Games I Played In 2024 - Pokémon Violet + The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC

 

Console: Switch

Developer: Game Freak

Release Date: November 18, 2022 (DLC released September 13, 2023, December 14, 2023 and January 11, 2024)

Pokémon Violet (and its sister game, Pokémon Scarlet) is an open world, turn-based RPG focused around capturing and training creatures, and the beginning of the 9th Generation of Pokémon games. While its predecessors, Pokémon Shield and Pokémon Sword were a hybrid of open world and more traditional Pokémon gameplay, Pokémon Violet and Pokémon Scarlet are the first true open world games in the series.

This Generation, including DLC, introduces around 120 new Pokémon, some with multiple forms, multiple new moves, abilities and items, and a new region based on Spain: Paldea. As is now typical of a new mainline Pokémon game, Pokémon Violet adds multiple new gimmicks to the series to make itself stand out as unique, including Terastalizing, Picnics, Auto Battles, Tera Raids, and the Union Circle, all of which I'll get into when relevant.

For the sake of transparency: I am a lifelong Pokémon fan, only dropping the series for a few years during the DS era due to not liking one of the Generations and also due to peer pressure in high school. So, this is coming from someone very well-acquainted with the series. Nevertheless, I'm not going to let my biases affect this review and will also use my experience with the series to compare it to previous games, both positively and negatively. Also, be aware that the Pokémon series is, quite obviously, aimed at a younger audience while allowing older players to get something, if not more, out of them. I'm passionate about Pokémon, so I have a lot of things to say about this game.

The differences between Pokémon Violet and Pokémon Scarlet are: 

• One of the main characters is different (Violet gets Professor Turo, while Scarlet gets Professor Sada) but overall plays the same role
• As is typical of the series, there are some Pokémon, both old and new, only available in either version to encourage socializing with other players
• The Legendary Pokémon you get to ride throughout the game is different (Violet gets Miraidon, while Scarlet gets Koraidon; these are on the box art) but they both get the same abilities
• The main color of the uniforms you get to wear are different (the colors match the game's title)

Other than that, the games are practically identical. What applies to one applies to the other.

GENERAL GAMEPLAY

To begin, Pokémon Violet's core gameplay is no different from other Pokémon games: you assemble a party of up to 6 Pokémon that you acquire from either catching, trading or hatching and fight other trainers' Pokémon or wild Pokémon in turn-based battles. Each Pokémon can have one or two of 18 possible Types, and they can learn up to four moves to use in battle. Each Type has its own weaknesses and resistances, which add up or cancel each other out when paired with each other. And, naturally, each move has its own Type. This system is tried and true: simple enough for a child to understand with relative ease, yet deep enough for an adult to min-max to their heart's content, especially when paired with all the different passive abilities, innate stats and other deeper mechanics that I won't get into. Point is, it works for a reason, and it's reasonably balanced too.

Pokémon games are typically linear and with a singular goal: defeat 8 progressively more difficult Gym Leaders that are all specialized in a Type to earn badges, then defeat the Elite Four and the Champion. Pokémon Violet is the first mainline title to throw a wrench into this structure (Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon came close, but their structure was still very similar, just with different names and titles). Instead, Pokémon Violet is open-ended by design, giving the player three storylines to complete in whatever way and order they choose. The feeling of freedom is very refreshing for a Pokémon game, as you get to explore Paldea at your own rhythm, and complete goals at your own pace. There's no need (or indeed, no way) to lock yourself into one storyline, and you can do anything you want. The addition of fast travel to multiple points of interest further allows the player to explore as they wish.

Pokémon Violet's premise is also different from previous games, as instead of being a child aiming to become Pokémon Champion, you're a newly enrolled student at Uva Academy (Naranja Academy in Scarlet) going on a study program called the Treasure Hunt, where students are told to explore Paldea and find something they can call their own treasures. It's a bit of a flimsy premise that, I feel, introduces some issues in the grander scheme of things, but it also firmly contextualizes everything happening better than previous installments. 

As a trade-off, however, the freedom of customization that has been part of the series since its jump to the 3DS has become quite limited: shirts and pants are now forced to be different variants of the academy's uniform, which severely limits color coordination when creating outfits using accessories like hats, gloves and shoes. It's a limitation that makes sense with the story, but is also strictly a downgrade from previous games that feels like it was introduced to reduce customization development time.

EVOLVING THE FORMULA

Shortly after beginning the game, you acquire Miraidon (Koraidon in Scarlet) as a mount, allowing you to jump huge distances. This was an almost necessary feature for an open world Pokémon game to facilitate the open world exploration the game requires of you. Miraidon is much faster than you are, but is a tiny bit awkward to control due to basically being a vehicle. As you progress through the game, Miraidon will acquire new abilities to make traversal even better. Miraidon is an ubiquitous feature of the game: there is no real reason not to be riding it 99% of the time, especially after acquiring all of its abilities.

Another huge difference from previous Pokémon games is one that is carried over from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, namely that random encounters have been entirely removed from the series. Now, all wild Pokémon are visible as you explore, and touching one will start a battle seamlessly. As much as I enjoy random encounters in RPGs, this was the correct choice for the series; I have far too many memories of spending hours running in circles in a patch of grass trying to find a rare Pokémon. Now that you can see everything, it's far easier to control what you fight. Furthermore, all Pokémon have (very simple) set behaviors depending on their species: they'll either ignore you, run away from you, charge at you, or be curious about you. You can also find Pokémon sleeping or eating. A select few will even have unique behaviors that fit with their established lore, which is a very nice detail. Since the Pokémon wander around in a 3D space, you can also now surprise them by starting a fight from behind them, forcing them to miss their first turn.

This is coupled with another welcome change to the series: Pokémon Trainers are now all completely optional to fight, and will no longer automatically challenge you to a battle if they spot you. It's easy to tell who you can fight too: they'll be throwing a Poké Ball up and down, and if it sparkles and they have a speech bubble with an arrow, they can be fought. This greatly adds to the feeling of freedom the game seeks to provide, and, like the wild Pokémon change, is something that should permanently be implemented into the series.

Terastalizing is the big new mechanic in Pokémon Violet, where you get to change your Pokémon's Type to a different one, their Tera Type (one Pokémon, once per battle). It adds a big crystal on their head and will boost moves of the Tera Type. This can also be their own Type, in which case this will simply be a power boost for moves of their Type. This means that Dual-Type Pokémon (which are very common) can end up being a Single-Type Pokémon, for better or worse. The way it is, Terastal is undoubtedly mainly used as a power boost rather than a strategic tool, especially since changing Tera Types is a bit of a drag, requiring 50 of a specific item (different for each Type) and requires the player to speak to one specific NPC. It feels more like an addition for competitive battling, rather than casual battling, which I suppose is fine. I find it to be a bit of a wasted mechanic in a casual playthrough, and most people play Pokémon casually, but it's not specifically a bad one.

TMs, i.e. items that teach moves to Pokémon, are also reworked once more in Pokémon Violet after being reworked in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. Instead of being permanent items, TMs are now back to being single-use items, but are now craftable to compensate. Using the new crafting system, all Pokémon have a material attached to them that you earn by defeating them, and with these materials you can craft TMs at a Pokémon Center. I enjoy this change overall, though I question its balance and relevance in the way the game is made: it's rare to not have the necessary materials unless it's a Pokémon that hasn't been found yet, and Auto Battle makes acquiring them a breeze. Overall, a good change to bring value back to TMs and making them a bit more interesting, though I don't know if this will (or should) stay as is.

The most exciting change for many, however, is the introduction of the Union Circle. The Union Circle allows a party of four players to play in the host's world with no real limits. Players can see and interact with each other in real time, emote at each other, see each other's Pokémon, see their battles, and more. It's the first time Pokémon allows multiplayer free roaming, and it's done surprisingly well. The one problem is that players are not visible on the mini-map, making it hard to find each other.

Speaking of multiplayer, a returning feature from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are the raid battles, now called Tera Raid Battles instead of Max Raid Battles. The concept is similar: four players fight an ultra strong Terastalized Pokémon. However, instead of being turn-based like Max Raid Battles, Tera Raid Battles are real-time based, meaning that while they're still turn-based, the time limit is in real time and goes down while choosing attacks or watching battle animations play out. Fainting leaves you unable to play for five seconds, plus five additional seconds for every faint. Tera Raid Battle difficulty goes from 1 star to 6 star, with 6 star practically requiring a coordinated party of four to defeat. Defeating the Pokémon allows each player to catch it for free, and grants a bunch of randomized rewards.

Now, as with some other features, I'm of two minds with Tera Raid Battles, though one is most definitely louder than the other in this case. On one hand, I love the idea of a truly difficult four player boss fight you have to fight online. On the other, the battle's timer frequently desyncs, resulting in fights ending when the timer is halfway done and making the whole thing a waste of time. Waiting for a party to join you takes forever (or multiple tries due to the strict timer), because searching for available raids is cumbersome at best. And then you have to hope the random players you got know what they're doing. I personally abhor Tera Raid Battles and avoid them whenever possible, but I like the idea of them.

Finally, Pokémon Violet has Pokémon Outbreaks that change every day. An Outbreak simply means that the same Pokémon will spawn in droves in a small area until either the local clock hits midnight or 100-200 are defeated. The more Pokémon are defeated in an Outbreak, the higher the chances of one being Shiny (a very rare recolored Pokémon that is valued by some as a sort of trophy) get. These Outbreaks are practically tailor-made for the Auto Battle feature, and are in general a good way to grind. However, some fail to work properly, or are in very annoying areas. I genuinely love Outbreaks and hope they stay in the series.

THE TREASURE HUNT

Victory Road is the first of the storylines, focused around Pokémon Battles and the new character, Nemona. This is the most typical and "safe" of the stories, as it is all about defeating 8 Gym Leaders specialized in one Type. Where Victory Road diverges from previous Pokémon games is, again, how open-ended it is: you can challenge the Gym Leaders in any order you want, rather than facing them all in a set order. This could be considered the base of the game, as it's where you're introduced to a good chunk of the new main characters: namely the Gym Leaders and Elite Four. 

The whole point of Victory Road is to catch up to your new friend Nemona, who is one of the most talented Pokémon Trainers at the academy. She is a fun enough character, brimming with energy and excitement, but she's also (by design) a singleminded character who is obsessed with Pokémon battles to an obscene degree. The game uses this trait for comedy, but it also becomes a little tiresome. Nemona is also shown to come from an extremely wealthy family, but this is barely touched upon as a character trait and is more of a sidenote. She shows no signs of being stuck-up or snobby, or even lonely. A bit of a missed opportunity, and by herself Nemona isn't particularly interesting: she shines when interacting with characters other than yours.

All of their designs are eye-catching and unique, as is typical of the series by now. Some are more memorable than others, especially in terms of personality, but I'd say they're all good characters, though not all particularly deep. This is a pitfall Pokémon as a series tends to fall into: since Gym Leaders are focused around one Type, their personality tends to be flanderized into one or two traits. Though usually fine, this time around some of them stand out more in a negative light compared to the more fully realized main characters. A particular highlight is Iono, a streamer/content creator who makes you participate in her stream as a 'collab' before taking her on, complete with a stream overlay onscreen. This is remedied somewhat in the second part of the DLC in an optional feature.

There is a big weakness to the Victory Road story, however: there is no level scaling. There is a recommended order for defeating the Gym Leaders, but not sticking to it means you'll fight higher level Gym Leaders first, and leave the lower level Gym Leaders for last. This severely hurts the feeling I suspect Game Freak was aiming for: players won't have their own stories of struggling against one Gym Leader while another player fought them first and found them easy. Instead, for example, Katy the Bug Gym Leader is always easy, and Grusha the Ice Gym Leader is always difficult, relatively speaking.

All Gym Leaders within Victory Road also specialize in a single Type, which is a trope I'm admittedly tired of by this point. I'd much rather Gym Leaders have teams more catered to their personalities, or teams created around simple strategies with unique AI. I don't need such depth in random NPC fights, but I feel like adding even simple strategies and more varied teams would give Gym Leaders even more staying power. The one thing different in Pokémon Violet is that each Gym Leader's ace Pokémon is completely unrelated to their assigned Type (with one exception), but the bummer, to me at least, is that they use the Terastal mechanic to give that Pokémon their assigned Type.

As a result, facing the Gym Leader's ace Pokémon ends up not being a big deal, since anything that works against their assigned Type will work against their ace Pokémon. Instead of using a Tera Type that counters a common weakness of their assigned Type, they use one that exacerbates them. This makes the ace Pokémon simply a cute addition to their team that somewhat adds personality, rather than something I'd consider intelligently added by someone that is, in universe, testing trainers for their battling capabilities. Especially considering how many of a Gym Leader's Pokémon use moves that cover for their weaknesses, I don't think it would have been too difficult for a younger player to make the Gym Leader's ace Pokémon use a Tera Type that also covers their weaknesses.

Overall, Victory Road is a bit of a mixed bag for me: the new characters introduced are nice and all, but Nemona is not interesting enough to carry the story by herself. The gameplay is what everyone expects from Pokémon, but with a huge caveat considering the lack of level scaling, which hurts it a lot in my opinion. Still, it's fun to explore Paldea to get to the Gyms, and getting to know each Gym Leader, even if it's brief. There's no twists and turns, and it's a very basic Pokémon storyline.

Path of Legends is the second of the storylines offered to the player, focusing on Titan Pokémon and the new character, Arven. This is the storyline that starts to reveal one of Pokémon Violet's biggest strengths, especially when compared to most of the previous games: storytelling, specifically character writing. The journey you go through with Arven is genuinely quite touching and easy to relate to. Arven himself is also, by Pokémon standards, a nuanced and interesting character, able to be used both in comedic and dramatic moments with ease. It's not hard to end up liking Arven quite a bit as a character, even if his first impression is quite bad. Seemingly, this is all by design.

In Path of Legends, you seek to defeat 5 Titan Pokémon scattered around Paldea to obtain the legendary Herba Mysticas with Arven's help. The Titan Pokémon are basically just huge Pokémon that serve as two phase boss battles, but to make things interesting, these Pokémon are not available in the wild until the Titan is defeated (except one, which is an endgame Pokémon). These boss fights are nothing special, but are still quite fun and are exciting since all five are new Pokémon.

The main appeal of Path of Legends is twofold: getting to know Arven as a character, and upgrading Miraidon's abilities. As you acquire Herba Mysticas and Miraidon eats them, it will gain abilities that allow you to explore far easier, such as gliding, swimming and climbing. Because of this, I'd argue that Path of Legends is the first storyline players should complete, or at least partially complete to upgrade Miraidon and make exploration easier. 

The bigger problem with Path of Legends is the same as Victory Road: there is no level scaling. Each Titan Pokémon's level (and thus, difficulty) is set in stone. While they can be fought in any order, each Titan doesn't get stronger as others are defeated. This, again, leans into one of Pokémon Violet's (and indeed the whole series') biggest gameplay flaws: its difficulty. Considering the game's other flaws, I suspect this is due to a lack of development time, as I don't see it having much of an effect on difficulty to have the 5 Titans (or 8 Gym Leaders in Victory Road) have different stats depending on the order they are fought.

Starfall Street is the third main storyline in the game, focusing on the villainous Team Star, and new characters Director Clavell, Penny and the mysterious Cassiopeia. What's a new Pokémon game without a new antagonistic team to fight? This storyline is all about learning about the new team, and as a result Team Star might be the best team introduced in the series purely due to how developed their backstory is. It's also a much needed bounce back from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield's very lackluster Team Yell.

Starfall Street, unlike Victory Road and Path of Legends, is mostly focused around the new Let's Go/Auto Battle mechanics. To explain, Let's Go (a play on the Let's Go Pikachu! and Let's Go Eevee! games) is a new feature that allows you to let the first Pokémon in your party out of its Poké Ball so you can take pictures with it or have it fight. Auto Battles are engaged through Let's Go by letting out your Pokémon and ordering them to attack a wild Pokémon nearby, with the result dictated by the level difference and the Pokémon Types. The caveat is that while it's much faster than a regular battle, EXP is greatly reduced.

The player is tasked to take down Team Star, bullies and delinquents that have banded together and created large bases where they can do as they please. There are five bases, each led by one of Team Star's Squad Leaders. The way this is done is quite simple: the player infltrates the base, defeats a set number of Pokémon using Auto Battle, then fights the Squad Leader's Starmobile, which is a unique boss version of a new Pokémon with different typing depending on the Squad Leader.

Since Auto Battles are far from being the most dynamic and interesting mechanic, Starfall Street mostly falls flat in terms of gameplay, with only the Squad Leader battle being really interesting. However, all five Starmobiles look the same except for the paint job, which makes each fight feel almost the same despite the different Squad Leaders and its Type. It's sort of a mix of both Path of Legend and Victory Road, as you fight Type specific leaders that command a huge boss instead of a team of Pokémon, with an Auto Battle intro.

Once again, where Starfall Street shines is in the writing department: all five Squad Leaders are great characters with very distinctive designs that stand out. They're all nuanced enough to feel like people and not caricatures, and their backstories all make sense. Most importantly, their friendship comes across as genuine despite how different all five are. There's also some nice story twists near the end that aren't particularly surprising to an adult, but might be very memorable and shocking to a younger player.

The Way Home is the game's fourth and final storyline, unlocked when Victory Road, Path of Legends and Starfall Street are completed. I won't spoil much, as I genuinely think this is one of (if not the) best final story sequence in series history. In The Way Home, you, Arven, Nemona and Penny explore the mysterious and off-limits Area Zero, rumored to have unknown Pokémon and talked about in legends written in the Violet Book (Scarlet Book in Scarlet).

This is the first time in series history that, as you adventure, NPCs are accompanying you in real-time and reacting to what's going on. To be quite frank, this is the highlight of the game, and the chemistry between Nemona, Arven and Penny is shockingly solid with all three feeling like good friends. There are some slight horror vibes to this storyline as well, and some genuinely sad storytelling that ends in a massive, dramatic showdown.

Area Zero itself is also an interesting zone in the game, as it's completely disconnected from the main Paldea map and also has no map whatsoever, forcing the player to explore and memorise it instead of relying on a map. It's a little small, and mostly built vertically, but its entire presentation is extremely memorable. 

The Way Home has no gameplay gimmick, instead being a linear sprint to the end. It's a satisfying ending to the game, and makes it worth playing through it all, in my opinion.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

All of the satisfying storytelling, good character writing, and solid game mechanics in the world doesn't help Pokémon Violet get over its biggest and most glaring flaws: the graphics and the performance. Simply put, Pokémon Violet is, outside of character and Pokémon models, an ugly game with bland textures, low-quality environments, terrible framerate issues, and more. Let's tackle these one at a time.

First, and the most glaring issue of all, is the game's performance issues. Playing Pokémon Violet at a stable 30fps is a rarity, borderline an impossibility. The framerate constantly dips if too much is on the screen, especially when pulling the camera back to have a bigger field of view. Even cutscenes stutter and freeze when they absolutely should not. Any encounter with rain, a sandstorm, or even some bodies of water is a surefire way to tank the framerate, and adding in battle effects just makes things worse. Just rotating the camera (the sensibility of which can't be changed at all, as an aside) is often enough to lag the game.

The game's draw distance is very impressive, but the radius for level of detail is actually quite pitiful: Pokémon that are reasonably close to you will be rendered as a low-poly version of themselves unless you're right next to them or battling them. Buildings and environmental details in the distance look blocky and blurry. Things like grass and flowers look terrible and copy-pasted around the map. It's all a mess.

This is not to mention the game's map itself: Paldea is not a visually interesting place. Instead, it's a very standard, generic open world with caves, plains, a snowy mountain, beaches, and small forests. There are few noteworthy landmarks or vistas that make exploring truly remarkable, and instead exploration is encouraged by stringing the player along by using randomly generated items on the ground, cluttering the inventory with typically useless or highly specific items that most players won't even look at.

For the first time in the series, towns can be seamlessly entered from the rest of the map, which I consider an overall downgrade. Because of this, towns mostly feel small and featureless, further compounded by the lack of buildings that can be entered that aren't stores. Plus, most NPCs merely have a single speech bubble above their head when you approach them, instead of dedicated dialogue. In older games, getting to a new town was exciting and I would talk to every NPC and enter every house to see what I could find. Now, towns are merely a clumsy hub for stores, a Pokémon Center, and often a Gym for the Victory Road story. Often, they lag and just aren't fun to explore like they used to be. They feel smaller and emptier than in previous entries to me.

Then, there's the glitches. While the game has been patched multiple times since release, it still runs terribly in most cases (tip: leave your camera as close to your character as possible), occasionally freezes for multiple seconds (!!), Pokémon frequently spawn inside walls or, in certain areas, inside the floor. Pokémon Outbreaks sometimes don't work at all, or stop working suddenly with no explanation. Let's Go can stop working entirely, with your Pokémon immobile and the player character unable to throw Poké Balls. In tighter spaces, the camera can clip out of bounds and the character can end battles inside walls. Far away environments flicker in and out of existence at certain angles (including some cutscenes). Shadows disappear and reappear randomly in some instances.

None of it is a dealbreaker (to me, a lifelong Pokémon fan) since it's a turn-based RPG and not an action RPG, but all the little nuisances add up and make the game, quite frankly, a deserved laughingstock from an outside perspective. At release, the Elite Four battle theme looped the first five seconds ad infinitum instead of playing properly, and there were memory leak-related crashes every few hours. It's honestly shocking that the game was allowed to release in this state, and over a year later it's still in dire need of help.

A SILVER LINING?

Despite all that, there's nonetheless thing to like about Pokémon Violet when it comes to graphics. Most Pokémon have never looked better, with optimized models, a softer artstyle that complements the designs with a lack of thick outlines, and most importantly, a new texture system that gives Pokémon new depths. Reptile Pokémon have scales, metallic Pokémon are reflective, and furry Pokémon are fuzzy. Pokémon get more reflective in the rain due to being wet, and they get covered in very light snow in snowy areas. 

The Pokémon animations are also top-notch and especially stand out in the new Picnic feature, where you get to set up a picnic with your party. During a Picnic, no wild Pokémon will approach you, and you can safely take pictures of your Pokémon, throw them a ball, or wash them; all of which raises their friendship with you which will grant bonus effects in single player battles. You can also make submarine sandwiches with a huge amount of possible ingredients and spreads that are all categorized by flavors for a bunch of bonuses. Characters also look great for the most part, with animations that are brimming with character, yet are simple enough to fit in Pokémon. Something that has to be pointed out, however, is that making sandwiches is not much different from making curry in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, and washing Pokémon is not that different from the Pokémon Amie feature that was introduced a few Generations back, as it allowed the player to feed and pet their Pokémon.

Something I'm of two minds about is the new way to breed Pokémon; in former installments, you would place two Pokémon in a daycare and collect the eggs if they were compatible. Now, breeding is done through the Picnic feature; staying in a picnic has a chance of making eggs appear in the picnic basket. On one hand, this allows the player to breed Pokémon anywhere they want in an efficient way. On the other, it's a more dedicated and strenuous process: without making a sandwich with the Egg Power buff, it takes a long time for a single egg to appear in the basket. 

Most importantly, breeding Pokémon used to be something done actively in a sort of cycle: collect an egg, walk around for it to hatch, come back to get a new egg when one's available. Now, breeding is done in two steps instead of a cycle: collect all the eggs you want, then hatch them all. Thus, the way you feel about this change will depend on your preference. I personally dislike it, but it's almost certainly due to how used to the previous system I am.

THE HIDDEN TREASURE OF AREA ZERO

Pokémon Violet's DLC, The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, comes in two (technically three) parts: The Teal Mask and the Indigo Disk. Both introduce a new region to explore, with returning Pokémon from previous Generations and a handful of new Pokémon Legendaries alongside new customization options. Unlike the main game, both DLC stories are more linear in nature, but still allow free exploration of their maps. Surprisingly, Nemona, Arven and Penny are nowhere to be found in both DLCs.

The Teal Mask is the first DLC, and is set in the small region of Kitakami, focusing on the story of the Loyal Three and Ogerpon, as well as new characters Carmine and Kieran. Kitakami is a entirely new map, with a single town and a few points of interest; it's about as big as a third of Paldea, perhaps more. Early on, you will meet Carmine and Kieran, two fantastic new characters that are both nuanced, genuine and go through believable story arcs. They might even be my two favorite characters in the entire series.

The Teal Mask's greatest strength is its worldbuilding and character writing: getting to know Carmine and Kieran and learning about Kitakami's history is genuinely interesting and fun. It's made easier by being framed as a field trip, making it the in-universe reason for being there as well. In fact, I'd argue that Kitakami as a region is better defined and more memorable than Paldea, despite being smaller and having less to do.

While it has one massive recognisable landmark, Kitakami still has the same issues as Paldea: it's a largely featureless and bland map with nothing that actually stands out. Graphical and framerate issues are still present as well. Thankfully, it's carried by its worldbuilding and lore, as the story itself is quite simple and straightforward, yet interesting since it's focused on Carmine and Kieran. Plus, to be honest, the quality of the storytelling around this has made Ogerpon my favorite Pokémon despite being new for The Teal Mask. I found it all that effective.

The story has four bosses, with the final one being a four phase juggernaut. All four bosses are good fights, and resemble the Titan Pokémon fights or the Starmobile fights in structure. The final one especially might be one of the best boss fights in the series, though actual, single boss fights have only been introduced since the Seventh Generation with Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon.

Outside of the main story, there's a photography sidequest with new character Perrin that rewards the player with a unique Pokémon, which is always welcome and also quite fun to do. There's also a new minigame, called Ogre Oustin', which is nothing special. The idea behind it is fun enough, but the framerate issues are so prevalent during it that I found it completely unfun.

Overall, The Teal Mask is a great DLC with a great story, fantastic characters, great new Pokémon, and a somewhat lackluster new region. It's worth noting that having The Teal Mask means having access to Kitakami at all times, meaning there are more Outbreaks every day.

The Indigo Disk is the direct sequel to The Teal Mask, again starring Carmine and Kieran a few months after the events of the first DLC, but this time at their school: the Blueberry Academy. The Indigo Disk is simultaneously worse and better than The Teal Mask. While it introduces good new features (such as infinite flight) and fun gimmicks, it also falters where it shouldn't, resulting in a bit of an unsatisfying end. Due to being a sequel to The Teal Mask, it must be completed before accessing The Indigo Disk.

Taking place in the Blueberry Academy, almost all of the DLC takes place within the Terarium, an underwater facility that is about half the size of Paldea with four distinct biomes. The Terarium's artificiality is not hidden in the least, making its appearance (a big circle) and features feel more like gameplay features than a real place.

Part of where The Indigo Disk shines is pure gameplay: it's more fun to explore than Kitakami due to the varied biomes, adds a fun gimmick that lets players control their Let's Go Pokémon (but only in the Terarium), and has a whole new system of sidequests for endgame content called Blueberry Quests (humorously shortened to BBQs). Plus, all Trainer battles are Double Battles, making it all feel much more unique. In some aspects, it feels like a more substantial addition than The Teal Mask.

The Indigo Disk also shines in character writing once more: new characters Cyrano, Drayton, Amarys, Crispin and Lacey are all immediately likeable and feel like actual people, even if two of them are very quirky and just a step removed from being one-note characters like some Gym Leaders. Carmine and especially Kieran shine very brightly in the script, and cement themselves as some of my favorite characters here. There are also a handful of new scenes added in Kitakami and Paldea which are great bonuses.

Where The Indigo Disk fails, however, is in its story writing. A lot of things are hand-waved away and seemingly done to reduce playtime, such as immediately allowing the player to fight the Blueberry Academy's Elite Four instead of having to rise through the ranks. Overall, the story of both DLCs is about Carmine and Kieran... yet is named The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero when said treasure is shown as an afterthought in both DLCs. The one boss in The Indigo Disk is nothing special despite being a bit of a spectacle, and also feels completely shoehorned in. It sincerely comes across like the name of the DLCs was decided in advance, and then the DLCs were written and ended up being about Carmine and Kieran rather than the eponymous treasure.

The Indigo Disk also introduces a new Tera Type, but it, in my opinion, feels completely superflouous and doesn't really add anything to the game casually, as it's tied to the Terastal mechanic that is already not that interesting. Again, it feels like an addition for competitive players rather than a game-changer for casual players.

Something I'm split on is the addition of the League Club and BBQs systems. In the Blueberry Academy, there is a new currency called BB that you can earn by doing BBQs. Now, each BBQ gives from 10 to 50 BB, with special ones after each 10 BBQ cleared giving a couple of hundred. It reminds me of Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Nook Miles in a way. You can have 3 BBQs active and can pay a small BB fee to change them. The BBQs range from running 500 meters to taking pictures of Pokémon (which does clog up your Switch's gallery, so be careful) or sneaking up on them.

Most of what you'll be spending BBs on is the League Club, where you can pay for multiple cosmetic upgrades like throwing styles or changing the League Club room that cost a few hundred BBs a pop. Most importantly, however, are the four biodiversity upgrades that 3000 BBs each, which add past Generations' starters in each biome. Then, there's the coaching program, which lets you invite a major character from Paldea to the Blueberry Academy for new dialogue, a rematch with a unique reward, and eventually trading a signature Pokémon of theirs. Each invite costs 200 BB, and a minimum of three invites is required to trade. As you can tell, getting invested in the League Club requires a lot of BBQ grinding.

However, when playing with the Union Circle, players can complete any party member's three BBQs, even if they overlap. Completing three special BBQs will allow players to get a special group BBQ worth several hundred BBs. Using this, getting a lot of BB is a lot faster if everyone is specifically doing BBQs, even in a party of 2. I like this idea, even as someone who doesn't play online much.

Overall, The Indigo Disk is a more lopsided DLC than The Teal Mask, especially when it comes to the story it presents. It's worth noting that like The Teal Mask, there are additional Outbreaks in the Terarium.

The Epilogue is the finale of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, and I have an immediate issue with it: it can only be accessed with an item obtained from the Mystery Gift feature, meaning an internet connection is required at least once and the item will not be available when servers go down, locking players out of the Epilogue.

The Epilogue is a short and sweet story with two goals: having Nemona, Arven and Penny interact with Carmine and Kieran, and introducing a new Mythical Pokémon. The exclusion of Nemona, Arven and Penny from both DLCs was an odd decision, but the Epilogue rectifies that to an extent, and the new Pokémon is a fun one. The best way I can describe the story is a silly horror story: it's presented as a scary story, but is so goofy that it's impossible to really be scared by it. It's an enjoyable little epilogue that has nothing to do with the eponymous treasure, and all to do with Carmine and Kieran.

ODDS AND ENDS

The UI in the game is lacking in some aspects. Namely, nowhere in the game (past the first tutorial about them) is there any indication that the d-pad buttons do anything. As a result, for multiple hours I found myself wondering how to change my clothes or how to take photos. In general, I forget which one does what, so I end up getting the camera out when I want to change clothes, or making emotes when I want to look at my BBQs.

There's also a slight annoyance with the notifications, such as when you pick up an item or defeat a Pokémon with Auto Battle. If you trigger too many at a time, which will happen considering how many times you'll find a dozen items randomly strewn about in a small area, then they get backed up and will keep popping up long after you've picked up or defeated everything. There's an overabundance of them, so things like Outbreak notifications can get lost in the clutter. Doing BBQs with the Union Circle is also a surefire way to make sure you have notifications popping up constantly with no breaks.

The Set battle type has been removed in Pokémon Violet, which I think is a massive shame as I found the game more fun played that way. Simply put, the Set battle type was a way to make so that when you defeat a Trainer's Pokémon, you don't get to know what the next Pokémon is and you don't get a free switch. In a way, it was like a hard mode in a typically easy series, and was also the way multiplayer battles work. It's not a huge deal, as you can just say no to the switch and not read, but it's not the same feeling.

There is a specific sidequest in the main game that requires the player to find 8 hidden stakes in the four main areas of Paldea, leading to fights against Legendary Pokémon. For me, it was a highlight as I looked for them without a guide and it allowed me to get used to the lay of the land and made me grind with Auto Battle as I went. The stakes are well hidden, and the Legendary Pokémon are some of my favorite additions. 

For a game that's so focused on being open and free while also being in a school setting, both Uva Academy and Blueberry Academy feel very linear, strict, and uninteresting. Instead of getting to wander around (even part of) the school, you instead get access to a few rooms and move between them using a menu. The academies end up not being very fun locations, with few interesting side activities or sidequests to do within them.

As opposed to Pokémon Legends: Arceus, Shiny Pokémon do not emit a special noise, making it very tricky to find them in a crowd, especially if the Shiny is very similar to the normal Pokémon, or the Pokémon itself is tiny and hard to see, like a Tynamo. This is a strict downgrade and it makes finding Shinies a bit more of a drag. Shiny Pokémon should emit a special noise and maybe even very lightly sparkle to remedy this.

As with Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, this game does not have all 1025 Pokémon available in-game. While many think this is a negative, I've always found it to be a positive. Casually, it makes it feasible to complete the Pokédex without requiring saved Pokémon from previous games and potentially two systems or a willing friend to trade them in. And competitively, though I have little interest in online play, it does give each game its own defined meta while lowering the workload for Game Freak. Plus, it makes little sense for every region to have more Pokémon than the last. Since Shield, I've been able to complete the Pokédex without issue, and overall I've been playing the games for longer because the goal feels actually achievable.

A very noticeable flaw with the series since the jump to Switch is the complete lack of voice acting. It wasn't that noticeable before, but now that the game has cutscenes that are presented like other cutscenes in the genre, the lack of voice acting is shocking and brutal. Cutscenes, even theoretically good ones, feel dull and lifeless without it and don't pack much punch unless you're really able to imagine their possible voices when reading. Even more frustratingly, promotion for the game, such as Iono videos, had full voice acting. While I'm only mentioning it here, this is one of my biggest gripes with the game.

The Pokémon series as a whole has two big issues that are still not fixed with Pokémon Violet. The first one is the Type matchups are not accessible to the player, and instead the player must rely on the move indicator in battle and overall memorisation. While some matchups are obvious, like Water beating Fire (water puts out fires), others aren't as obvious, like Dark, Bug and Ghost beating Psychic (Dark, Bug and Ghost represent phobias), and some seem nonsensical at a glance, like Ice being weak to Steel. The fact that there's no easily accessible Type match-up chart in-game is incredibly strange to me. Even seeing what a Pokémon's weaknesses and resistances are at a glance would be extremely helpful. Multiple times I found myself just looking it up on sites like Bulbapedia and Serebii as there are no quick in-game references.

The second one is how there are no in-game hints as to how Pokémon evolve, which is a huge problem considering how obscure some of the evolution requirements can be. A famous example is Inkay, which needs to be leveled up while the console is upside-down. Others need specific items, or to level up while knowing a specific move, or just need to be traded, or even traded while holding a specific item. Some new requirements introduced in Violet include leveling up after taking 1000 steps in Let's Go, and leveling up while using the Union Circle (meaning this Pokémon will be unobtainable when the servers go down in the future). The Pokédex should, at the very least, give hints as to how a Pokémon evolves; having houses and buildings enterable with more NPCs to talk to would be a great way to give hints about more obscure requirements as well. Instead, when stumped, I found myself just looking it up on, you guessed it, sites like Bulbapedia and Serebii, which is a massive shame.

BANGER AFTER BANGER

Pokémon Violet's soundtrack is helmed by four series veterans: Go Ichinose, Junichi Masuda, Hitomi Sato, and Minako Adachi. It's further solidified by additional work from former Capcom composer Hiromitsu Maeda, sound designer Teruo Taniguchi, and Undertale and Deltarune composer Toby Fox.

As usual for a Pokémon game, the music is great all around, even with the new challenge of needing music that fits a fully open world. It's catchy without being annoying when exploring Paldea, exciting in battles, and fitting in cutscenes. In particular, this game has some of the best town and battle music in the series. Taniguchi is credited as the composer for the utterly incredible Team Star battle themes, which might be some of the best in series history. Cascarrafa and Levincia are two of the best town themes in the series, and I even listened to the former on loop while writing this review.

Whether exploring Paldea, Kitakami or the Terarium, fantastic music follows you everywhere as you play Pokémon Violet. The music even gets more upbeat when you're riding on Miraidon, at least in Paldea, which is a great detail. Battle music changes depending on where you are as well, reducing the potential monotony. In Paldea and the Terarium, the music changes depending on which zone of the map you're in, with the overall instrumentation and arrangement changing, but the main theme staying the same deep down.

Music also changes dynamically due to the general lack of loading screens: when out and about, music will fade in and out to suit the situation, whether it's due to a battle (with wild Pokémon battle themes being based on the exploration themes adding an extra touch), entering a town or changing zones. 

The soundtrack doesn't really stick to one genre, but is almost consistently backed by an orchestra with lush strings and beautiful piano, depending on the theme. Sometimes it'll lean more into rock and metal, with shredding solos and heavy chugging riffs, while other times it'll dip into funk with incredible slap bass carrying an orchestra. On some occasion, it will even full out erupt into a earpounding rave, or mellow out into some country/folk songs with lots of classical guitar and whistles with some Spanish flair.

Toby Fox is only credited for a handful of songs, but they're all very impactful, either because of how energetic and catchy they are, or because of the overall mood they instill during key moments of the game. As a side note, Toby Fox has been working with Game Freak for a few years now purely because the developers played Undertale and became fans. It's quite heartwarming to see him get to compose for Pokémon because Undertale took off.

Even if you don't play this game, it's worth seeking out the soundtrack, as with most Pokémon games.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Great new character and Pokémon designs overall
• Excellent player freedom that rewards exploration and some experimentation
• Soundtrack is very good from top to bottom
• Most additions, like Auto Battles and Terastal, enhance the gameplay experience rather than detract from it
• DLC is very solid overall and introduces enough new fun features to warrant purchasing
• Storytelling and character writing is some of the best in the series
• The open world aspect is well-realised for a first try
• Freedom of having three stories that can be completed at any time is an amazing addition to the series
• Union Circle is surprisingly well-implemented all things considered
• Nemona, Arven, Penny, Director Clavell, Carmine, and Kieran are all superb characters, and most of the Gym Leaders, Squad Leaders, Elite Four and Teachers are at the very least good characters
• Ogerpon

CONS

• Unforgivably bad and constant performance issues
• No voice acting in cutscenes means the game as a whole doesn't land as emotionally as it should and makes it seem lower budget than it is
• Common small but annoying glitches
• Bland and ugly textures and environments
• Character customization is more limited than it should be, even though it makes sense story-wise
• Towns feel small and empty with scattered stores
• DLC story feels unevenly written and ends abruptly while also having little to do with the DLC's name
• Overworld weather effects tank the framerate and you have no control over them
• Outbreaks occasionally don't work properly
• Pokémon spawn in walls semi-frequently
• All three maps are visually uninteresting, lacking landmarks and vistas
• No level scaling heavily diminishes the feeling of freedom in the game
• Generally low difficulty with some high difficulty spikes here and there

WORTH PLAYING?

Pokémon Violet is a controversial game for a reason: its technical and graphical shortcomings are simply unacceptable for a first party AAA game. For that reason alone, I can't in good conscience 100% recommend it. However, I think for Pokémon fans who aren't disillusioned by the series and for players that can look past technical and graphical issues in general, Pokémon Violet offers a memorable experience with variety aplenty.

The way I see it, Pokémon Violet is a great game that is hard to wholeheartedly recommend due to all of its issues, yet is a bit of a diamond in the rough. It has some of the best character writing, music, Pokémon, and story moments in the series if you manage to look past or endure its unappealing environments, terrible framerate and constant glitchy annoyances. No matter how strong I think its positives are, it's a fact that these issues will rightfully turn off many players, both fan and new.

I say, if you're a Pokémon fan or new Pokémon player that doesn't mind constant technical and graphical issues, Pokémon Violet is worth playing, especially if you have friends who are willing to play with you in the Union Circle. If most, or even some, of the game's shortcomings sound like dealbreakers, then don't play it no matter how you stand regarding Pokémon, as most of them occur throughout the entire playtime of the game and will just aggravate you. And don't get the DLC until you play through the game and find that you enjoy it, since it's more of what the base game offers, both the good and the bad. 

It really saddens me to give such a half-hearted recommendation for a game that I genuinely love, as just without the technical issues I'd consider this the best Pokémon game in the series. Instead, I'm forced to take it down several notches, because I'd be kidding myself otherwise. I wouldn't tolerate these shortcomings in a Mario game or a Zelda game, yet I find myself begrudgingly accepting them in a Pokémon game. It shouldn't even be a thing.

Pokémon Violet deservedly earns its reputation as a laughingstock of the first party Switch catalog due to its numerous issues, in spite of its quality in other places. The Pokémon franchise's overall reputation has taken hit after hit in the Switch era because of its inability to catch up to the technical excellence of its contemporaries, almost certainly due to management decisions taken behind the scenes, rather than because of Game Freak's lack of talent. With this generation, Pokémon is no longer just a beloved franchise loved by millions, but also one of the industry's punching bags, often brought up with negative comparisons to other games. I can't say it doesn't at least partly deserve it.

And honestly? That breaks my heart a little.