The follow-up second DLC part is thankfully a much-improved experience from The Teal Mask in just about every way. Well, every way except performance, but I've already harped endlessly about that so best not to dwell on it too long again for this review as I have a lot to say about...everything.

I think an unsung element that this DLC provides is one that the base game had been sorely lacking: post-game content. While, yes, not having much of any post-game content in the base game and forcing you to pay money to get what was missing is pretty scummy, the amount of stuff to do with this expansion is ABSURD. Like, forget all the new Pokémon to catch, that all kind of comes with the territory (though I am delighted that my homie Rowlett and by extension, Decidueye got in): you can customize your Pokeball throwing style, the style of the club room you're in, you have a variety of new emotes to equip, Miraidon can fly around freely now instead of being restricted with that heavy glide, you can craft an absurd amount of any Pokeball you want, you have loads of rematches with nearly every important character from the main story, you have tons of Legendary Pokémon to hunt, and there’s even this hilarious sync feature which allows you to control the Pokémon you have in your possession. I don’t fully understand how it works, and I don’t care. I got to be a Dudunsparce for a little while. It’s all I ever really wanted. It’s not even just fully relegated to Blueberry Academy either: there are a lot of side missions that open up back on Paldea; whether it’s becoming a makeshift tutor for Team Star bosses or being able to access the dorm rooms of your best buddies!! Again, I don’t appreciate all this good bonus post-game content being put in the DLC of all places, but I guess I’m glad it’s here at all.

As for the main portion of the DLC itself, it was pretty enjoyable! Blueberry Academy is a much bigger area than Kitakami which is a plus. It’s also a pretty interesting locale aesthetic-wise with the whole area submerged underwater and the different biomes segmented by colorful futuristic blocks. The main gimmick here is that every battle you have with trainers or the elite 4 are double battles now. Speaking of the Elite 4, GEEZ LOUISE. I’m glad I just ended up sticking with my regular story team because these are by far the most challenging battles in the entirety of Violet. All of their Pokémon are in the low to mid 80s and they’re all a fully fleshed-out competitive team, complete with ability and moveset synergy with each other and every one of them holds a competitive-focused item like assault vest or life orb. Admittedly Kieran is still a bit of a pushover compared to everyone else but it was still a lot of fun having to THINK about my strategy during battles for a change.

As I ended up hoping, the story of Kieran and Carmine wrapped up pretty nicely, with Kieran especially getting a nice character arc. Part 1 kind of left on a sour note but Part 2 does help to tie everything back together. I still don’t think either of them is anywhere near as strong as your friend group back on Paldea, but I still ended up liking the events of the story for what they were. I also liked the new characters introduced and the Elite 4. Amarys was the weakest of the group but I still ended up liking her anyway. Going back to Area Zero was a treat as I expected and the new music that accompanies this area was sublime. I didn’t care that much about the new Tera type even if it was pretty and flashy, but the Terapagos boss fight was very cool.

But in reality, what managed to bring a huge smile to my face was the epilogue Mochi Mayhem, the side story featuring the new mythical Pokémon Pecharunt. Before I delve into my inevitable rambling, I was quite surprised to find out how lengthy this mythical event turned out to be. Previously, mythical story events would barely last over a few minutes or so, maybe consisting of one or two battles at most during it. This beefy event is over an hour long, and while it isn’t difficult per se, I was just so incredibly happy I got to hang out with my buddies again. Right when Arven asked if he could hang out at your place, and then you go over to see that Nemona and Penny tagged along anyway, everything just felt right. I went on and on about how much I adored the friend group in this game, how they all clashed yet bounced off of each other in believable ways, and how each of them formed a different connection to you for various reasons. This mythical event genuinely makes it feel like they never actually went anywhere. I especially loved how when Kieran sent a letter to my character, Arven ended up getting humorously jealous that she made a new best friend (and thankfully this jealousy doesn’t drag on and isn’t serious either way). But that’s just it though: these characters are just so well-written and are so incredibly likable. I haven’t made this big of an attachment to many other characters of this caliber in a long long time, and jumping the gun a bit but once they inevitably move on to Gen 10 and stop making content for this game, I’ll be incredibly sad.

Not JUST sad because we won’t be seeing these characters again (at least in the context of what this game has to offer), but also because it sucks that no matter how much the game has going for it, Pokémon Violet will only be remembered for what it currently is: a blatantly unfinished, buggy, disaster of a game. Every good element the game has is buried under the mountains of problems it has that still TO THIS DAY never once got addressed. It isn’t a Switch issue, and it certainly isn’t remotely in an acceptable state: it’s entirely the fault of TPC for rushing this game out to market to coincide with all the merchandise and card games and toys and everything else. Maybe someday it will get a remaster or will be patched to look and run better on the Switch 2 or whatever. I genuinely want more people to give this game another chance. Yes, it’s inexcusable that it was released in this state, but this game, problems and all has offered me one of the most unforgettable experiences I’ve ever had playing a game. I even went out of my way to fully complete the original Paldea Pokedex. Even now I made 3 more new save files on different Switch user profiles (with the same character design I made in my original save file, she’s cute lmao), to relive that same feeling I had playing again. Meeting these characters again, experiencing the story again, and becoming best friends again. I don’t know what the next generation holds, but while they may not be able to recreate lightning in a bottle with the story and characters, if they can come within even swinging distance while taking their freaking time on letting the game remain in the oven, I think I’ll be more than satisfied.

As it turns out, even the greatest treasures are full of rust.

Got the game via a friend’s recommendation. I put off playing it for a while as I generally had games I was more interested in that I wanted to get to, but seeing as how he finished a game I recommended, it was only natural I would return the favor.

This is my first experience with a Remedy entertainment title. Right off the bat what caught me off guard was the world building. I started out kinda uninvested with what was going on (though not outright bored or anything), but the more I delved into the world, my surroundings, the pieces and bits of written and visual material, the more I started to get sucked in. It’s very much like SCP in that way, which funny enough this game takes HEAVY inspiration from. The game in general has a very eerie and unnerving atmosphere; sterile corporate office spaces splattered in blood and filled with floating bodies hovering above you, with the ambience consisting of loud chanting of bizarre incoherent phrases; don’t even get me started on those freaking Threshold Kids video tapes. I do understand that at the end of the day, it is trying to be more of an action game above all else, but personally I think it would be really cool if they leaned even harder into the horror aspect of this game (what can I say, I like me a spooky atmosphere). Despite this I also love when the game goes off the walls surreal and isn’t afraid to have a lot of fun with itself; whether it’s the Dr Darling music video, the optional movie camera mission in one of the DLC expansions, and ESPECIALLY the Ashtray maze.

And in terms of being an action game, it’s incredibly solid. 3rd person gunplay mixed with Psychokinetic abilities. These powers are all shared on the same energy bar so it requires some consideration of resource management to use effectively. Honestly in hindsight it makes something Silver’s gameplay in Sonic 2006 look even more sad than it already is. Despite how incredibly strong the psychic powers are (especially when you upgrade them), the game never felt repetitive for me despite how much I typically relied on them. This is helped in good part to the enemy variety (there are a lot of enemies that avoid the objects you throw at them) and the different amount of powers you have at your disposal, like the ability to mind control weakened enemies which ended up being a lifesaver in many hectic circumstances, especially when I nabbed the upgrade that allowed you to take control of heavy hitting big boy enemies. There’s also a lot of subtle yet conscious design decisions in how the environments are constructed and how you can maneuver around them freely as a makeshift combat arena. I also appreciate how every part of the environment is destructible which is not only technically very impressive, but also helps with your psychokinesis powers, as even with no objects around to pick up you can still yoink a chunk off the nearest concrete wall or staircase and use it just as well.

Exploration sadly isn’t anywhere near as satisfying. There are a lot of hidden chests to find around the bureau but they all contain the same exact things: crafting materials and mods. You equip mods to either yourself to boost your abilities via random perks, or to your different gun forms to basically do the same thing. I’m just gonna outright say it: the randomized loot system was a mistake. I don’t feel anything when I find a chest hidden off in the corner because my reward is the same “-20% energy reduction on using dash” fluff; it just doesn’t feel gratifying to obtain. Half of the mods I had in my inventory are just cluttered incremental upgrades to aspects I didn’t even care to be improved much. It would’ve been much more satisfying to just ditch the mod system and make it a simple upgrade chart like what they do with your abilities. I feel a better sense of satisfaction coming across a lore document or video tape or something I can read up on instead of the same generic RPG stat boosting mods with different forms of rarities on them that I’ve seen in every single other 3rd person action game to date. The boss fights in this game aren’t the most graceful (at least, the little you manage to fight anyway there’s so few of them) and some (particularly in the DLCs) are just outright terrible. The ending also feels pretty anticlimactic and abrupt, not even a final boss or anything. Just a final enemy gauntlet and all of a sudden the game just kinda ends.

Still though, it says a lot that after the game ended I went out of my way to see so much more of what the game had to offer. I wasn’t initially invested when I started playing, but after the credits rolled, I can go as far to say that I’m stoked for the upcoming sequel and what they can do with this concept.

(Also if we can get these guys to create a standalone Silver the Hedgehog game that would be great 😊 👍)

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So some personal thoughts here: this one review took a while to get out. And subsequently it also took a lot out of me. Idk, I feel like I’m starting to get burnout on making Backloggd reviews. It happened to a friend of mine a while back and I don’t think my level of burn out is on quite the same level as his was per say, my ADHD is making it extremely hard to get anything going. The worst part about this is that I LOVE putting my thoughts on a game in a detailed format like this, but I’m so behind on so many different games and I just don’t have the drive to do these as often. Maybe school has something to do with it, maybe not. I don’t really know anymore. I don’t really want to take a break as that essentially feels like what I’ve BEEN doing all this time, but I wish I could push on and keep making more as easily as I used to and I hope others that feel or have felt the same way can relate to my situation.