon are extremely high. It was rare to see a wild Pokemon below level 60, and some Pokemon I caught were all the way to level 75. And nearly every important battle in the DLC have Pokemon above level 80. It was honestly the first time in the entire game that I felt challenged at all, especially since outside of this DLC, the game is ridiculously easy. Not only that, but every major battle in this DLC is also a double battle, which innately just makes them harder than single battles. One of the particular fun challenges I put myself to was creating a team with Pokemon caught exclusively in the DLC, which was absolutely fun to do, especially since I tried to devise strategies when using them as well. It felt super refreshing to feel challenged again in a Pokemon game, especially since most modern Pokemon games just aren’t difficult in the slightest.
And I’ll say as well, the Blueberry Academy environment is probably the best in the game as well. Of course it’s split into 4 different thematic environments, but because it is, it’s able to fill that space with enough things to feel really alive. Both Paldea and Kitakami had a good number of flat area, either grasslands, or deserts, with just nothing in them. But something about Blueberry Academy just makes it so much better. The Polar Biome especially is so much better than the snow area in Paldea itself, as it’s more than just a mountain, it also features glaciers and water areas too. This all doesn’t even mention that Blueberry Academy also has the best cave system in the entire game as well, I was in awe just seeing how massive it was, and it’s something that I was hoping for for so long.
Another aspect of the Indigo Disk DLC are the Blueberry Quests, also known as BBQs. When it comes to them, in moderation they’re fun. They’re simple little tasks you can do as you explore Blueberry Academy, and allow you to accumulate BP which can be used to improve aspects of the area, or just buy things. Why I say in moderation though is because depending on how you go about things, you may spend hours grinding exclusively for BP. Most single-player Blueberry Quests grant between 20-40 BP, and the special Blueberry Quests typically range between 100-200 BP. One of the upgrades you can get through spending BP are biodiversity upgrades, which allow starter Pokemon to spawn in specific biomes. Each biodiversity upgrades costs 3000 BP, which means to get all of them, you need to obtain 12000 BP total. Now, I chose to get them all at once, which honestly was not a good decision on my part, but I needed to do it at some point. I really think they shouldn’t be this expensive, most upgrades you can buy are 300 BP or under typically, so I feel like 1000 BP for a single biodiversity upgrade feels more reasonable.
And speaking of unlocking the starters and grinding BP, where I’m most conflicted on this DLC comes from the additional side missions that you can get in the game. The side missions themselves are fine, but the requirements to get them are just extremely tedious I feel. The more noticeable one is Perrin’s side mission, which you can only do if you register 200 Pokemon in the Blueberry Pokedex. Now that doesn’t sound too bad, but that’s until you realize that excluding Pokémon obtainable only through biodiversity upgrades, the maximum total of Pokémon you can have for the Blueberry Pokedex is 169 (this number accounts the Sinnoh starter you get in The Teal Mask, and the raid event exclusive Paradox Pokemon). That’s still a total of 31 Pokémon you would need to obtain, which then necessitates that you get at minimum, 2 biodiversity upgrades, which requires 6000 BP. And once you do, and once you get the 200 Pokemon registered, you don’t really get all that much. You basically get told “hey there’s new Pokémon in area zero, go catch them”, and that’s really it. In The Teal Mask, there was fun sequence that you did with Perrin that lead to you catching Bloodmoon Ursaluna, but nothing of the sort is here. And because of that, it just doesn’t feel as worth it as it did in The Teal Mask. And in a similar situation (though particularly my fault on this), there’s a small storyline after the events of the Indigo Disk where you can tutor the Team Star Admins. But to get this, you have to do all of the classes at Paldea’s Academy, rematch all of the gym leaders, do the Academy Ace Tournament, and then lastly interact with Penny enough to be invited into her dorm room. All this work just to get to what is ultimately a cute little segment that looks at the Team Star Admins after the events of the main story, alongside getting Team Star outfits. And while it is my fault that I just haven’t done the main game’s postgame yet, it didn’t feel worth it, and I feel like it would’ve been a lot nicer just to only require beating the game in order to see this small moment.
But yet again one aspect of the entirety of Scarlet and Violet that I always thought was strong was the game’s story. And the Indigo Disk is no exception to the matter. It was great to see the characters from the Teal Mask return, and the new role Kieran plays in the Indigo Disk story is really interesting to see. He sort of feels like that jerk-ish rival that I wish Pokemon brought back a bit more often. The new characters, particularly the Elite 4 of Blueberry Academy are also really fun characters to interact with. And I really love the ending sequence that occurs after beating the Blueberry Academy section of the DLC, when you finally get to see the depths of Area Zero for the first time.
And really its odd. While I enjoyed a lot of what Scarlet and Violet did, I’ve also found myself extremely critical to it. Because of the work environment placed onto Game Freak by The Pokemon Company, Pokemon as a series isn’t as able to be as good as it should be. Yearly releases have been extremely detrimental, and we’ve seen that for the entirety of Pokemon lifetime on the Switch. But with all this in mind, there’s an odd sense of closure having beaten this DLC. It’s an odd warm feeling in me that’s happy to see this game through to the end. It’s definitely been a rough journey for sure, but it’s one that I can’t help but appreciate. Yet again, I feel like The Indigo Disk is probably the best that Pokemon Scarlet will ever be. It still doesn’t fix the issues that pervade this game since the beginning, but it has the best explorable world, with also the most fun challenges the game has to offer. And, I don’t know, I just feel happy about this DLC. But regardless of that, if trends continue, I’ll be reviewing another new Pokémon November of 2024, so see you then if that’s the case.

On one hand, this a total step up from it's 1st part. It has interesting stakes, a bunch of new characters to interact with, more diverse map design, and some actual difficulty to it. Sadly, the DLC also feels rather jam-packed, directionless, and aloof. I know these are weird statements to make about one single expansion to a game, but Indigo Disk is just kinda a good mess.

100% I am glad they upped the difficulty for this DLC. Every battle feels like it could be a threat, and if you don't come in prepared it certainly feels you can lose it all to a gimmick or a lucky move. It's honestly been a long time since Pokemon has felt like it's kept me on my toes, and I really hope they will start giving more options for difficulty because Pokemon is honestly fun to strategize. They even managed to make the elite four for Blueberry both endearing, and remember-able with their tests, battles, and design. I can't express enough just how much I love both the returning and new characters they introduced for this game. It really helps make Blueberry academy feel like an actual place compared to the boondocks village we went to in part one. Even the areas you explore feel far more fleshed out, and have interesting biodiversity compared to the main game, let alone Teal Mask's map. Just in a lot of ways, Blue Berry academy feels like a proper lived in area, and felt like a proper well thought out campaign.

Indigo Disk's full campaign tho? Does not feel that thought out. The ending part of the game feels rather tacked on at the end because they simply forgot about the DLCs name sake.I really can't stress enough how you finish the main plot of Blueberry academy only to be hit with a rather clunky "I BROUGHT THE INDIGO DISK LETS GO EXPLORE AREA ZERO AGAIN". Like it just feels very out of place, and while it's nice we get to explore with the main cast of characters for the DLC, I just keep forgetting about the teacher lady. Like it feels like they had something for her, but they never endear you to her; she is just there for plot reasons. Honestly, wish this game ended at the blueberry academy stuff because all the area zero revisit is nothing, and the main legendary is pointless. It's really weird to go to a hyper focused story about a legendary pokemon to one that is just there. There just isn't any finality to Indigo Disk the same way that Pokemon Scarlet has with it's Area Zero visit. I really wish we either went back to Kitakami for some closure or just left it for the final story batch of DLC. Indigo Disk has other problems, don't get me wrong, like Blue Berry quests being tedious, the forced circled map design that feels way too cluttered, but it's name sake really is the part that dampers it all.

Indigo Disk's biggest problem is just it's sense of progression and refusal of having a linear storyline. I really liked the vast majority of this game, but it's so weird that Pokemon went from far too linear to far too open world. I certainly hope this isn't a sign of things to come because I really did like Pokemon Scarlet, and I think they mostly did a good job with Indigo Disk. Pokemon DLC still manages to impress me, while I certainly don't think this DLC is quite as good as Sword and Shield, it is at least attached to the better game.If you liked Pokemon Scarlet, absolutely worth buying the DLC for more of it, warts and all.

Creo que hagan lo que hagan Pokémon ya no me llena. Ha quitado pilares básicos de dificultad y postgame que ni en Dlc's están...
La historia se me queda inconclusa. La relación con los hermanos está muy bien hecha y es lo más destacable de este Dlc que termina con Kass. También introduce una "liga" con personajes más carismaticos que la mitad del juego base aunque haya alguna excepción con alguno de este DLC en mi opinión. Levi es un muy buen añadido y las innumerables referencias a Teselia/Unova son mágicas. Espero que no hagan un Remake de Blanco y negro ni parecido a Escarlata y Púrpura ni como la mierda que hicieron con Diamante y Perla.
La dificultad deja mucho que desear, meter más niveles, combates dobles o una banda/cinta focus solo hace que puedan atacarte una vez y no sea tan rápido de fulminar el rival pero sigue sin ser nada desafiante y mucho menos cuando han tardado tanto y debería de estar de base en el propio juego esta historia para que no fuese tan desagradable para la mayoría de los fans que pedimos un poco de dificultad o que vuelvan frentes batallas.
Y Terapagos deja mucho que desear, se lo han dejado para el final solo como un pokémon legendario que hay que capturar, sin profundizar apenas en todo lo que quedó a medias con el Área Zero y sus misterios.
Aunque es verdad que ha incluido muchos añadidos extras y Gama es la que tanto en la parte 1 como en la parte 2 ha brillado más con su transfondo y la forma que conseguimos ciertos pokémon nuevos gracias a ella y las referencias al que es uno de los mejores juegos de Pokémon de los últimos años (Leyendas Arceus)

Better than the first DLC for sure. Game still feels very incomplete and generally lackluster but I enjoyed most of this campaign and the new content it adds is fun enough. This reinforced for me that Pokemon absolutely needs a level-cap option or something. I overleveled by complete accident in this DLC and it felt really lame going from fairly difficult even fights to total pushovers. My experience with the campaign shouldn't suffer because I dared not to blitz through the entire story immediately.

They finally made a good pokemon experience. I didn't think it was possible. When I played this DLC expansion, I didn't think "It's good but..", I just thought it was enjoyable.

The music is good as always. The music is always phenomenal in these games so it's no surprise, but the final boss theme and wild battle themes especially were great.

When I played the DLC I used pokemon that were on par and sometimes below trainer levels, and with that being said, the DLC is challenging. I didn't use a hyper-optimal team, I just used an amalgamation of my in-game teams and new pokemon I caught in the terrarium, but I felt I used actual strategies, and the games tough. I can imagine a more casual fan who has less mechanical knowledge would probably have to grind to near max level. Luckily because i'm an untouchable video game messiah I was able to beat all my fights at the same level.

The fights were honestly just mechanically interesting. opponents used cheap stuff like intimidate and stuff. Kieran uses a VGC style Incineroar.

The new section below area zero is honestly just a bit of a letdown. No new pokemon to catch is the real reason, unless you want to count Carbink, but unless that thing has some weird scientific name I don't care. The final boss is phenomenal though. It's quite possibly the best final boss the series has ever had actually, although really the only competition is like N and Ghetsis.

Kieran is probably also the best mainline pokemon character, maybe ever? He just has a really satisfying arc and you honestly feel bad for him even when he's being an ass. I still dislike that we lied to him about Ogerpon in the first DLC, because I wouldn't of and my character is supposed to be a self-insert, but I can live with it if it means I get to fight him with Ogerpon and see him just get all pissed off at me.

Overall just a great pokemon experience. I will likely replay the game next year in order to play both DLCs simultaneously with the story rather than just slapping it on top. That is clearly how Kitakawmi is supposed to be played anyways. Perhaps my overall opinion on the base game will go up.