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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.
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.