Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: The Teal Mask DLC Review

It honestly felt like this day would never come – the day that I got to experience a Pokemon game release as a Pokemon fan. You might be wondering, wouldn’t you be a video gamer at the time Pokemon Scarlet and Violet was released last year? Yes, yes, I was. I’ve been a gamer my whole life, but somehow, I never changed Pokemon until November last year. I purchased the game for a work project, and I soon fell in love. After DLC was promised for the game, I was ready to grind through as much of the full game as possible to be prepared for it – even if I didn’t have to. Now I have a lot to say.

Game Name: Pokemon: Scarlet and Violet DLC – The Teal Mask
Platform: The Nintendo Switch
Publishers: Nintendo and The Pokemon Company
Developers: Game Freak
Date: September 13, 2023

Let’s Adventure Into The Land of Kitakami

The first thing players will notice and want to explore in this new DLC is the land of Kitakami. While players won’t be able to go to this new map right away since they will have a small bit of storyline to complete back in Pladea, soon enough, they will get to see this new world. Upon arrival, players will be granted some new faces, including Carmine and Kieran, a sister and brother duo that isn’t so much a duo.

Kieran will be your partner when it comes to completing one of the tasks of taking pictures by the signs in Kitakami, that tell bits and pieces of the story behind the legendary Pokemon, Ogerpon.

This quest will soon lead to the special festival that is hosted in Kitakami, which is called the Kitakami Mask Festival. Here, players will learn about the Ogerpon, and soon, they will run after it after the Pokemon gets spooked by Carmine. However, when the plot between characters really starts to progress…but also causes conflict is when Carmine decides that it is best for the player and her not to tell her little brother Kieran about seeing the Ogerpon because he has an obsession with it and will be sad to have missed it. As the plot goes further, players will soon see Kieran become…almost psychotic when he realizes how much the Ogerpon favors you over him, it almost acting scared of him – and for good reason.

Towards the end of the DLC, players will need to battle each of the Loyal Three Legendary Pokemon, and then Kieran will challenge you after he sees the Ogerpon wanting to be kept by you. Finally, players will then battle the Ogerpon a total of four times using its different mask, which then changes the Pokemon’s type.

Catching The Loyal Three

Once the DLC is completed, players will be able to catch the Loyal Three – only after they have caught Ogerpon. However, catching these Pokemon is a super tricky thing. Players will have to return to the area they first defeated them in order to have a chance of catching them.

I personally have only been able to catch Munkdori so far in the DLC, which is the monkey Pokemon. The others have been a lot more challenging for me, no matter the attacks, Pokemon, or balls I use against them. I even thought I was smart by using a Gengar and his Hypnosis attack after I had gotten the Legendary Pokemon down to its red health and tried to catch it…nothing.

It seems that in order to catch them, it is just purely about taking time to keep throwing Pokeballs at it and making sure to keep your own Pokemon from fainting. Then, maybe then, you’ll be lucky enough to catch it. But after you do, you have a super strong Pokemon already at level 70 with some pretty decent attack moves already, as well.

The Little Things Make Me Happy

There are many new things outside of Pokemon, new quests, and new lands that were added in this DLC, but also little cute items. Not only after the DLC is completed, players get to purchase their own mask from the festival stand, but also candy apples. There are many different types of candy apples to select, and it is a small feature I really like.

Players will also find new clothing items available in their shops upon getting the Teal card from Carmine and Kieran’s grandma. This will allow the shops to have new items to select from and purchase. One of the new things is the side ponytail available at the salon. It is also the hairstyle that players will receive while getting dressed up for the Mask Festival if they have the female gender selected as their avatar.

Overall Thoughts On Pokemon Violet DLC

Overall, I loved the DLC. I love Pokemon, and this expansion brought me more of what I love, including new Pokemon like Dipplin and Ogerpon, both of whom I adore. I do feel the DLC went by very fast. I am a person who takes my time with video games to truly get a feel for them and learn them. I finished the DLC within less than two weeks of getting it. However, we do have to remember that the second part will be released sometime in the winter, so it will be getting more added to it, making it feel longer.

Some other things I’d like to note is there are still countless glitches in the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet game and also in the DLC. While playing with our team member Todd Black, we both noticed that during Tera Raids, our screens would glitch to the point we could see the “underworld.” This glitch happened many times. Another one I discounted late one night while trying to hunt for a Shiny in Kitakami is that my picnic table to prepare a sandwich wouldn’t show up no matter what I did, causing me to have to restart the whole game.

Lastly, these two combine into one another. While Todd and I were playing, we did many Tera Raids and noticed how going from a four-star raid can be very different from a five-star. A four-star was easy for us to knock out, while we struggled to finish a five-star raid and would lose countless of times. This was even after researching what Pokemon were best to use against that type. We also noticed in different areas of the map, the Pokemon were very mixed up, going from levels of 70 all the way to 16 in some places.

None of these little glitches and odd things changed my thoughts much on the game. Sure, they are confusing and maybe frustrating at times, but I still loved the DLC, and having the bundle that comes with both this one and the next one just makes it feel even more worth the price. I especially have enjoyed collecting all the starters from past games and all other new Pokemon that were added with the new DLC. I highly recommend it.

 

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