Uma boa Dlc q encerra a jornada dessa geração no qual eu me diverti bastante a muito tempo dessa franquia
A historia é meio boba e sem muita criatividade mas compensa com um bom mapa e bastante conteudo, tem um sistema de missoes q dão pontos q foi o q eu mais gostei e odiei ao mesmo tempo, pois sozinho tu consegue muito pouco ponto e enjoa demais ficar farmando em contrapartida as recompensas são bem legais e até mexem na gameplay
Me despeço dessa geração com um indicio q vem melhorias no próximo grande titulo da franquia.
A historia é meio boba e sem muita criatividade mas compensa com um bom mapa e bastante conteudo, tem um sistema de missoes q dão pontos q foi o q eu mais gostei e odiei ao mesmo tempo, pois sozinho tu consegue muito pouco ponto e enjoa demais ficar farmando em contrapartida as recompensas são bem legais e até mexem na gameplay
Me despeço dessa geração com um indicio q vem melhorias no próximo grande titulo da franquia.
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.
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.
It's all fun and games for kieran until I hit him with my incineroar+zacian crowned lead. Welcome to the real world, kid.
KIERAN IM SORRY again
BONUS points for actually having difficult battles for once! wow!
except you drayton fuck you drayton all my homies hate drayton
BONUS points for actually having difficult battles for once! wow!
except you drayton fuck you drayton all my homies hate drayton
hell yeah this is what I wanted. The writing still isn't very interesting but mechanically this is what I wanted. Plus you can play as your little guys and trundle around. You can have a little tea party with your friends where you're all the different eevees. I can BE my shiny Hawlucha
This review contains spoilers
Presented some great ideas only to not do a whole lot with them.
The story in this DLC is far simpler than the previous one. While that one focused on the backstory of the legendary, and generally made the culture of the island feel alive, this one is all about battling. In fact the actual stuff with this DLC's advertised Pokémon isn't even mentioned until the very end, feeling tacked on like the devs said "Wait! We forgot that no one will buy this without a super special legendary to catch!". I don't mind the focus on battle over story at all, as while I enjoyed the Teal Mask, battling is the main reason I play Pokémon. But while the game puts you into an academy where battling and ranks are everything, it basically just forces your character to skip all the climbing and go straight the to this academy's "elite 4". I guess it kind of makes sense given you're already a champion in your home region, but it's a let down to basically hear all about the systems in place in this school for trainers, only to be told to ignore it all and just fight these handful of strong trainers.
Weirdly the elite 4 here don't act like the conventional type - they're spread out across the map, so you can fight them at your own leisure in any order and with as much training as you like between them. And before you fight them you have to do a pre-battle trial. Sound familiar? They are literally just gym leaders from the main game. They took the gym leader challenge, halved it, and called it an elite 4. There is a champion battle at the end at least.
They do make this whole DLC stand out by making every non-wild battle be a double battle. Considering how they've been relegated to a single gym in the base game, it's nice to see them back with such a strong focus. It's unlikely you'll have any Pokémon to make use of double battles considering their previous non-existence though. Double battles mean permanent set-mode too, making the DLC generally more difficult than anything previous (and on that note there's more strategy and higher levels than anything before too).
Another huge "sounds good, but falls flat" feature is the Synchro feature. You can control the top Pokémon of your party! You can only use it in the DLC area, but other than that it's unrestricted. Sounds awesome! But once the novelty of controlling a Pikachu wears off after 10 seconds you question what the point of it is. You can't do anything when controlling a Pokémon, except run around, pick up items and 'auto battle' wild Pokémon (the same as you'd do in "Let's Go" mode). So it doesn't really add anything to the experience beyond the gimmick itself existing. You can't even fly with flying Pokémon, or hell, jump with anything. It'd be cool if you had to control a water Pokémon to get something across a large lake, or control a tiny Pokémon to get into a tight hole, or control a steel or poison type to go through poisonous nettles or something. How about Pokémon races? The possibilities are endless. Of course having your swiss army Pokémon that is Koraidon/Miraidon makes most of the possibilities pointless. It can climb, swim, glide, move faster than anything else. While it has been great for post-game traversal, it made exploring the DLC areas lack a bit of the "exploring" part as you can basically get anywhere you want out the gate and moving from one place to another is as simple as gliding there from a high spot.
At least once you complete the DLC you get the ability to use free flight with your ride-mon, which is really the perfect gift for when there's no more exploring to do.
I guess the last thing that was a bigger let down than it seemed is the quest system. Having a bunch of extra tasks to do to earn this academy's currency sounds great! Until you realise this is not a set list of challenges, but rather an infinitely repeating list of like...10 things. "Take a photo of an electric Pokémon", "Collect 10 items from the ground", "Catch a Pokémon", "Travel 500 feet". You'll go through these "challenges" over and over and over, because the amount of points you need to get everything is a lot more than the amount they give.
In fact some of the rewards are adding starters to the biomes in the game, which... is fine. I don't know why Gamefreak think people jizz their pants so much for starters to the point they think a 10 hour grind to unlock the ability to catch them is so good. The grind CAN be heavily reduced by playing in a union room where all challenges of the players are mixed together and everyone gets points for every challenge any player completes. But as you can't even do random union rooms and of course this is locked behind paid online for Switch, I think the idea of making solo grinding vs group grinding be such a massive difference just comes off as scummy if anything, rather than the nice bonus it should be.
Another thing you unlock via the missions, albeit just by completing a certain amount rather than paying the BP, is Gamefreak's other thing to spam in every end-game part of a generation: Legendaries!
I really just don't know who this is for. Don't most players have multiple duplicates of most legendaries by now just sitting in Home? And let's be inclusive and count even players who are playing this as their very first Pokémon game - what are they going to DO with ~30 legendaries? I know I can't get in to the mindset of a current day kid, but I can't imagine it'd bring that same satisfaction as when we played as kids and got like ~5 legendary Pokémon to catch and overpower the game with. There's almost nothing left to even use them on by this point in the game anyway. I might not be so bothered by this but they went back to the really horrible style of legendary catching. Know how most legendary Pokémon now (including Ogerpon and Terapargos from this very DLC) are more "tough fight, guaranteed catch"? It was relatively fun and allowed you to catch the legendary in any ball you want. Well for all the many, many, returning legendary Pokémon this is done away with to be the bullshit RNG simulator of "get it to 1hp and throw a million Pokéballs at it cos fuck you". Who enjoys this!? Even the Sword and Shield DLC knew not to pull that shit and used raid dens instead.
By the way you can only get half the legendaries via solo missions, so if you don't have Switch online or anyone to play with, have fun not getting them
OK with my rants out of the way, the DLC itself is fine. The game still runs like doodoo, but ultimately this is just more of what you've had before, but now focused almost entirely on battles and using double battles instead of single battles. The areas are no more or less exciting than anything in Paldea, not even using any new kind of environments. But there's some fun in catching the 'new'/returning Pokémon and this ironically does a "school for Pokémon trainers" better than the main game did. The league club room is where a bunch of features that used to be base game stuff was finally added, like gym leader rematches and Pokémon throwing styles. It also finally gives a purpose for excess Pokémon material that you don't need to make any TMs, by having a machine that you throw a bunch in to and get randomly generated items, which can include tera shards (this DLC makes collecting them in general way easier), apricot Pokéballs and a looooot of junk to sell for money. It's basically just saying "you've beaten the game now, so there's no need to make you work for this stuff. Instead just RNG your way into it".
The story in this DLC is far simpler than the previous one. While that one focused on the backstory of the legendary, and generally made the culture of the island feel alive, this one is all about battling. In fact the actual stuff with this DLC's advertised Pokémon isn't even mentioned until the very end, feeling tacked on like the devs said "Wait! We forgot that no one will buy this without a super special legendary to catch!". I don't mind the focus on battle over story at all, as while I enjoyed the Teal Mask, battling is the main reason I play Pokémon. But while the game puts you into an academy where battling and ranks are everything, it basically just forces your character to skip all the climbing and go straight the to this academy's "elite 4". I guess it kind of makes sense given you're already a champion in your home region, but it's a let down to basically hear all about the systems in place in this school for trainers, only to be told to ignore it all and just fight these handful of strong trainers.
Weirdly the elite 4 here don't act like the conventional type - they're spread out across the map, so you can fight them at your own leisure in any order and with as much training as you like between them. And before you fight them you have to do a pre-battle trial. Sound familiar? They are literally just gym leaders from the main game. They took the gym leader challenge, halved it, and called it an elite 4. There is a champion battle at the end at least.
They do make this whole DLC stand out by making every non-wild battle be a double battle. Considering how they've been relegated to a single gym in the base game, it's nice to see them back with such a strong focus. It's unlikely you'll have any Pokémon to make use of double battles considering their previous non-existence though. Double battles mean permanent set-mode too, making the DLC generally more difficult than anything previous (and on that note there's more strategy and higher levels than anything before too).
Another huge "sounds good, but falls flat" feature is the Synchro feature. You can control the top Pokémon of your party! You can only use it in the DLC area, but other than that it's unrestricted. Sounds awesome! But once the novelty of controlling a Pikachu wears off after 10 seconds you question what the point of it is. You can't do anything when controlling a Pokémon, except run around, pick up items and 'auto battle' wild Pokémon (the same as you'd do in "Let's Go" mode). So it doesn't really add anything to the experience beyond the gimmick itself existing. You can't even fly with flying Pokémon, or hell, jump with anything. It'd be cool if you had to control a water Pokémon to get something across a large lake, or control a tiny Pokémon to get into a tight hole, or control a steel or poison type to go through poisonous nettles or something. How about Pokémon races? The possibilities are endless. Of course having your swiss army Pokémon that is Koraidon/Miraidon makes most of the possibilities pointless. It can climb, swim, glide, move faster than anything else. While it has been great for post-game traversal, it made exploring the DLC areas lack a bit of the "exploring" part as you can basically get anywhere you want out the gate and moving from one place to another is as simple as gliding there from a high spot.
At least once you complete the DLC you get the ability to use free flight with your ride-mon, which is really the perfect gift for when there's no more exploring to do.
I guess the last thing that was a bigger let down than it seemed is the quest system. Having a bunch of extra tasks to do to earn this academy's currency sounds great! Until you realise this is not a set list of challenges, but rather an infinitely repeating list of like...10 things. "Take a photo of an electric Pokémon", "Collect 10 items from the ground", "Catch a Pokémon", "Travel 500 feet". You'll go through these "challenges" over and over and over, because the amount of points you need to get everything is a lot more than the amount they give.
In fact some of the rewards are adding starters to the biomes in the game, which... is fine. I don't know why Gamefreak think people jizz their pants so much for starters to the point they think a 10 hour grind to unlock the ability to catch them is so good. The grind CAN be heavily reduced by playing in a union room where all challenges of the players are mixed together and everyone gets points for every challenge any player completes. But as you can't even do random union rooms and of course this is locked behind paid online for Switch, I think the idea of making solo grinding vs group grinding be such a massive difference just comes off as scummy if anything, rather than the nice bonus it should be.
Another thing you unlock via the missions, albeit just by completing a certain amount rather than paying the BP, is Gamefreak's other thing to spam in every end-game part of a generation: Legendaries!
I really just don't know who this is for. Don't most players have multiple duplicates of most legendaries by now just sitting in Home? And let's be inclusive and count even players who are playing this as their very first Pokémon game - what are they going to DO with ~30 legendaries? I know I can't get in to the mindset of a current day kid, but I can't imagine it'd bring that same satisfaction as when we played as kids and got like ~5 legendary Pokémon to catch and overpower the game with. There's almost nothing left to even use them on by this point in the game anyway. I might not be so bothered by this but they went back to the really horrible style of legendary catching. Know how most legendary Pokémon now (including Ogerpon and Terapargos from this very DLC) are more "tough fight, guaranteed catch"? It was relatively fun and allowed you to catch the legendary in any ball you want. Well for all the many, many, returning legendary Pokémon this is done away with to be the bullshit RNG simulator of "get it to 1hp and throw a million Pokéballs at it cos fuck you". Who enjoys this!? Even the Sword and Shield DLC knew not to pull that shit and used raid dens instead.
By the way you can only get half the legendaries via solo missions, so if you don't have Switch online or anyone to play with, have fun not getting them
OK with my rants out of the way, the DLC itself is fine. The game still runs like doodoo, but ultimately this is just more of what you've had before, but now focused almost entirely on battles and using double battles instead of single battles. The areas are no more or less exciting than anything in Paldea, not even using any new kind of environments. But there's some fun in catching the 'new'/returning Pokémon and this ironically does a "school for Pokémon trainers" better than the main game did. The league club room is where a bunch of features that used to be base game stuff was finally added, like gym leader rematches and Pokémon throwing styles. It also finally gives a purpose for excess Pokémon material that you don't need to make any TMs, by having a machine that you throw a bunch in to and get randomly generated items, which can include tera shards (this DLC makes collecting them in general way easier), apricot Pokéballs and a looooot of junk to sell for money. It's basically just saying "you've beaten the game now, so there's no need to make you work for this stuff. Instead just RNG your way into it".
While it's by no means perfect, I think Indigo Disk is a very solid DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The actual story is fun if simple, and I like how it directly carries on from the story of Teal Mask. The Blueberry Terrarium, while feeling artificial (since it literally is in-universe), is oddly a lot more satisfying to explore than Kitakami. I also really appreciate how challenging the trainer battles are in this DLC; they're all very well put together, so beating them may present a challenge even for those with extensive knowledge of Pokemon. There are also just tons of Pokemon to catch, which is always good, including several new ones. This does tie into my main complaint though, that being the amount of grinding for stuff is kind of grating. The new area has a side quest system, where you can do quests to earn BP, which can be used for all sorts of different upgrades. I love the idea on paper, and it can be fun in some regards, but to find every Pokemon in the DLC (namely the starters of past regions), you need to upgrade all four regions of the Terrarium, which takes a huge amount of BP. It took me somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes to grind enough for one upgrade, and that was playing with someone else, which allows for a MUCH faster grind since you can work on quests together. That all being said, grinding isn't at all necessary for the main story of Indigo Disk, and I do appreciate how full this DLC feels, especially compared to Teal Mask.
It is also worth mentioning that the new areas of the DLC suffer from all the same performance issues as the base game. I'm not sure that they're really any worse, but if you were bothered by the terrible frame rate and resolution of Scarlet and Violet then you are probably not going to have a good time here.
Overall, I think Indigo Disk is a really strong DLC. I'm not sure the whole DLC is worth the price given that Teal Mask was fairly middling and both run worse than a three legged dog, but if you don't mind the entry fee then and enjoyed the base game, Indigo Disk is definitely worth checking out.
Score: 80/100
It is also worth mentioning that the new areas of the DLC suffer from all the same performance issues as the base game. I'm not sure that they're really any worse, but if you were bothered by the terrible frame rate and resolution of Scarlet and Violet then you are probably not going to have a good time here.
Overall, I think Indigo Disk is a really strong DLC. I'm not sure the whole DLC is worth the price given that Teal Mask was fairly middling and both run worse than a three legged dog, but if you don't mind the entry fee then and enjoyed the base game, Indigo Disk is definitely worth checking out.
Score: 80/100
Would have been peak fiction if it was in literally any game other than Scarlet and Violet. Content-Wise this is probably the best DLC we've gotten from Pokemon so far, but the technical state of this is fucking embarrassing by POKEMON SCARLET AND VIOLET STANDARDS.
IT SUCKS. THESE GUYS ARE GETTING BETTER AND BETTER AT DESIGNING THEIR GAMES AND WORSE AND WORSE AT ACTUALLY MAKING THEM. PLEASE.
IT SUCKS. THESE GUYS ARE GETTING BETTER AND BETTER AT DESIGNING THEIR GAMES AND WORSE AND WORSE AT ACTUALLY MAKING THEM. PLEASE.
POGGED SO HARD WHEN I HEARD THAT TRAINER MUSIC
A DLC focused on Double Battle is something next gen should invest 100%. The adversaries had a lot of fun gimmick teams and actually competitive builds. unfortunately the AI is still dumb enough to not use them properly.
As ever with Scarlet/Violet, the characters are the stars here.
The side/end content included is a bit of a grind if you're playing single-player, but the pay-off is extremely solid and allows for significant creativity if you habitually create new teams like I do.
I can't wait for the Epilogue in a few weeks. Let me hang out with this cast forever, Game Freak.
The side/end content included is a bit of a grind if you're playing single-player, but the pay-off is extremely solid and allows for significant creativity if you habitually create new teams like I do.
I can't wait for the Epilogue in a few weeks. Let me hang out with this cast forever, Game Freak.
HOLY CRAP I WASN'T PREPARED FOR THE DIFFICULTY SPIKE
Uma grande surpresa pois não esperava uma dlc tão divertida. Os novos domes são mt gostosos de explorar, ser temático com batalhas em dupla foi uma refrescancia inesperada, a parte da história ficou bem encaixado e divertida. A batalha contra a elite dessa dlc é simplesmente divertidissima. E assim Scarlet e Violet, jogos polêmicos porém divertidos fecham com uma chave de prata sua era.
way better than teal mask that’s for sure.
Similar to the rest of this generation, I had an outstanding time with the actual game, especially the characters. I also loved the idea of the terrarium and how it allowed for a lot of biomes. The performance of the game was still, unfortunately, a hindrance, but it didn't completely hurt my experience.
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.
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!
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!
With the final piece of DLC out and another Legends game on the horizon, I feel compelled to do a retrospective on the whole project of ScarVi alongside Indigo Disk.
Engaging with this set of games has been a little weird, because I keep kind of wondering if I'm giving the game too much slack because I love Pokemon and if I'm being a corporate shill or something. Honestly, the analysis of video games as works of art is kind of weird when you get into something that's as much of a corporate merch machine as Pokemon, because there are definitely concessions being made in service of said merch machine. The games have had the same gaps between releases since the beginning, even though the games have gotten bigger and more complicated--and they were kinda held together with duct tape and chewing gum to begin with way back in Gen 1.
On the other hand, despite all the technical issues that have marred the game for a lot of people, I still feel like there's a lot of passion in these games! The corporation is hungry for money, but man, the devs care a whole lot about the things that I, personally, care about when it comes to Pokemon. I like the vibes! I like the direction the writing has taken within the past couple gens, even with SwSh being kind of unsatisfying! I like the new Pokemon and the fun concepts they've been doing inspired by real zoology!
And I'm gonna be honest here, Indigo Disk is probably peak Pokemon endgame for me. I have my criticisms that I'll get into, but this is probably the first time I've gotten multiple Pokemon to 100 through mostly battling since I was a wee baby with too much time on my hands back in Gold. I think a lot of the Battle Frontier type stuff has been kind of a miss for me because they... don't make number go up? I like it when number go up, and Battle Frontier encourages you to have number go up to the max, but the options to make number go up are limited. Like, I guess you're just supposed to keep fighting the E4 and gym leader rematches over and over when that's an option? But I don't... particularly like that. I like a little variety.
Between Teal Mask and Indigo Disk, there's a ton of high level content that will get you there, and Indigo Disk is really fun on the gameplay end. I think it's always been kind of a shame that for a game series aimed at kids, it doesn't actually bother teaching said kids how to engage with the official big competitive content. Not here, baby! Enjoy your double battles and examples of tactics you can use! The Blueberry Elite Four are fun characters and they provide fun challenges! I actually lost multiple times to characters in a Pokemon game and had to come back with better strategies! It was truly excellent. If I have any criticism about the battle end of things, it's that I kind of wish that Drayton's challenge had been a little more in-depth, because I really liked the concept of that one. I also do wish all the gym leader rematches you unlock through the club room were double battles, but it was nice to see Geeta actually use proper singles strategy by putting Glimmora first and sticking Supreme Overlord Kingambit last instead of doing whatever the fuck she did in the main game's story.
I also really enjoyed the Terarium! It was a really fun location to explore, even if I had a very specific problem with it that I'll get into later. I'm gonna be honest, I think I mentioned in my review of the Teal Mask that I preferred Area Zero and Kitakami's smaller but more dense maps to the big open world of Paldea, and the Terarium really drives home the feeling that I'd prefer a bunch of smaller (but still reasonably large), more detailed locations over an actual open world. I don't know, it's just more fun to explore, you know? I remember grinning in delight when I found fucking Pride Rock in the Savanna Biome and there was a male Pyroar standing at the top of it. There were cool locations in Paldea, but there was a lot of empty space between the stuff I actually liked, which is a shame.
Speaking of Area Zero, I really liked the actual character work going on in the story, but one of the things I wasn't... super big on in the DLC was the actual plot. I think it's kind of let down by the legendary, honestly. There's a lot of things about Terapagos I like (it's turtles all the way down!), but it feels like... a step above a mythical Pokemon in gen 6 or 7 where mythicals felt barely relevant to the games and were basically there to advertise the yearly movie. Like, it would have been fine in those, but these games have done such a good job making me care about all the other legendaries based on the stories surrounding them and the fact that they're so packed with personality that Terapagos really can't measure up to me. The epilogue makes this particularly stark, because after you catch the turtle that's just kind of cute I guess you get all the fun, crazy stuff that goes down with Pecharunt. (Also Archaludon is eh, Hydrapple Fucking Rules and is the Best Dragon-Type, and the new Paradoxes are great. I think I like the Paradox Musketeers better as weird robots than organic beings?)
The other big problem I have is... I actually kind of like BP, but I don't like how it was implemented. I think only being able to do the quests in the Terarium kind of sucked, especially given how much stuff you unlock back in Paldea. I wanted to try and get all the League Club Room character interactions and trades, but man, it made me end up feeling kind of bored of an area I otherwise really like and I kind of gave up after I managed to hunt down all the trainers in the Terarium. If I could have gotten BP in Paldea while tracking down legendaries and buying All The Clothes, I probably could've gone the whole way.
So I think... I'm actually kind of feeling positive on the future of the gaming end of the franchise? BDSP and the technical issues in ScarVi made me pretty concerned, but between Legends Arceus being a cool, experimental entry in the franchise and ScarVi really delivering on the aspects of the franchise I care the most about, I'm feeling... optimistic? It helps that the next game is another Legends game that seems like it has the potential to do something cool and different based on the little information we know. It also helps that it's getting more time in the oven instead of, like, coming out in November and being a little raw in the middle. Here's hoping!
Engaging with this set of games has been a little weird, because I keep kind of wondering if I'm giving the game too much slack because I love Pokemon and if I'm being a corporate shill or something. Honestly, the analysis of video games as works of art is kind of weird when you get into something that's as much of a corporate merch machine as Pokemon, because there are definitely concessions being made in service of said merch machine. The games have had the same gaps between releases since the beginning, even though the games have gotten bigger and more complicated--and they were kinda held together with duct tape and chewing gum to begin with way back in Gen 1.
On the other hand, despite all the technical issues that have marred the game for a lot of people, I still feel like there's a lot of passion in these games! The corporation is hungry for money, but man, the devs care a whole lot about the things that I, personally, care about when it comes to Pokemon. I like the vibes! I like the direction the writing has taken within the past couple gens, even with SwSh being kind of unsatisfying! I like the new Pokemon and the fun concepts they've been doing inspired by real zoology!
And I'm gonna be honest here, Indigo Disk is probably peak Pokemon endgame for me. I have my criticisms that I'll get into, but this is probably the first time I've gotten multiple Pokemon to 100 through mostly battling since I was a wee baby with too much time on my hands back in Gold. I think a lot of the Battle Frontier type stuff has been kind of a miss for me because they... don't make number go up? I like it when number go up, and Battle Frontier encourages you to have number go up to the max, but the options to make number go up are limited. Like, I guess you're just supposed to keep fighting the E4 and gym leader rematches over and over when that's an option? But I don't... particularly like that. I like a little variety.
Between Teal Mask and Indigo Disk, there's a ton of high level content that will get you there, and Indigo Disk is really fun on the gameplay end. I think it's always been kind of a shame that for a game series aimed at kids, it doesn't actually bother teaching said kids how to engage with the official big competitive content. Not here, baby! Enjoy your double battles and examples of tactics you can use! The Blueberry Elite Four are fun characters and they provide fun challenges! I actually lost multiple times to characters in a Pokemon game and had to come back with better strategies! It was truly excellent. If I have any criticism about the battle end of things, it's that I kind of wish that Drayton's challenge had been a little more in-depth, because I really liked the concept of that one. I also do wish all the gym leader rematches you unlock through the club room were double battles, but it was nice to see Geeta actually use proper singles strategy by putting Glimmora first and sticking Supreme Overlord Kingambit last instead of doing whatever the fuck she did in the main game's story.
I also really enjoyed the Terarium! It was a really fun location to explore, even if I had a very specific problem with it that I'll get into later. I'm gonna be honest, I think I mentioned in my review of the Teal Mask that I preferred Area Zero and Kitakami's smaller but more dense maps to the big open world of Paldea, and the Terarium really drives home the feeling that I'd prefer a bunch of smaller (but still reasonably large), more detailed locations over an actual open world. I don't know, it's just more fun to explore, you know? I remember grinning in delight when I found fucking Pride Rock in the Savanna Biome and there was a male Pyroar standing at the top of it. There were cool locations in Paldea, but there was a lot of empty space between the stuff I actually liked, which is a shame.
Speaking of Area Zero, I really liked the actual character work going on in the story, but one of the things I wasn't... super big on in the DLC was the actual plot. I think it's kind of let down by the legendary, honestly. There's a lot of things about Terapagos I like (it's turtles all the way down!), but it feels like... a step above a mythical Pokemon in gen 6 or 7 where mythicals felt barely relevant to the games and were basically there to advertise the yearly movie. Like, it would have been fine in those, but these games have done such a good job making me care about all the other legendaries based on the stories surrounding them and the fact that they're so packed with personality that Terapagos really can't measure up to me. The epilogue makes this particularly stark, because after you catch the turtle that's just kind of cute I guess you get all the fun, crazy stuff that goes down with Pecharunt. (Also Archaludon is eh, Hydrapple Fucking Rules and is the Best Dragon-Type, and the new Paradoxes are great. I think I like the Paradox Musketeers better as weird robots than organic beings?)
The other big problem I have is... I actually kind of like BP, but I don't like how it was implemented. I think only being able to do the quests in the Terarium kind of sucked, especially given how much stuff you unlock back in Paldea. I wanted to try and get all the League Club Room character interactions and trades, but man, it made me end up feeling kind of bored of an area I otherwise really like and I kind of gave up after I managed to hunt down all the trainers in the Terarium. If I could have gotten BP in Paldea while tracking down legendaries and buying All The Clothes, I probably could've gone the whole way.
So I think... I'm actually kind of feeling positive on the future of the gaming end of the franchise? BDSP and the technical issues in ScarVi made me pretty concerned, but between Legends Arceus being a cool, experimental entry in the franchise and ScarVi really delivering on the aspects of the franchise I care the most about, I'm feeling... optimistic? It helps that the next game is another Legends game that seems like it has the potential to do something cool and different based on the little information we know. It also helps that it's getting more time in the oven instead of, like, coming out in November and being a little raw in the middle. Here's hoping!
Polaroid's Mega Rush to the 2023 End... Game 7...
Last 'game' from 2023 I wanted to cover for this rush through December. I have some other games I'll cover on a top 20 list I'll post around New Years, however I didn't feel the need to write up anything for them in a formal log or something like that.
That said, the new Pokemon DLC.
The Mystery of Area Zero pertains to not any actual mystery or concern that I had with the location in Scarlet/Violet- but actually the mystery as to why Game Freak decided to call the DLC pack that. If I recommend this expansion it's not really for this through-line that they hoped to staple onto Scarlet/Violet, instead it's because I thought the new area and plot regarding Blueberry Academy's league was interesting enough of an add-on to kinda sorta not really justify the price of the expansion pass. Do I recommend you check the package of both DLCs out? Ehhhhh… only if you want more Sc/Vi, otherwise mostly check it out for the Blueberry Academy.
The Academy League portion is a pretty fun time, pitting you against some of the hardest trainers in the entire series. From basic trainers to the Elite Four themselves you'll face pokemon teams with legitimate synergies and strategies that are really fun to watch play out. I'm not really the kind of Pokemon fan to go deep into VGC-type techs and team compositions but I was really enjoying fighting battles that actually got me to think a few moves ahead. Sorry to say, Pokemon needs to consider switching to (or at least upping the use of) double battles. I think its way more interesting than the usual advantage based single battles and brings out the potential of a lot more Pokemon.
Similar to Teal Mask, I decided to create a new team centered around the expansion and I gotta say for a guerilla team this turned out to be a pretty enjoyable squad.
-Golurk
-Pawmot
-Talonflame
-Hatterne
-Archeludon
-Araquanid
Archeludon turned out to be a pretty surprise hit- I initially hated Duraludon's design and still kinda hate looking at Archeludon but holy hell does it take a beating. It's signature move of Electro Shot being a rain version of Solarbeam with the addition of a Special Attack buff helped a ton during some fights in which rain dance or drizzle was a factor. Golurk has also turned into a big favorite of mine too- not an explosive pokemon or all that impressive in the grand scheme of things BUT, I do think it looks cool as fuck and enjoy its ability that boosts punching moves. Golems are cool.
Yeah, there's not too much to comment on with this DLC, sad to say. Exploring the four main biomes is pretty fun, grinding Blueberry Quests (BBQs) is kinda tedious but easy, and a lot of the unlocks are nice. Also the fanservice in making this pretty Unova centric, in addition to some Alola callbacks is pretty fun.
I do think that this DLC also highlights another aspect as to why Pokemon as an RPG is so fucky- especially nowadays. You get dropped into the Elite Four section and can pick any order in which to fight them as you like. Its kinda weird, we haven't had an Elite Four like this since Gen 7 but hey I'm not complaining I always liked that kinda structure. Unfortunately, because they can be fought in any order, they have fairly equivalent levels ranging from 78-80. This isn't too much of an issue but that damn exp. share... Leveling is a breeze and it becomes pretty easy to catch up on the stat gap pretty easily between the massive exp gains and the constant 'feather' stat growth items littered around the world. It's weird, I don't think levels make or break battles and you can certainly win while underleveled as I did for most of the Blueberry E4 but once I beat most of the members and closed the gap things got significantly easier- the 'Champ' was honestly easier than the rest of the guys. I don't know, I don't hate the idea of an exp share that applies to all of your Pokemon but I wish there was a better way to balance out boss fights.
There’s some stuff after you do a small trek back down into Area Zero for one final ‘raid’ like boss with Terapagos, but I'm kinda burnt on Paldea. I think there’s a lot of stuff that could carry the momentum that the fan service creates but there’s so many irks and shortcomings that keep me from being positive through and through. I thought the base game, while hindered by terrible performance and some shortcomings of the open world structure, did deliver on a satisfying blow and acted as a more holistic (albeit janky) idea as to what a modern pokemon could be. However rather than support this idea and patch up some of the shortcomings, this and the last DLC kinda just exist as a side story with a bit of new content, which is fine but overall underwhelming. That Unova trainer remix fucks though.
Last 'game' from 2023 I wanted to cover for this rush through December. I have some other games I'll cover on a top 20 list I'll post around New Years, however I didn't feel the need to write up anything for them in a formal log or something like that.
That said, the new Pokemon DLC.
The Mystery of Area Zero pertains to not any actual mystery or concern that I had with the location in Scarlet/Violet- but actually the mystery as to why Game Freak decided to call the DLC pack that. If I recommend this expansion it's not really for this through-line that they hoped to staple onto Scarlet/Violet, instead it's because I thought the new area and plot regarding Blueberry Academy's league was interesting enough of an add-on to kinda sorta not really justify the price of the expansion pass. Do I recommend you check the package of both DLCs out? Ehhhhh… only if you want more Sc/Vi, otherwise mostly check it out for the Blueberry Academy.
The Academy League portion is a pretty fun time, pitting you against some of the hardest trainers in the entire series. From basic trainers to the Elite Four themselves you'll face pokemon teams with legitimate synergies and strategies that are really fun to watch play out. I'm not really the kind of Pokemon fan to go deep into VGC-type techs and team compositions but I was really enjoying fighting battles that actually got me to think a few moves ahead. Sorry to say, Pokemon needs to consider switching to (or at least upping the use of) double battles. I think its way more interesting than the usual advantage based single battles and brings out the potential of a lot more Pokemon.
Similar to Teal Mask, I decided to create a new team centered around the expansion and I gotta say for a guerilla team this turned out to be a pretty enjoyable squad.
-Golurk
-Pawmot
-Talonflame
-Hatterne
-Archeludon
-Araquanid
Archeludon turned out to be a pretty surprise hit- I initially hated Duraludon's design and still kinda hate looking at Archeludon but holy hell does it take a beating. It's signature move of Electro Shot being a rain version of Solarbeam with the addition of a Special Attack buff helped a ton during some fights in which rain dance or drizzle was a factor. Golurk has also turned into a big favorite of mine too- not an explosive pokemon or all that impressive in the grand scheme of things BUT, I do think it looks cool as fuck and enjoy its ability that boosts punching moves. Golems are cool.
Yeah, there's not too much to comment on with this DLC, sad to say. Exploring the four main biomes is pretty fun, grinding Blueberry Quests (BBQs) is kinda tedious but easy, and a lot of the unlocks are nice. Also the fanservice in making this pretty Unova centric, in addition to some Alola callbacks is pretty fun.
I do think that this DLC also highlights another aspect as to why Pokemon as an RPG is so fucky- especially nowadays. You get dropped into the Elite Four section and can pick any order in which to fight them as you like. Its kinda weird, we haven't had an Elite Four like this since Gen 7 but hey I'm not complaining I always liked that kinda structure. Unfortunately, because they can be fought in any order, they have fairly equivalent levels ranging from 78-80. This isn't too much of an issue but that damn exp. share... Leveling is a breeze and it becomes pretty easy to catch up on the stat gap pretty easily between the massive exp gains and the constant 'feather' stat growth items littered around the world. It's weird, I don't think levels make or break battles and you can certainly win while underleveled as I did for most of the Blueberry E4 but once I beat most of the members and closed the gap things got significantly easier- the 'Champ' was honestly easier than the rest of the guys. I don't know, I don't hate the idea of an exp share that applies to all of your Pokemon but I wish there was a better way to balance out boss fights.
There’s some stuff after you do a small trek back down into Area Zero for one final ‘raid’ like boss with Terapagos, but I'm kinda burnt on Paldea. I think there’s a lot of stuff that could carry the momentum that the fan service creates but there’s so many irks and shortcomings that keep me from being positive through and through. I thought the base game, while hindered by terrible performance and some shortcomings of the open world structure, did deliver on a satisfying blow and acted as a more holistic (albeit janky) idea as to what a modern pokemon could be. However rather than support this idea and patch up some of the shortcomings, this and the last DLC kinda just exist as a side story with a bit of new content, which is fine but overall underwhelming. That Unova trainer remix fucks though.
Edgy boy's upset, oh nooo.
most of the good will is from the tougher battles, and new characters. Drayton's such a pot stirrer, I love him.
But still. Minus points for no Golisopod (especially when Araquanid is right there, just to taunt me. Disgusting.)
most of the good will is from the tougher battles, and new characters. Drayton's such a pot stirrer, I love him.
But still. Minus points for no Golisopod (especially when Araquanid is right there, just to taunt me. Disgusting.)
How many times can this company drop the ball
For some time, Pokemon has had an issue with post-game. They still haven't brought back the Battle Tower (damn you, Game Freak), and while they've done a lot of quality of life fixes like Hyper Training and Nature Mints, there has been a distinct lack of content.
Indigo Disk definitely helps to ease the pain. Blueberry Academy feels lively and full of interesting things to do, including the ability to catch nearly EVERY start Pokemon from previous generations, which is... a very big deal, especially for shiny hunters. Every trainer battle within the DLC is a double battle, which is the current competitive format in Pokemon, further allowing newcomers to sink their teeth into the competitive scene easier. It introduces a system to catch most legendaries as well, and more interactions with characters from the main game. There's even a GACHA MACHINE.
It's truly jam-packed with stuff to do, and while the story is a little longer than Teal Mask, and the map is a little bigger, there doesn't feel like there's a whole lot to do in the main story for it. The post-game however, feels good. Finally, there is longevity to my Pokemon game. It's made me play consistently again, something I haven't done for some time!
Add on top of that another fantastic legendary design, the Stellar tera type, the Synchro mechanic, and the resolution to a certain character's crisis that was set up in Teal Mask, and Indigo Disk is up there as maybe one of my favorite DLC for any video game, not just a Pokemon game. Honestly just a blast front to back, and it made me realize how much I like using my Switch again.
Indigo Disk definitely helps to ease the pain. Blueberry Academy feels lively and full of interesting things to do, including the ability to catch nearly EVERY start Pokemon from previous generations, which is... a very big deal, especially for shiny hunters. Every trainer battle within the DLC is a double battle, which is the current competitive format in Pokemon, further allowing newcomers to sink their teeth into the competitive scene easier. It introduces a system to catch most legendaries as well, and more interactions with characters from the main game. There's even a GACHA MACHINE.
It's truly jam-packed with stuff to do, and while the story is a little longer than Teal Mask, and the map is a little bigger, there doesn't feel like there's a whole lot to do in the main story for it. The post-game however, feels good. Finally, there is longevity to my Pokemon game. It's made me play consistently again, something I haven't done for some time!
Add on top of that another fantastic legendary design, the Stellar tera type, the Synchro mechanic, and the resolution to a certain character's crisis that was set up in Teal Mask, and Indigo Disk is up there as maybe one of my favorite DLC for any video game, not just a Pokemon game. Honestly just a blast front to back, and it made me realize how much I like using my Switch again.
Fucking blows chunks
it's good but the climax is kind of gay
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?
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?
carmine yuri warriors where are you...
The story ends in a satisfyingly way. Character are unique and are nice, some side character have depth, more than they needed, but i think that adds to the charm. Alot of pokemon return and get introduced, a nice addition but also some pokemon id rather go a gen without. The map is nice, in handheld mode it mostly doesnt lag etc and its layout is more interesting than the mainmap. Alot of stuff to do, id recommend to get the DLC just for this alone if you got the base game.
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
This DLC is genuinely making me hopeful for whatever gen 5 stuff they're cooking in the future. Is it wrong to get my hopes up with TPC? Yeah probably. Do i do it everytime anyways? Absolutely.
Fine continuation of the DLC story that isn't as neatly made as the first part but enriches the overall game quite nicely.
+ more long-term content with grindable missions and an even larger pool of new Pokémon
+ refreshingly challenging double matchups as default
+ natural conclusion to the previously unfinished narrative
- uninvolved legendary that comes out of nowhere at the end
- less appealing main map
+ more long-term content with grindable missions and an even larger pool of new Pokémon
+ refreshingly challenging double matchups as default
+ natural conclusion to the previously unfinished narrative
- uninvolved legendary that comes out of nowhere at the end
- less appealing main map