Review: THE TEAL MASK is a fun expansion for POKEMON SCARLET and PURPLE

Last month, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company launched the first half of the DLC pack, The hidden treasure of Area Zero titled The mask of the teal. The DLC adds a new storyline, new locations, new Pokémon, and more Pokémon Scarlet AND Pokémon Purple. In The mask of the teal, Pokémon trainers will find themselves in Kitakami on a field trip with a few other select students. It was interesting to play and Nintendo was kind enough to provide me with a code so I could review it. All the following thoughts are my personal opinion though. You can buy The hidden treasure of Area Zero which includes The mask of the teal as well as the one yet to be released The indigo disk from Nintendo eShop or at select retailers including GameStop (affiliate link).

Venture beyond the Paldea region in the Area Zero Hidden Treasure DLC for the Pokemon Scarlet or Pokemon Violet game. Even more Pokemon, locations and stories await you in this 2-part DLC* for the Pokemon Scarlet or Pokemon Violet game! In Part 1: The Teal Mask, he goes on a special school trip to the land of Kitakami. In Part 2: The Indigo Disk, he studies abroad at Blueberry Academy! Meet the newly discovered Legendary Pokemon Ogerpon and Terapagos as you broaden your horizons beyond Uva Academy and explore the world of Pokemon even further.

Before I dive into reviewing the story for The mask of the teal, let’s talk about more technical aspects. While playing the DLC, I didn’t have any issues with the game crashing like some did way back when Scarlet AND Viola launched so it seems a little more stable at launch. That said, there are still performance issues, including frame rate drops and overall sluggishness. I also found that the controls didn’t feel very responsive in the menus. Of course, this is nothing new for DLC as even the base games are plagued by these issues.

There are a good number of new and returning Pokémon thanks to The mask of the teal. There are 109 returning Pokémon, including personal favorites like both versions of Sandshrew and Sandslash (you have to transfer them from Pokémon HOME to obtain the Alolan forms), the Kommo-o line, the Vikavolt line and even the Diamante and Perla starters. Additionally, there are 8 new Pokémon: Dipplin (a new evolution for Applin), Poltchageist and its evolution Sinistcha, Bloodmoon Ursaluna, a new legendary trio (Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti), and the main legendary Pokémon: Ogerpon. Ogerpon even has four different forms depending on the mask he’s wearing! Of the new Pokémon, I think Ogerpon is my favorite design, although I’m disappointed that this and the other legendaries have shiny closures.

Another area I’d like to talk about is the frustrating nature of adding a new area almost a year after launch. Due to the Terra Raid events, many players will have level 100 Pokémon. This is something that these events require and I don’t envy anyone for having level 100 Pokémon, I have several myself. However, this means that unless you set limits on yourself, the DLC will be a walk in the park as the strongest Pokémon you’ll encounter are between level 70 and 80. My frustration also extends to wild Pokémon that start at 50-50 but are very basic Pokémon like Spinarak and Pichu. I don’t have a solution that feels right to me and I’m sure the developers had difficulties too and that’s why we achieved what we did. You want to keep things challenging, but you don’t want to isolate people who maybe haven’t played since launch or haven’t participated in Raid Land events and who may not have level 100 Pokémon. So for wild Pokémon, you don’t want them to feel too puny, you need them to be high enough to help level up your team to be competitive, etc.

My solution to the above conundrum was to slowly replace my team (except my starter) with new Pokémon to use for the expansion. This allowed me to have a lot of fun with the new/returning Pokémon and feel like there was some challenge. That said, I struggled because I didn’t want to spend a lot of time grinding and so many of my team were still underleveled when I finished the story and I relied heavily on my level 100 starter.

Ok, now it’s time to talk a little about the story. If you’re worried about spoilers, I’ll do my best to keep them to a minimum, but just know that I think it’s a good story. It’s not great, but it’s not bad and it’s hard to judge because this is only about half the story as it will continue in the sequel. The indigo disk.

For the story, you will be sent with three other random students to Kitakami on an exchange program where you will meet some students from Blueberry Academy. I found it a little strange that Nemona wasn’t included, but I guess that has to do with the fact that they want to focus more on the two Blueberry Academy students that she meets, Kieran and Carmine. You’ll also meet Briar, a teacher at Blueberry Academy who seems very interested in Area Zero and turns out to be a descendant of the author of the Scarlet Book/Violet (you’ll find out about her very soon, so she’s not really a spoiler). In all honesty, she does almost nothing, although I imagine she could have a bigger role The indigo disk.

Once you are on Kitakami, you will have to do some simple missions to go to specific locations with some battles. Then, you can go to a festival where you will be put in special clothes and your hair will be changed for the time being. occasion. I personally didn’t really like the aspect of changing my hair because then I had to go to a barber and pay for it to go back to normal after the festival. Yes, I had money, but it was still annoying. Eventually you will meet Ogerpon and the new legendary trio and will have to solve the plot which I will not reveal. Throughout the story, one problem I had was that I didn’t agree with some choices that I had no say in. For example, you’re told to keep a secret from a character and given two dialogue options that simply vary in level. to agree when I personally would not have agreed. This is a problem that comes with games like Cyberpunk 2077, Mass effect, Fable, etc. which allow you to make choices that affect the game. In The mask of the teal although these are necessary events to arrive at the story they have planned and written.

There’s a character arc that I don’t want to give too much away, but I’m interested to see how it continues The indigo disc. It looks like it will either be well done or completely abandoned and that makes me a little worried.

I have a few select points from the ending that I want to touch on lightly. First of all, would Carmine profess his love to me in the end? Did I read correctly? Was there anything else? Secondly, I found it very disturbing that at the end Briar simply announces that he has to leave and will leave you and the other exchange students on Kitakami with the janitor. Maybe it’s because I’m American, but in what world is it okay for a teacher to take care of students, go to a new place the teacher has never been, and then leave? Never mind the fact that you were never informed that you were signed up for this trip and were not given the opportunity to tell your parents about it in the first place! I understand that the world of Pokémon is very vague. They treat 10-year-olds like full-blown adults, for crying out loud. But this still seems strange to me.

Overall, The mask of the teal brings fun with new and returning Pokémon and a great story. The story will continue in The indigo disk so I don’t feel like I can express a complete opinion on it. If you don’t enforce your own rules regarding the levels of Pokémon on your team and don’t use your level 100 team from the Land Raid events, you’ll end up finishing this story. All in all, I’m thrilled The indigo disk and the challenge of completing my kitakami dex.