Be aware: This evaluation accommodates some gentle spoilers for the story of The Indigo Disk. Though no particular particulars will likely be mentioned, general impressions are given.
For higher or worse, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have been a marked departure from among the norms of the franchise. Most notably, these are the primary titles to supply a totally open world to discover, whereas additionally presenting three completely different story threads for the participant to expertise earlier than bringing all of them collectively for a remaining, climactic confrontation inside Space Zero. The Hidden Treasures of Space Zero DLC growth promised to proceed exploring that narrative inside its two components, and though the primary episode, The Teal Masks, didn’t reply any of the burning questions followers could have had within the aftermath of the ultimate story chapter, it launched new characters and laid the groundwork for a extra definitive conclusion to come back. Be a part of us as we dive into the second half of the story, the Indigo Disk, and uncover whether or not it will probably dwell as much as expectations and likewise handle the shortcomings we highlighted in our evaluation of the primary half of the bundle.
The Indigo Disk picks up after the occasions of Scarlet and Violet, and you will have to finish each the principle story and The Teal Masks earlier than you’ll be able to expertise the story right here. Your character has been chosen to grow to be an alternate scholar at Blueberry Academy, a sister faculty to the academy you’re transferring from that’s primarily based within the Unova area. This academy occurs to be the college of Carmine and Kieran, who’ve each returned to their previous stomping grounds, with Kieran having risen to grow to be the champion within the aftermath of the occasions of The Teal Masks. After some dialogue, your character is allowed to take part within the Blueberry League, prompting you to enterprise out into the Terarium to defeat every of the Elite 4 of their residence biome earlier than you’ll be able to problem Kieran once more.
Regardless of being set in any case earlier story occasions and serving as a conclusion, the narrative takes a notable backseat in The Indigo Disk. You encounter the brand new Elite 4 members solely when difficult them, characters from the principle sport don’t present up in any respect as a part of the story, and Kieran stays largely absent till your remaining battle with him. Contemplating the heavy deal with his character in The Teal Masks, it’s notably disappointing that they don’t give Kieran a lot of a job past being the newly-crowned champion of the academy. The second a part of the story additionally feels notably rushed; being lower than an hour lengthy. This makes the narrative really feel extra like an afterthought, and The Indigo Disk consequently feels notably weaker on this space than its predecessors. While the just lately introduced epilogue could handle this, these hoping for a satisfying conclusion to the storylines from Scarlet/Violet and The Teal Masks will probably come away feeling dissatisfied by what’s current right here.
The main target of The Indigo Disk is extra on the battles in opposition to the Blueberry Elite 4, and on this it doesn’t disappoint, offering a surprisingly strong problem. The Elite 4 all have Pokemon with ranges within the high-70s vary and movesets that cowl their sort disadvantages, in addition to helpful gadgets or skills, that means that there will likely be some interaction between you and your opponent no matter how nicely ready you’re. That is one thing that veteran gamers will little doubt recognize, though it’s nonetheless completely potential to brute power your method by every encounter with a totally skilled staff, making this accessible to these unfamiliar with Pokemon’s extra superior gameplay mechanics. General, the Indigo Disk strikes a pleasant stability between problem and accessibility on this regard.
Earlier than taking up every member of the Elite 4 you’re given a brand new open world to find within the Terarium, which you’re allowed to discover to your coronary heart’s content material after the preliminary opening story occasions. The Terarium is split into 4 distinct biomes and is a reasonably easy map, that includes little in the best way of hidden secret areas the best way that Paldea and Kitakami had been, however has all kinds of Pokemon, together with a number of regional variants, that makes every space really feel distinctive and price exploring. The dearth of quick journey factors could make it a bit of tough to navigate at instances nonetheless, and infrequently signifies that you’ll want to spend so much of time traversing the realm to succeed in a selected level. The principle enchantment for long-time sequence followers within the Terarium will likely be its connection to the Unova area, and the quite a few easter eggs scattered all through the land (with probably the most overt being the wild battle theme being a remix of the one from Black and White) will little doubt delight these eager for remakes of these titles.
Alongside a brand new location comes a number of new gameplay options, which add some selection to the core gameplay of battling and catching Pokemon. One such function is the Synchro Machine, which lets you take direct management of your Pokemon while you discover. Motion animation is impressively distinctive, and you may also assault wild Pokemon just like how auto-battles play out on the map. It is a good function that may make exploring the Terarium really feel extra fascinating, however it looks like a wasted alternative to not have it utilised extra actively in-game, both as a part of the story and even for particular BBQs.
Blueberry Quests, or BBQs, are one other new gameplay inclusion. These are available in three differing types: Blue, Purple, and Gold. Blue BBQs are small and mundane duties resembling selecting up gadgets as you discover, or catching a selected sort of Pokemon. Finishing ten of those will unlock a Purple BBQ, which is a barely tougher job with better rewards. Gold BBQs are solely out there within the Union Circle after finishing ten different quests, and are probably the most advanced, however provide considerably extra rewards for completion.
All BBQs reward you with BP upon completion, which could be spent on new gadgets on the faculty retailer and contributed in the direction of membership actions for varied advantages, together with beauty adjustments to the membership room and boosting the biodiversity of the Terarium’s biomes. Blue BBQs can largely be achieved naturally by enjoying the sport with out a lot direct funding, and could be reset with a small BP value at any time. These are extra akin to every day actions in an MMO than they’re conventional RPG facet quests, and though there’s a notable lack of selection in them, there isn’t any higher restrict on what number of you are able to do in a given time period.
Sadly, all the things in The Indigo Disk revolves round BP, and though you’ll solely want 50 BP to problem every member of the Blueberry Elite 4, that is merely the tip of the iceberg if you wish to expertise all the things that the DLC has to supply. Elective duties resembling unlocking further Pokemon require considerably extra BP (boosting biodiversity truly requires 3000 BP per area) and the shortage of selection to those quests coupled with the miniscule rewards for doing them makes the method an unnecessarily tedious grind. Blue BBQs offer you lower than 100 BP upon completion, and pink BBQs reward you with 100-200 BP at most. As compared, Gold BBQs can reward you with as much as 600 BP at a time, which feels notably irritating in case you are extra targeted on a single participant expertise.
As you would possibly count on, efficiency points are outstanding in The Indigo Disk, and visually the sport is disappointingly inconsistent. Regardless of the variety of the biomes, there may be lots of empty house in every of them, with poor textures and lighting results making the environments really feel notably flat. Regardless of this, there’s a distinctive synthetic aesthetic to every space because of the constructing blocks which can be littered throughout the panorama, very cleanly dividing the map into its 4 biomes and infrequently serving as small arenas for college students to collect. This makes the Terarium really feel distinct from each Paldea and Kitakami, even when it stays visually missing in locations.
As with the bottom sport, framerates hover round 30 FPS at greatest and are notably erratic. The poor draw distance and pop-in additionally means that you could nonetheless run straight into Pokemon with out realising that they’re there, forcing you to attend as the sport slowly masses right into a battle you didn’t ask for. Nonetheless, I did discover a discount within the variety of Pokemon spawning in clusters when in comparison with The Teal Masks, that means that it was uncommon that I used to be thrown into an undesirable battle with a second Pokemon after exiting the primary. Regardless of the inconsistent efficiency, I didn’t expertise any glitches or crashes throughout my playthrough. General, there may be nothing right here that can shock gamers who’ve caught with the sport for this lengthy, and though not a lot has improved, it hasn’t noticeably worsened both. Animations stay inconsistent in high quality, and that is solely extra noticeable because of the Synchronisation function that permits you to take management of Pokemon and assault with them instantly.
The principle story of The Indigo Disk is of comparable size to The Teal Masks, lasting round 5 hours in the event you don’t take the time to completely discover the Terarium. This feels notably disappointing, because it serves as a conclusion to each Carmine and Kieran’s story in The Teal Masks and an evidence for the origins of Space Zero and Terastalization. Not sufficient time was dedicated to both a part of the narrative to make it really feel notably satisfying. There’s extra content material in The Indigo Disk to have interaction with that has the potential to increase your playtime considerably, together with a postgame subplot with Perrin that introduces two further Paradox Pokemon for every model. Sadly, except you could have a bunch of buddies to play with, a lot of your time will likely be spent grinding BP to unlock all of it, such because the earlier Legendary Pokemon and starters which can be out there for seize.
The Indigo Disk is a surprisingly difficult inclusion to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and on this respect at the least, this can be very satisfying, and can little doubt delight long-time sequence followers who’ve been asking for one thing harder than the norm. Nonetheless, as a conclusion to the story of The Hidden Treasures of Space Zero, it falls brief, being disappointingly sparse in each character growth and narrative. It fails to capitalise on the setup from each Pokemon Scarlet/Violet and The Teal Masks, largely ignoring its returning characters and dashing its conclusion. Though it goes a way in the direction of making up for the shortcomings of The Teal Masks, there may be lots of missed potential and barely off execution in its new concepts (most notably the grind for BP to entry a few of its options) that maintain it again from being as pleasing because it might have been.
6.5/10
A duplicate of Pokemon Violet – The Hidden Treasures of Space Zero Half Two: The Indigo Disk was offered by Nintendo UK for the aim of this evaluation
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