This review copy of Pokémon Violet and its DLC Expansion Pass, The Hidden Treasures of Area Zero, was provided to Source Gaming by Nintendo.
When Pokémon Scarlet and Violet came out last year it came with a structural problem. In GAME FREAK’s attempt to create a fully open world Pokémon experience, they inadvertently made a game that lacked any hard obstacles for players to overcome – when compared with prior games. Despite granting the player the choice of how they wanted their adventure to unfold, in my playthrough of Pokémon Violet I never felt motivated to become the champion. I felt no incentive in-universe to do so – rather it felt like it was just something I would need to do if I wanted to say, “I beat the game.”
This meant that when the game’s first DLC dropped, The Hidden Treasures of Area Zero – Part 1: The Teal Mask, the only thing motivating me to play it was the game’s narrative. The story of this DLC is that the player, and several other students, have been nominated to head over to the land of Kitakami on a joint field trip with Unova’s Blueberry Academy. On this trip, the player meets Carmine and Kieran, two important rival characters. While Kieran is timid but open to friendship with us; Carmine is more erratic and combative against us, outsiders within her homeland.
Despite her opposition though, the game’s main theme is around bringing together not just people of different backgrounds, but also those of different personalities. Thus, the player will have to work with these two as you travel around the lands of Kitakami, learn its folktales, and discover what exactly the Teal Mask is. While there were some narrative decisions that I was unhappy with, wishing that I could have dialogue options that went against the pleas of other characters, I did still enjoy the consequences of what unraveled and am excited to see how Part 2 – The Indigo Disk will go about concluding it.
Rather than treat this new expansion as an extension of my Paldean journeys, I treated my adventure through Kitakami as if I was starting fresh – catching the first Pokémon I saw, a Level 12 Poocheyna, and forming a whole new team around the Pokemon I wanted to encounter. By playing the game this way, I felt like I was able to enjoy my time with Pokemon Violet’s DLC even more.
Image: Source Gaming. PhantomZ2’s Saviche (Mightyena) facing off against Kieran’s Dipplin.
As I traveled across Paldea, the ability to go about anywhere I pleased meant that I could face challenges, such as the Titan Pokémon for Miraidon abilities, despite my team being unprepared for them. Thus, if there was something that I found interesting, the onus of being well-equipped for such obstacles felt like it had to come from seeking out to grind and find my own lower-leveled challenges, rather than GAME FREAK guiding the journey in such a direction. However, traveling across the smaller land of Kitakami and following just one rather linear goal, made the adventure easier to digest and manage. With most of the surrounding trainers and wild Pokémon growing in strength as the narrative progressed, guiding the player throughout more of the land and against obligated battles, I felt better prepared for said challenges. Some grinding was still needed to stand a chance against Carmine, Kieran, and more as I didn’t have the best team, type-advantage-wise. But, the grind wasn’t one that saw me traveling towards an entirely different direction or goal, just a few levels and another attempt at a challenging battle. It felt like I was playing something akin to the previous titles.
Granted, this challenge was self-imposed. If I were to use the Pokémon I raised from the base game, the only “hurdle” would be walking from place to place. This is where I hope the next part of the DLC, Part 2 – The Indigo Disk, could leave me more entertained. The Teal Mask does very well at being a character-driven narrative but, as the player, I didn’t feel much responsibility for my actions or that there was much for me to do. There was a minigame as part of Kitakami’s festival, but outside of that, I was primarily walking from point to point and doing battles to progress things for the other characters and their relationships with one another. Was there anything I was doing for my benefit as a trainer or as a character within the world, especially with my freedom of choice? No, not really.
Image: Source Gaming. PhantomZ2’s player character and Kieran take a photo in front of the last Kitakami signboard.
Additionally, the one other blemish featured within the DLC is a prominent problem that existed within the main game – the graphical and optimization issues. With Pokémon Violet suffering several issues such as slowdown or the camera infrequently clipping through terrain, it occasionally made traversing across the land feel like a tedious exercise. The island itself already didn’t have any other engaging activities or captivating environments to explore, so the only fun to gain from traveling was to see what other Pokémon I could find rather than a way to find them. However, where the expansion did excel presentation-wise was the music. For both Carmine and Kieran’s themes, I felt a sense of energy no matter how long the songs would loop throughout our long battles.
Overall, despite the issues that I feel are present within the DLC, I truly had a very fun time being able to experience a more linear and narrow adventure with very interesting and expressive characters. With The Teal Mask’s ending, I hope that the story that GAME FREAK is building towards can not only lead to more engaging characters but also a satisfying end. With gameplay footage that we’ve already seen of The Indigo Disk, it already looks like there will be much more to do. Whether it will be fun is to be discovered once it releases on December 14th and given my enjoyment of The Teal Mask, I’m looking forward to it. Thus, if you are interested in more interesting characters being introduced within the world of Pokémon, I think purchasing Pokémon Violet’s expansion pass is worth it for that alone.
