The Indigo Disk once again impressed me with an interesting take on a small open world. A giant terrarium split cleanly into four slices, each a different biome with wildly different terrain, leading to a ton of variety packed into a pretty small area, which is also dotted with tunnel systems that are complex enough that I don't think I came close to seeing all of it. All the callbacks to the Unova and Alola games through locales, characters, and music were all very appreciated as someone who is a huge mark for those regions. The focus on double battles here is fantastic, it takes the high-level postgame balance I loved about the previous DLC and pumps it up even higher, leading to even more encounters where I almost didn't make it out alive despite my playthrough-mons being near max level at this point. Story wise I definitely do think this one is a bit worse than its predecessor, it just feels much less focused and I'm not positive that I like what they did with Kieran's arc. I will say that I did really enjoy the ending, there's a couple of great subversions of series-wide tropes, and a phenomenal boss fight to cap it all off.

The Indigo Disk is a notable improvement from the previous DLC, The Teal Mask. Its challenges are significantly more engaging, in large part due to its focus on doubles combat. (Its Elite Four also each have their own challenges, which add extra low-challenge variety.) Its environment is significantly more interesting, combining a four-biome terrarium with a new school. And its characters, while neither deep nor terribly engaging, are more fun and imaginative. The Indigo Disk justified its time and enriched Scarlet & Violet, which is not especially high praise but is more than The Teal Mask offered.

The final chapter in the SV storyline, or at least thats what it seems, judging it from the overarching story this last part was the most plot driven of the two, and even tho the trailers and promo material hinted at a different approach I cant complain on the work they did this gen as a whole, Kieran and Carmine are some of the best characters in pokemon and the final epilogue with Pecharunt got the Zero Crew and them having a little bonding time, what I like the most of Gen 9 was that the characters and their connections felt genuine and natural, something I hope they get to carry onto their next instalment. But overall Kitakami > Blueberry, not sorry

Review pour le Disque Indigo puis l’Épilogue

Le Disque Indigo

Le DLC peut se décomposer en deux parties : L'Académie et la Zone Zéro

L'Académie est plutôt sympathique. La nouvelle zone manque un peu de charme de mon point de vue même si les références à la 5G sont plutôt cool, mais j'ai bien aimé les nouveaux personnages. Le point fort est cependant l'ajout de challenge : les équipes des dresseurs, même le plus simple, sont bien construites et surtout ont lieu en duo, un mode de jeu sous-exploité dans la licence qui profite pourtant d'une bien meilleure diversité stratégique que le solo (ce n'est pas pour rien que la compétition officielle a lieu en duo). L'histoire va quant à elle sera centré sur Kassis, devenu méconnaissable depuis le DLC1

La Zone Zéro est quant à elle ... mitigé. Partie la plus narrative censée expliquer le mystère de la zone zéro, l'histoire va en réalité être un prétexte pour finir de raconter le développement de Kassis, et laissera beaucoup plus d'interrogation que de réponse. Si à mes yeux ce n'est pas tant un problème d'entretenir le mystère plutôt que de tout raconter, mon reproche est plutôt sur la gestion du légendaire, Terapagos. Vendu comme la clé derrière le téra-cristal, son existence ne sera jamais expliquée, mais en plus le jeu ne réussira pas à créer un attachement vis-à-vis de ce dernier contrairement à Ogerpon et Miraidon.Dommage.

L’Épilogue

Contenu surprise annoncé après la sortie du DLC2, ce fut une petite quête sympathique. Certes, il ne répondra à aucune des questions sans réponse puisqu'il ne s'intéresse pas à la zone zéro, mais il propose une dernière interaction avec le cast originel et fini de conclure le personnage de Kieran et propose quelque chose qui n'avait pas été fait depuis longtemps : du contenu in-game lié à un fabuleux.
Cependant cette quête s'active grâce à un cadeau mystère, donc il se pourrait qu'elle ne soit pas disponible indéfiniment.

En conclusion, un DLC sympathique, plus intéressant que ce qui avait pu être proposé lors des DLC 8G, mais qui aurait pu un peu mieux exploiter certains éléments (et évidemment, la technique est toujours à la rue). Le prix reste toutefois élevé de mon point de vue.

Alright Dlc, the characters though? Genuinely some of the best we've ever had in the series. If Gen 10 continues the writing style of Violet then I will be SUPER happy. Kieran is one of the most well developed and interesting rivals we've ever had and he's in a two part dlc for a game. I love Drayton too. In the main game with Arven, Penny and Nemona we spent too long away from them until that amazingly paced and well written final saga. Kieran is there the entire time for both of these and its GOOD. Love Carmine too, she's super well developed and her slowly changing from a sort of grating brat with anger issues to a much better friend and sibling is really well done.

The general mechanics for this are fine, I don't like the unnecessary points grind and the School isn't super interesting of a setting. The new mons are super cool though.

Finished about all the side/postgame content I wanted to before the Epligoue came out. Some bits can be very grindy, even by this series' standard, but I guess the logic is that you're slowly meant to chip away at it rather than doing it all in one go like I did. Still, that's how I went about it and my enjoyment is ranked as such.

As for the DLC as a whole, a definite improvement over Part 1 in almost every way, but I still enjoy some parts of that more and vise-versa, so it's probably better to view them as one entity rather than two. A really good add-on to a Pokémon game that I'm hooked on like no other, so a great excuse to add another 50+ hours to my playtime.

Gameplay: Pokemon Scarlet & Violet's Indigo Disk DLC sees players traveling to The Blueberry Academy, a sister school of the academy, where, depending on their version of the game, they will participate as exchange students. The Blueberry Academy is an underwater school located in Unova's ocean, which does intrigue me because I do think that Blueberry Academy could be a location in the Unova remake, which I hope it is because the Blueberry Academy provides the best world building within Scarlet & Violet so far.

The features that come to my attention lie within the League Club room, which is one of my favourite features in the game. The League Club room is a room that can be accessed after defeating Carmine. The one thing I really like about the club room is that you can make it uniquely yours by earning BP by completing tasks across the terrarium. You can use them in the League Club Room computer for customization, and it provides a variety of clubs that can help with customisation. Think of the league club room as like the Room Of Requirement from Hogwarts Legacy but without the ability to freely place furniture or Vivariums

The clubs consist of an art club hosted by Filbert, who can remodel your club room with eight different styles to choose from. baseball club hosted by Mitch, where for 10 BP you can change your throwing style. The Music Club hosted by Allegro can provide a smart speaker for the club for only 50 BP, which can allow players to set the background music to their liking. The Photography club hosted by Iso can provide an upgrade to the Rotom Phone camera, which can add more Camera effects & Terrarium Club is hosted by Terry, which allows players to increase the variety of wild Pokemon that can appear in the terrarium, which includes 4 upgrades that add 6 starter Pokemon per biome. I like that Wild Starters are finally a thing in The Indigo Disk because this shows that Starters don't come from Professor's labs

I Hope that Scarlet & Violet's Indigo Disk DLC is Not The Only time we have features like this, because i do think their is potential to expand on the concept, such as merging the idea with Ruby & Sapphire's Den System, That would be cool

Story: After being invited to Blueberry Academy in the Unova region by director Cyrano, the player explores the Terarium, an underwater dome with distinct biomes and wild Pokémon. The academy introduces the Terastal phenomenon, and the player discovers Kieran's drastic change, leading to the revelation of the BB League. Despite being an exchange student, the player is granted the opportunity to challenge the Elite Four and ultimately defeat Kieran, becoming the new BB League Champion. The story transitions to a journey to Area Zero, where the group, along with Briar, aims to find the legendary Pokémon Terapagos within the Great Crater of Paldea.

In Area Zero, the player encounters the Stellar Tera Type and discovers a dormant Terapagos crystal. Kieran, eager to catch it, unintentionally triggers Terapagos's uncontrollable power. After a fierce battle, Kieran joins forces with the player to subdue Terapagos, leading to reconciliation. Returning to Blueberry Academy, the main story concludes. Post-expedition, Briar publishes a book retelling the journey, and the player receives a copy as a gift. Visiting the Crystal Pool in Kitakami, the player encounters Terapagos, triggering the appearance of Professor TuroV. The professor, fascinated by the expedition details, trades Briar's book for their own before disappearing back through time and space.

[Summary]
Gameplay: 8
Graphics & Performance: 6
World Building: 8
Story 6
Characters: 7
New Pokemon: 8
Content: 9
Music: 8
Difficulty: Hard
Length: 8.5 hours
Audience: 6+
Perk: Collector

Final Score: 8.1/10

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: The Indigo Disk was a pleasant surprise for me because I was intrigued by the trailers. The DLC introduces features I've wanted in a Pokemon game for a long time, such as Wild Starters and the Synchro machine, which allows you to explore the world as a Pokemon, which is the last feature I'd expect in a Pokemon game, This does remind me a lot of the PokePark games on the Wii & I do think this is the closest we are gonna get to spin off games based on individual pokemon

Probably enjoyed this slightly less than the first DLC. This one just feels like they needed an excuse to make a big area to throw all the new pokemon they added in. I do like the exploration aspect of this DLC better than the first which felt like it was just going from story point to story point over and over. But a couple things kill it for me. I like that its pseudo set in Unova with a couple cute callbacks, like Lacey and the music. But I preferred the world of the first DLC, if ever so slightly (there both not that great though). I liked the random villain arc the kid who has a crush on you goes through. Feels very un-modern Pokemon to do that. But I DESPISE the end game for this DLC. I didnt know how to activate the BBQ missions while playing through the main story, so I was just catching everything possible, filling the Pokedex and doing the story. But when I realized you needed to do A MILLION of those stupid sidequests to unlock the starter pokemon in the biomes to complete the Pokedex, I just dropped completing the Dex. Its not worth the 10 extra hours of doing pointless sidequests for that as a reward. I’ll include in this the Epilogue, though its not apart of the DLC. It was cute and I for what its worth, enjoyed it more in a way than either DLC just because the dancing and the dumb song that would play was funny. One day when I’m really bored, ill probably go back and really finish the Pokedex, but I have better uses for my time right now.

Playtime: 15hrs
New Pokémon Caught: 55
Shiny Pokemon Caught: 2

Final Team:
Meowscarada (Lvl. 100)
Alolan Sandslash (Lvl. 98)
Baxcalibur (Lvl. 81)
Blissey (Lvl. 94)
Suicune (Lvl. 100)
Flygon (Lvl. 100)

Final Thoughts:
I LOVED this DLC compared to the first part of the Area Zero expansion. This one was super challenging. A new Elite Four that actually made me strategize and build new teams around each encounter is crazy. As an old Pokemon fan that never (or very rarely) happens.

The final push to wrap up the over arching tera-story from the base game felt fine. I wasn’t too huge on the quick feeling resolution of it all but it was still fun!

Having Kieran be a through-thread from the first part of the expansion to this was a nice touch! And all of the new characters introduced in this part were so much cooler than 90% of the characters from the base game and expansion part one. With the exception of Gary cause he is just so cool!

I’m happy with how this ended though. It wasn’t a perfect ride from release of the base game until now but I’m glad I could experience it. Hopefully with the next handful of releases the Pokémon Company will clean things up a little some can have fewer bugs. I’m keeping my expectations for that super low though. In the end this expansion was good fun and I recommend checking it out!

Better than the previous DLC, Kieran's Joker Arc was definitely interesting to see and the "Elite Four" of this DLC weren't super easy to beat either, the newly added Paradox Mons are super cool, Stellar type is interesting and many of the Gen 5 and Gen 7 Pokemon that were brought back with this DLC make me very happy.

There's other fun additions like Synchro Mode which raises hopes in me (again) for Pokepark 3. Other than that though we got the same usual issues, big framedrops (especially when using the new flight feature), lots of second-long pauses and shiny locked legendaries everywhere, the BP grind for Starters isn't fun either, but the Gacha Pokeball machine definitely is!! That's a great addition.

Overall a good DLC and I'm excited to see what the Epilogue has in store for us.