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.

With the entire dlc now finished we're at end of this game's cycle and I have to say this is the most mediocre video game I've played but it also plays as the best pokemon game I've played if this makes any sense. Sure, the obvious notes are that it still runs like shit and the overworld textures straight up look awful most of the time which is beating a dead horse at this point despite it being true, but it still can ruin one's experience with this game if they prefer optimization. However, when looking at the core of the series' gameplay this is what the best it has to offer. It's strange, I hate this game but I like playing this pokemon game regardless with all the moves and stuff it introduces.

Looking at this part of the dlc battles have improved with the factor of double battles and some npcs bring up a fight. Blueberry quests, while the points can offer you an amazing abundance of content and improvements like the item printer, is boiled down to a grindy system of ubisoft style boring quests that get old real quick. They really want you to do this part with friends because grinding to 3k points to upgrade biodiversity in the biomes solo is MISERABLE. The synchro machine is something that is a nice addition to the game even if it's extremely limited. You can also fight the legendaries in the post game but it is also attached to the BBQ stuff that reaches up to a max of 120+ quests which means multiplayer is a requirement if you want all of them.

Moving on to story beats. As I said in my Base Game and Teal Mask review, this game has a much better story than Sword and Shield with the characters being a lot more developed with a decent story pacing that can be engaging. Some of it didn't impress me unfortunately, but I like Carmine and Kieran as said characters!

A fucking mess of a video game as a whole riddled with bugs, graphics that sometimes look like I'm in a Wii game, memory leaks, and a barren overworld. Strangely enough, it still manages to improve with the gameplay and provide a great variety of Pokemon some people can if they just look deep enough. You're mid as fuck, Scarlet and Violet, but you keep sticking to your fundamentals.

It was...okay. It was about what I was to expect for the conclusion to the DLC for this game. While I enjoyed the nods to Unova through the music for the Blueberry Academy, I personally hate Gen 5 and that feeling carried over into the first part of this story.

While I thought a New Elite 4 was good, I thought the difficulty spike from base Scarlet & Violet was extremely apparent. I had to assemble a near- competitively viable team to even have a CHANCE at beating each member. Once I had said team though, the battles proved a nicer challenge that more often than not became a War of Attrition in some bouts. I didn't grow fond of any of the new characters for this chapter, they were very single-dimensional and lacked any sort of depth as compared to Carmine or even Kieren for that matter. Speaking of, I thought they developed Kieren through well being an utter incel. It felt good to beat him, although at the same time it felt like his battle quickly ended at the last pokemon as Kieren made fatal mistakes for at least 3 turns in a row.

There is a decent post-game on offer here for this finale; however the system with which you obtain these rewards is insane. The tasks, or BBQs, you have to complete are all the same and a major grind for mere PENNIES. It's almost prohibitive for players unless they have a group of friends to multiply the earnings. Still debating if I even want to go through it...

One last thing. To nobodies surprise Game Freak made zero attempts to optimize or improve game performance. The map feels smaller too so you would think it would run slightly better seeing as how they load the ENTIRE MAP in at all times. Nope, it still runs bad. Be warned.

In conclusion, it was okay and what I expected for this game. After this title I seriously hope The Pokemon Company uses other studios rather than Game Freak, or give them more time between titles. Its really starting to show.

El Disco Índigo es el final y la forma simplificada de lo que debería haber sido esta novena generación. Una segunda parte que al igual que su primera parte mejora el juego base gracias a Cass, Corin y el resto de personajes no traen una muy decente historia y sobre todo destacar el trabajo de Game Freak por hacer que absolutamente todos los combates del DLC sean un reto. Con entrenadores que tienen equipos competitivos y buenísimas sinergias entre ellos.
La única pega es la poca inclusión de Pokemon nuevo y los pocos que regresan de generaciones pasadas junto con el lamentable rendimiento que arrastra desde el primer día.

A little sad, I expected something more and with the length of the history, the post-game content is fine, but the story is not enough for me compared to its price. The dlc is fine, and the story, but since it takes place in the village itself, it should be within the content of the game, and not be paid.
DLC Completo historia principal. Un poco triste, esperaba algo más y con la duración. El contenido post-juego está bien, la historia no me basta. El dlc esta bien, y la historia, sucediendo en el propio paldea deberia estar dentro del juego, no de pago.

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.

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.

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)

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.

The frame rate specifically for this dlc was abysmal

We now have a new strongest trainer in Keiran

Keiran and Carmine are still the goats

Ive done everything but apparently find the "secret boss"

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.

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.

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.

✔
The Indigo Disk finally brought the story back to normal by hiring the usual Pokémon writers instead of hiring a bunch of hacks. This was a much better experience than The Teal Mask. However, if you didn't like base-game Scarlet overall, you might not change your mind. My thoughts on Pokémon Scarlet and The Teal Mask are linked here.

Now I admit I'm biased. The Indigo Disk mostly takes place in Blueberry Academy in the Unova region, and I am a Gen 5 fan. There's a lot of references to Unova that made it very fun for me. I loved Gen 5 and still do, which is why this is both amazing and worrying because I genuinely do not trust GameFreak to make a Gen 5 remake.

In terms of story, this was a massive step up from The Teal Mask. It feels like Pokémon Scarlet was extended instead of a badly written mini-episode just for the sake of making DLC. Yes, there were problems with the story, but these were the usual Pokémon story problems as opposed to actually annoying character work.

I have a few complaints. One was the seemingly required group quest ask. The idea that the online functionality was required for extra content sucked. Speaking of, I also found the lack of new Pokémon annoying. A lot of them were returning and it was so nice to see some of them, but it was just a bit sad that the new Pokémon were either legendaries, Paradoxes or evolutions. No solo Pokémon to speak of, sadly.

Weirdly enough though, none of these complaints annoyed me because I played with friends. Yeah, shocking that it took this long. Surprisingly, doing the group tasks with other people was really fun, especially with us all enjoying each other's company. If it wasn't for them, I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much.

One thing I was very impressed by was the difficulty. It seemed as though the team actually took time and effort to make the battles harder. In the base game and The Teal Mask, my death count was low (if not 0). Here though? I easily died mo than one time. This is partially due to the emphasis on more competitive battles. The format is double battles, just like competitive battles in tournaments for Scarlet and Violet. On top of that, even with my party in levels that were close to 100 (and actually 100 in some cases), they were countering me quite well. If difficulty was the only thing keeping you from getting this, I'm pleased to report that it's not "mash a to win" on the battles that matter. You actually have to think a little.

Overall, this was much better than The Teal Mask. In fact, this makes me think The Teal Mask was rushed out to satiate fans until The Indigo Disk. The moral of the story is that nostalgia can sometimes trump quality (it can't, but I still liked this). The 100% grind was a little annoying, but I was still quite happy to do it, especially online with friends. Even though I'm not done with RPGs this year, the Pokémon Scarlet 300% run is finally over.

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.

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.