I really loved this DLC. First off, Pokemon Scarlet/Violet continues with maybe its best aspect, creating outstanding characters I love. Kieran and Carmine are outstanding. I adore them. I also enjoyed the story of the legendary Pokemon as well as the battles. However, I found the new area a little basic and kind of uninteresting to explore. Overall, though, a great bit of DLC.
A lot of setup and a boring new area. Ogerpon is cute, Kieran and Carmine are well written, overall a mediocre experience yet pokemon continues to prove to me they have the best character designers in the business, because i'll love literally any person they throw in front of my face. This DLC feels short, and the minigame they add is just that, a little balloon popping minigame!
As much as I like the aesthetic of Kitakami, there really isn't a lot to do here. I think Ogerpon and the Loyal Three are neat, and I enjoyed some of the references to specifically Legends, but that's about it really. I think while Carmine and Kieran are decent characters, I also found myself not really caring too much about them (which sucks since both DLC stories practically REVOLVE around them.). All in all, good setup for Indigo Disk but nothing too groundbreaking.
It’s interesting to see Gamefreak’s ability at crafting little open worlds evolve so quickly as they rapidly iterate and release new content so quickly. This is one of the best of these worlds yet, designed as a wheel with a tall, dense mountain in the middle and several biomes as the spokes, each with containing one of the “Six Wonders of Kitakami” which hilariously range from a circle of rocks to an unremarkable pond. The Kitakami region also contains elements pulling from the aesthetics of the Japanese inaka, reminiscent of aspects of Hisui and Johto in quite a few ways that I found delightful as a fan of those regions specifically.
The fact this is meant to be played in the post game, where players have Pokémon in the level 50+ range leads to a flattened level curve which allows you to go anywhere in the world and have a roughly equivalent experience, with a handful of trainer battles and actually putting me on the back foot and making me use items to stay alive, even in instances where my party outleveled the opponents by quite a bit.
The story also impresses by Pokémon standards, drawing parallels from the ancient regional myth of Ogrepon and the contemporary problems of the loner adolescent Kieran. It’s not deep by any means but it navigates its themes in a way that I just don’t expect from this series anymore. I think it fumbles the bag a little bit at the end, with a scene featuring Kieran that made me lose it laughing, and a cliffhanger for the second DLC that makes this end on an abrupt note.
The fact this is meant to be played in the post game, where players have Pokémon in the level 50+ range leads to a flattened level curve which allows you to go anywhere in the world and have a roughly equivalent experience, with a handful of trainer battles and actually putting me on the back foot and making me use items to stay alive, even in instances where my party outleveled the opponents by quite a bit.
The story also impresses by Pokémon standards, drawing parallels from the ancient regional myth of Ogrepon and the contemporary problems of the loner adolescent Kieran. It’s not deep by any means but it navigates its themes in a way that I just don’t expect from this series anymore. I think it fumbles the bag a little bit at the end, with a scene featuring Kieran that made me lose it laughing, and a cliffhanger for the second DLC that makes this end on an abrupt note.
The land of Kitakami is honestly the superior of both DLCs, it introduced the second cast of characters that will play onto the Indigo Disk so this one is basically the one that set things going, granted there is no much value once you completed the main story, I myself haven’t really been on Kitakami that much after it was over, but honestly the vibes and the aesthetics are so much better here than in Paldea or the Blueberry Academy
Love the new area to explore and train in but found the newer characters a little annoying. I appreciate the effort to add some narrative into this franchise, but it moves fairly slow for such a short plot and feels like a slog to get through at worst. The new characters and boss Pokemon also posed at least a bit of a challenge for me, but mostly because I don't have a lot of variety in Pokemon over level 70.
Ogre Oustin' ain't so bad at least, though I don't see myself getting hours of play out of it. The lore around the new mythical Pokemon was a little more intriguing than I expected, but overall this DLC doesn't do enough to elevate or compliment the experience of the main game.
Ogre Oustin' ain't so bad at least, though I don't see myself getting hours of play out of it. The lore around the new mythical Pokemon was a little more intriguing than I expected, but overall this DLC doesn't do enough to elevate or compliment the experience of the main game.
The Teal Mask DLC did away with much of the nonlinear storytelling from the main game, but, in its place, we got the equivalent of a two-part OVA series with characters that I instantly care about and need to keep up with. The technical issues are still there, and the lack of a need to explore Kitakami means one of the best parts of the main game isn't there, but The Teal Mask is still a fun and exciting addition to Pokemon Violet.