I enjoyed my time, by all means, but I think my expectations were a little higher than perhaps reasonable - some aspects felt like a bit of a letdown. The main story of the DLC wasn't that much bigger than the Teal Mask as I was expecting, though I do expect there'll be much more of a postgame to enjoy. Despite continuing the story of the characters from the Teal Mask, something about how they were handled felt a bit less satisfying here, possibly because there's less focus on them. Also, the events in Blueberry Academy feel pretty much entirely tacked on to justify the inclusion of a new area - it is a cool new area, but the plot doesn't really start until you're back in Paldea, which in retrospect is sort of predictable given the premise, but still makes things awkward. As far as the main plot goes I think I prefer the Teal Mask, which is kind of a shame since it ends on a cliffhanger and leaves all of its resolution up to this.

Still, it's not all bad. As said, the new area is cool, I have a lot of hopes for the postgame, and the touches of Unova nostalgia hit me right where it hurts. The double battle focus for the combat is also great, though I wish there were more than the five major fights - again, though, holding out for postgame. I'll have to come back and dock some points if all these hopes are let down, I guess.

Now I can see why The Teal Mask was so barebones; all the content was backloaded to this wave.

It's definitely no Crown Tundra, but it's still pretty good; a huge step up from The Teal Mask (although, that's...not exactly a high bar to clear). The campaign is unexpectedly short––shorter than The Teal Mask's, even––but I suppose that's actually a big saving grace of it. The short length lets you get right to the stuff you bought this DLC for in the first place in a very timely manner: the extra endgame content. This actually feels like paid DLC, which I can't believe I'm saying, because that's how low the bar is after the previous wave was just slightly more of the base game: there's a bunch of new, really OP shit (like a new Tera type, for instance, that seems like it's really stupid), new Pokémon, and a truckload of new stuff to do; most of it involving grinding BP in the Terarium to unlock stuff. No, not that BP; Blueberry Points, the new special currency you get from doing little live-service-daily-quest adjacent quests in the Terarium. They probably thought they were real clever for that one. With BP, you can unlock the following, but not limited to: alternate throwing styles, a returning feature from the Sun and Moon games; the ability to catch all non-Paldea starters in the wild for the first time ever; redecorating the League Club room, which is neat, I guess; and the Item Printer, this game's version of the Cram-O-Matic from Isle of Armor, netting you all kinds of useful and even stronger items than its predecessor. The Terarium itself is really meaty; way bigger than Kitakami, and, woah, there's actually stuff to do in it?! Hidden locations to explore?! A sense of discovery?! That's pretty neat. I like that. They should do that more. There's quite a lot of Unova nostalgia in this as well, so if that's your thing, go wild. (Oh, so when it's Unova they dedicate an entire DLC patch of fanservice to, it's considered a "love letter" and epic and based, but when they give a bunch of alternate forms to popular Kanto Pokémon, it's considered "nostalgia pandering" and cringe and bad. Got it.)

Something I actually really liked was everything surrounding the BB Elite Four, from their character and storylines to their challenges and battles; I found them all to be an absolute delight. Crispin and Drayton's challenges I especially liked. Crispin's is basically a thought puzzle; you have to make the spiciest possible sandwich you can, using only the ingredients you get in the challenge, and the way you get ingredients is by battling, trading, and answering questions from the other trainers participating. Think of it like a souped-up version of Larry's Gym Challenge. Drayton's challenge is by far and away the coolest challenge in the entire game: it's just a set of double battles, but in these battles, you can only use Pokémon that you caught in the Terarium. You have to formulate and build an entirely new team from scratch; these battles are pretty tough, so you have to put a lot of thought into your team composition, encouraging you to explore every inch of the place to find the Pokémon you want. It's such a simple concept, but it's brimming with possibility and freedom; it's the definition of restrictions breeding creativity, and I really loved it.

It's not perfect, though; there are two key things missing from this. One: there is still no proper battle facility. These are a necessity for testing competitive teams before taking them online, and the lack of one, in an academy focused on battling, no less, is a really weird omission. Two: while not technically a "missing feature" in the traditional sense, it's still a weird decision to make: All of the returning legendaries are shiny locked. All of them. So, if you were looking forward to finally being able to get a shiny Urshifu, sucks to suck, I guess. Weirdly enough, not every legendary even came back in the first place, like in Crown Tundra; the X and Y legendary trio and the Sword and Shield legendary duo, for instance, are mysteriously absent; the two horses from Crown Tundra are present, but no Calyrex; none of the Tapus or Ultra Beasts are here; it's really odd.

All in all, pretty solid DLC, but it's not as game-changing as I was hoping it would be. Crown Tundra still remains the king of Pokémon DLC expansions (pun fully intended), and at the rate we're going, it doesn't seem like it's gonna be losing that crown anytime soon. This game's been a pretty wild ride; can't begin to imagine what they're gonna do next. I guess I'll see you all on Pokémon Day 2024 in 2 months?

Dear God this dlc left an awful aftertaste after I finished it. The main story was fine (although short) and I really liked the double battles and references to past games. The issue I have is with how the postgame is handled.

Of course my first thought in the postgame was to work on completing the Pokedex—but it turns out you physically can’t without MASSIVELY grinding out hundreds of miniature sidequests like “Catch a Pokemon!” or “Take a picture of a swimming Pokemon!” If you don’t have all the Pokemon locked behind grinding in other games through the Home application, you’re screwed if you’re a completionist.

It’s faster if you have friends with the game and dlc to grind with you but at this point, the fact I need to convince my friends to grind for maybe 2+ hours with me completely turns me off from an entire aspect of the game.

One thing I was really looking forward to in this DLC was catching the legendary paradox Pokemon they teased, but of course that turned out to be locked behind making huge progress in the Pokedex! And returning legendaries are shiny locked so that’s another reason to not return to this game!

Please fire Masuda.

It's better than Teal Mask thanks to a focus on more interesting/harder battles as well as some more interesting content around the margins, but the DLC here continues to make the problems with S/V immensely more visible. I won't even fixate too much on the jarring lack of voice acting (not even samples) for a fully 3D JRPG nor how the game still runs like doodoo.

As they give us more Scarlet and Violet, I realize more that the open world they've given us is actually rather lifeless. Even compared to Arceus, which was by design more focused on being in the wild, the open world feels weird, slapdash, lumpy, and with little to explore. It doesn’t give back what you put in.For a game that should be all about exploration, all of the amazing moments of exploration in previous Pokemon games -- stumbling on a crazy legendary or finding a powerful trainer, or even just finding a cool location by crawling around the edge of an area -- are gone. Instead, we have side content locked behind menus and boring repeatable quests, and the handful of interesting Pokemon designs these DLCs introduce are locked behind tedious Pokedex completion requirements.

The story is a little better than Part 1 (mostly because it is less wordy) but the stories and characters are still pretty boring and cookie cutter. It teases things like a new Tera type, Area Zero expansions, and the ability to control your Pokemon, only to give you the most boring version of each of those things. We're going back to Unova? What if we go to an underground terrarium instead of a place even a little evocative of Pokemon New York???

Still, the DLC introduces a few new Pokemon designs, some harder battles, a couple fairly nifty twists, and a better selection of returning old monsters. This is by no means a disaster. That said, for as much as I enjoyed aspects of base S/V, I feel like every piece of new content sours my memory of it a little bit. Nagging questions like "Why does launch Arceus run circles around S/V's performance on Switch a full year later?" and "Why do these towns just feel slapped down in the middle of nowhere?" keep getting louder. I remember starting up Violet after a midnight launch and watching the opening cutscene where the whole ugly world just popped in and out of view.

To be clear, I love Pokemon and think Arceus is one of the best games in the series. Just, man, how do you sell 15-20 million copies of each game in this series and this is what you put out for sale?

The Indigo Disk is everything I already love about Scarlet and Violet but more.

My favorite Pokémon of all time Flygon is back. The others are cool, but many of them are trade evolutions so you'll need a buddy and some cash for Nintendo Switch online, or hope they appear in raid dens. You can actually catch all the starters for the first time. That's pretty awesome. Legendaries are back but not all for some reason. Where's Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, the Tapus and Ultra beasts? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to exclude them consider their models already exist in Sword and Shield and Gamefreak could just copy/paste them in Scarlet and Violet. Oh well, I'm not super crazy about them anyways so I don't really care. Also, they're shiny locked. I don't care because I don't shiny hunt but it still doesn't make any sense why they are.

The new Pokémon are very cool and strong. The two new evolutions are killer. The four new paradox mons are epic. Terapagos is interesting because of its Stellar tera type, but I'm kind of disappointed. I guess I was expecting too much because how much Pokémon was teasing it since the first episode of the Pokémon: Horizons anime back in April. I expected a total powerhouse beast, Instead, it's a turtle. Still cool, just not epic.

The map is simple and very straight forward. Very cool how you're in an underwater biome. I don't know why but the frames drop to bedrock level whenever I'm near mud. The game is already kinda choppy but for some reason when I'm around the mud, my Switch is about to commit die.

The BBL elite four are cool but you don't interact with them very much so they are kind of forgettable. I can't say the same for Carmine and Kieran. Carmine is such a cool character. I love everything about her: her design, personality, her hair, how tall she is. My second favorite behind Rika. Kieran has a pretty cool character arc. He doesn't think he's good enough, so he trains harder. Eventually, he becomes the strongest around, but becomes a bit of an edge lord. I can relate because I went through a similar phase and am still going through it. Minus being the strongest and the acting like a douche. Kieran undergoes one of the biggest characterizations in all of Pokémon and I'm all for it! One of the many reasons I love Scarlet and Violet are the characters, and the dlc brings us two more great ones.

Being able to fly and not having to charge your tera orb are nifty quality of life improvements.

Soundtrack's alright which is kind of lame considering how many bangers the main game put out.

There's a little team star side mission you can do where you can see the admins in school uniforms and without their crazy looks. Seeing Eri without makeup or Mela in normal sized shoes but still walks as though she were wearing them was something I didn't know I needed until I got it. It was pretty nice to say the least.

There's a "final" cutscene where you meet up with the professor, but from the past. Essentially, the player inspires the professor to do the things he does in the main story and this creates a cool and kinda confusing paradox. I thought it was nice to see the story get proper closure.

In the BBL academy, you can invite the gym leaders or your teachers to visit. I love these characters and I'm super happy to interact with them more. But most importantly, you can invite Rika. Nothing written above matters, that alone makes this a 10/10.

pokemon sv at its best. feels weird reviewing right now when i know i'm just gettin started but the main story at least is over.

the double battle format is great and should be the new standard, the open world story stuff is frankly handled better than the main game, the new multiplayer mechanics are fun and addicting, the music is a nostalgia sucker punch, the story is quite fun with lots of new instant classic characters, and i can tell the postgame is going to keep me occupied probably until the next game is out.

if only it shipped in a finished state!

Much better than the first part of the DLC, this one was enjoyable to play and finish.

Encounters were also quite an enjoyable challenge, I faced them like you would a competitive Pokemon match, no revives or healing and it was a blast.

There's A LOT of content, and it's a shame that the technical issues hold it back as much as they do.

Look, there is a TON of content here, and most is quality! But it’s not ok to lock so much behind dex completion which requires you grind incessantly on rudimentary tasks. Those take ages unless you’re with friend. Luckily, my friends are as autistic about this series as me, but in 5 years time, can we expect people to replay this? Especially when the new paradoxes and returning starters and legendaries are also locked behind that dex/quest stuff? Oh and returning legends are shiny locked, and at present, their IVs are bugged. So that sucks. Which is funny, because they KNOW shiny hunters play this. A new dish literally omniboosts your shiny odds for every encounter. They know. But it’s a good conclusion story wise and an absolute love letter to Unova, while standing on its own. Excellent soundtrack, great new designs and characters, and a great selection of returning mons. I just think it was so close to being something better. Overflowing with content, but not the most future proofed. If my friends weren’t also autistic about Pokemon, I don’t think it would be as enjoyable due to how grindy it is. It undeniably is the bigger dlc. It’s quite easy to see why. But it didn’t need to be grindy. There is so much meat in it to begin with, that it didn’t need padding. I loved my time with it, but that aspect prevents it from going higher. Equal ranking to Teal Mask.

Ever since the base game's release, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have been plagued with controversy after controversy. While most agreed it was a good game, myself included, it was hard to deny the technical issues holding it back from true greatness. Sadly, the trend continues here with the second and final part of the DLCs, the Indigo Disc. At a steep 53 AUD, I cannot say the price point matches the quality we are given.

Not all is bad, however. Were the two DLCs around 40 AUD, I would probably be more positive. As it stands, Scarlet and Violet are an embarrassment in showcasing how little the developers actually care. This DLC is arguably the worst performing compared to the other DLC and the base game, with frequent dipping below 30fps and even freezing for a couple of seconds while traversing. I am annoyed they have charged us money twice for a product they refused to get to a stable condition. If the next Pokémon games have these same issues, it will straight up not be a purchase from me.

You may notice I gave this a 3/5, despite my harsh criticism. That is due to there being actual good things within. For one, there are a lot of great ideas, such as controlling a Pokémon directly. The issue therein lies there, and prevents it from any higher of a score. These are good ideas, and not implemented to any real potential. In a more polished game and greater purpose, these could have been more exciting mechanics.

The Blueberry Academy itself, the location we get to explore, it's... fine. At the least, it feels more impactful than Kitikami. Beyond the awful performance and severely lacklustre visuals, we have on our hands a serviceable land divided into four environs. The returning Pokémon are more plentiful than Kitakami.

The challenge is arguably the best thing about the Indigo Disc. Taking place in Unova, it borrows the mechanic of double battles and turns them into the standard for battling, aka the competitive format. This one simple change adds so much, allowing trainers to utilise actual strategy in their compositions. A trainer, for example, could have a Pokémon with Volt Absorb and an Alolan Golem with an Electric type Explosion to deal heavy damage to you and heal its partner. While still Pokémon at the end of the day, this adventure stands out as one of the most challenging to date. I was excited to battle each trainer I could, to see what type of strategy they would employ. Very well done.

Lastly, and unfortunately is a negative point, is the story. This is one element Teal Mask did better than this DLC. The only new character who makes any kind of meaningful impact is Drayton, one of the Elite 4, and related to Drayden. Carmine and Kieran make a return; the former is serviceable, perhaps even a delight at times. Unfortunately, despite a major plot point, Kieran I felt was a let-down. Something about his arc felt rushed, not given enough time to really show its full potential. But the biggest disappointment in regards to the story is Terapagos, the mascot Legendary, as well as leaving numerous plot points unresolved. As this is an unspoiled review, I won't specify what I disliked, albeit it should not be difficult to guess if you have played through it.

I really, really hope this series won't continue to drown in mediocrity of be dictated by the greed and blindness of the devs. We all deserve better than what we have been given as of late.

A huge improvement from the first expansion. The gameplay loop is expanded on with the addition of quests which can yield great rewards. The terrarium is a lot more fun to explore than Kitikami was due to its varied biomes and previously mentioned quests. Surprisingly the battles are a lot tougher in this expansion. Even with my team of level 100 EV/IV trained Pokemon, they still managed to put up a slight challenge at times, especially Kieren. Speaking of which, the story and characters in this expansion are honestly great. Kieren and Carmine become really fleshed out and develop throughout the two expansions, making for some of the better characters the series has seen in a while. Overall I enjoyed this expansion far more than the first wave, and this helps cement this as my favorite mainline Pokemon!

Indigo Disk has an enjoyable plot, even if there's nothing particularly special about it. The Terarium is an interesting place to explore, and I enjoy a lot of the things they've tried here like the Blueberry Elite 4, the vast majority of the DLC being double battles, and a few battles that were on the tougher side such as the final battle.

However, despite these pros, there are so many incredible disappointments. Past generation starters are locked behind spending an exorbitant amount of BP. Gaining BP is unbelievably tedious, gated behind quests that generally give 20-40 BP at a time. In fact, BP is tied into a lot of systems - donating to clubs, inviting people from Paldea, upgrading biomes, finding returning legendaries... There's so much to it, and yet actually gaining BP feels incredibly unfun. Performance is still pretty rough, though I had a better experience than Kitakami. My game crashed twice.

To be frank, this DLC has retroactively lowered my opinion on Pokemon Violet as a whole. This is the first mainline game in decades to not have a battle facility which really lowers singleplayer content - even SwSh had one, despite it being a pretty bad one. There was nothing akin to Dynamax Adventures added in this DLC, so no new interesting way to play the game. The DLC as a whole was pretty underwhelming, and I'm ultimately really just... Disappointed, I guess. I enjoyed the base game so much it kind of sucks to have the DLC not really expand on SV in the way I heard SwSh's DLC expanded on it.

It's funny, I hated Colosseum and XD for the whole almost-entirely-double-battles thing because at the time, double battles were a novelty that outstayed its welcome when stretched across a whole game. Fast-forward to this DLC where double battles become the focus for the single-player and they've been fleshed out so much over the years that I kinda wish doubles were just the default for trainer battles by now.

Other than that, it's more Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, for better or worse. Again, it feels meatier than SwSh's DLC, especially when a few of the battles in here were actually kinda difficult. The only part I'm outright disappointed by is how the story doesn't feel like it pays off either the first part of the DLC, or the lingering threads after the main story. Like, I don't mind if some things about this game's story just go unanswered, but it feels odd that them addressing it just puts more questions out there.

Anyway, speaking as a Gen 5 fan, if Pokemon Day rolls around next year and they announce Gen 5 remakes right then and there I'm gonna be upset.

It runs pretty terrible, and I got filtered through almost all of the Elite 4 fights for being bad at competitive Pokemon strategies (ironically Kieran is the easiest fight in the whole DLC lol), but exploring a new world in a Pokemon game is always such a nice treat

The story is a charming follow-up to Part 1 but I feel like the name is misleading, like the Indigo Disk is only relevant for 5 minutes and then you get rid of it forever

Anyway I've only recently really gotten into these games and I definitely think this has left me wanting more goofy fish and lizard friends to have an adventure with