As a series, Pokémon is one that has held onto tradition pretty firmly. In the 25+ years since Red & Blue’s release, the fundamentals of the game haven’t really changed – you explore a world, you fight Pokémon, you catch Pokémon. Last year’s Pokémon Scarlet & Violet was the mainline series’ first big attempt to change things up a bit, expanding exploration to an open-world setting and letting you progress in your own way. But fundamentally it was still Pokémon, warts and all.
It’s perhaps fitting, then, that the first part of The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC, The Teal Mask, is set in a land besotted with tradition. The people tell folk tales, new native Pokémon are steeped in history, and with the Kitakami region's clear Japanese inspirations, it feels like a throwback to the older days. This does mean that while The Teal Mask is a fun time that builds on Scarlet & Violet’s strengths, it also exposes the base game's – and the series’ – weaknesses that much more.
Your character embarks on a school trip to Kitakami. While there, you’ll learn about the culture and explore the rice paddies and grassy fields, all while hearing about The Loyal Three and Ogerpon, a fearsome legendary Pokémon of the region. The lighter story here makes sense given that The Teal Mask can be accessed within the first five hours of the main game, but your adventure in Kitakami does feel like one big sidequest – albeit one that ends with a big carrot dangling for the second half of the Expansion Pass, The Indigo Disk.
We have to talk about the DLC’s new characters, Carmen and Kieran. These siblings continue the base game’s trend of characters with fantastic development. This duo takes some warming up to, but both really grew on us by the end of the DLC. We have a soft spot for Kieran and his character arc, which leaves us with plenty of questions for part two.
It’s impossible to return to Scarlet & Violet, even in this new region, and not talk about the much-maligned visuals and performance issues. If you’re expecting any improvements here, then you’re out of luck – The Teal Mask looks just as fuzzy and struggles to maintain a consistent frame rate just as much as the base game does. Miraidon still hops at a sluggish pace, pop-in from characters, ‘mons, and plants are as pervasive as ever, and any NPC or Pokémon that’s more than a few feet away will move around at a slideshow pace.
Returning to the game almost a year after its release to still find it in this sort of state is incredibly frustrating. It particularly stings in a year where we’ve seen both Tears of the Kingdom, which pushes the Switch to its limits, and Pikmin 4, which shows the system’s visuals at their absolute best. But hey, boxes now load without lagging horrendously. That’s something, right?
The Teal Mask is Pokémon very much as we know it. Run around, fight Pokémon, fight trainers (if you wish), and catch ‘em all – including a new batch of returners from previous generations. In a similar manner to the base game’s Treasure Hunts, you go around and are given objectives, which involve you exploring the Kitakami region. You’ll learn about the folk tale of The Loyal Three and see how people celebrate their culture and the history that came before it.
As a result, Kitakami does feel more alive than Paldea. Though there’s only one town in Mossui and another populated area in the Kitakami Hall, there are far more NPCs walking around with more varied buildings. The landscapes also feel more populated and bring some much-needed diversity; the sheer verticality of the region is fun to experience. Mountain caves and paths lead up to hidden springs and large vistas make climbing and heading up feel extremely rewarding, although there are still a few too many barren spots and open areas with too few Pokémon idling about.
In terms of new things to do, there’s a whole sidequest line featuring Pirrin the photographer, which helps change the pace of the DLC up a bit, and a minigame in Ogre Oustin’ – which we’re not really in love with given how choppy the visuals are in this particular section and how frustrating it is when you’re playing it alone.
Beyond that, new features are few and far between, which means that sore points stick out all the more, particularly with battles. Turn-based combat is still incredibly slow, with stiff animations taking you out of the action. But if you’ve beaten the main story and you happen to have a party of high-levelled Pokémon, you’ll probably wipe the floor with most of the battles – which is a shame because there are some potentially challenging encounters. The series’ age-old problems and its desire to stick to its roots often come back to bite, and it's in battle that this is most noticeable.
Fortunately, the Pokémon and the world do a lot of heavy lifting that helped us still enjoy the DLC. If we were to pick one true highlight of The Teal Mask, it would be the new legendary Pokémon Ogerpon, who might possibly be in the running for the most adorable legendary of all time. We won’t spoil why, but we’re serious. Honestly, all of the new Pokémon here are great, with the legendaries being heavily tied to the story, and both Dipplin and Poltchageist having perfect designs and being great to use in battle.
When all is said and done, however, Kitakami left us wanting more, in both a good and a bad way. On the one hand, The Teal Mask’s story is lighthearted and delightful to go through, and the two main characters and the legendary Pokémon really shine. But Game Freak's refusal to let go of the past, and this entry's continued performance woes, means we’re still wishing for more.
Conclusion
The Teal Mask is a fun diversion for Pokémon Scarlet & Violet players that builds on the base game's strengths, but also exposes its weaknesses that much more. Fortunately, those strengths sparkle and Terastalize into a breezy, fun experience that delivers some rich regional storytelling, great characters, and some fantastic new Pokémon. We wanted more, though — more love and care put into the visuals and the battles. The Indigo Disk has a chance to build on the foundations The Teal Mask has laid, and we hope that's exactly what it will do.
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Comments 39
I bought the DLC but have had no interest in starting it. Looks like I'm not missing out with the performance issues still around.
The only thing that matters in this DLC is the mochi that resets EVs.
@Pink_Floyd just out of curiosity, why did you buy the DLC if you have no interest in starting it?
Wow, that's disappointing. a region based on classic Japanese culture sounded like such a neat idea. Too bad GF can't get the technical side of things fixed do to crunch.
its just flatly unacceptable that Game Freak has such bad performance issues. Why do we tolerate this from an IP with so much money at its disposal?
In Sword and Shield DLC, The Isle of Armor was pretty much an appetizer for the big raid dungeons of The Crown Tundra.
I have no doubt that The Teal Mask is meant to be a hold over until The Indigo Disk.
But that feels like a small comfort, for a DLC pack that costs more than half the price of the full game (a full game that is still a buggy mess, mind you).
It looks to me that the pros overweight the cons greatly.
Who am I kidding I want more 'mons
@NinjaNicky I bought it at Best Buy with a discount and with a reward dollars that were expiring.
I played a bit earlier and realised I was having more fun with rom hacks, so...
I will finish it though.
Will probably wait until it's all released. I remember finishing the Isle of Armour in a weekend but the Crown Tundra was more substantial.
...hopefully it's the same? We'll see
I am so glad I didn't buy this DLC. This game is the one that finally made me tired of being fooled by Game Freak. I'm tired of their technical incompetence and unwillingness to fix and improve their games.
GF logic
❌ Fix the main game’s plethora of bugs, glitches and crappy graphics
✅ Ignore the complaints and make a paid DLC with all of the issues of the main game
I get the complaints about the visuals, but for me battling never felt to slow. I love that they've stuck with turnbased battles through the years.
@NinjaNicky “ why did you buy the DLC if you have no interest in starting it?”
The same reason almost everyone, probably including you, have huge backlogs of bought games we haven’t started yet
@Savage_Joe Do a lot of people really have backlogs? I never understood the concept of having a backlog
@Savage_Joe Oh I've been there. After TOTK, the last game that I bought, I looked at my backlog and since then have been on a marathon to beat those games accumulating dust:
Triangle Strategy, GOW Ragnarok, P5R and Metroid Dread.
After that I only had Pokemon Violet which I left halfway through the campaign... but it is so bad that instead I started with my PS Plus Extra catalog to justify it's price and have been finding nice jewels so far (Humanity, Uncharted LoT and currently Miles Morales).
No more huge backlogs now, but easy to accumulate with 2 main consoles
So yeah, buying
@Ramen756 yeah, first time with a considerable backlog. Mainly happened because I got caught up with a new release that called my attention halfway through a playthrough of another game. A couple of consecutive cases like that and boom, 6 unfinished games.
But you are right, makes no sense. I should buy and finish a game before getting another. Specially if they are as good as GOW for example. More understandable if they are as bad as Violet/Scarlet
@Ramen756 let’s say that I have more than 200 pc games, and dozens of xbox (bought, not just Game Pass) games that are waiting for me to look their way 😂
@Ramen756 Backlogs aren't a "concept", they're more like an affliction or a disorder. I speak from experience.
Perhaps it's constant game sales or that I grew up in a time where there were only maybe 1-2 really good games released every year and I got into the habit of buying them right away rather than waiting until I had no other games to play. That habit has become a problem in today's gaming age, and many of us now need to be more selective and picky to avoid drowning in a pile of games.
I appreciate games like any piece of art, and when I see a really good concept or attractive visual style or even just a satisfying game loop, I feel the need to own that game for later consumption because I think I will enjoy it, and that simple pattern is how a backlog is formed.
It feels good to complete a game, but these days a lot of games require you to sink in 50-80 hours before they're considered "complete" so it feels daunting at times. It's definitely a first-world problem but a legitimate and unfortunately common issue nonetheless. I often contemplate not buying games for a year or so just to give myself a chance to catch up.
I envy you that you don't have this issue.
Game has been out for nearly a year now and it still has major performance issues after a long awaited patch for new DLC. Crazy for such a major first party franchise.
@Astral-Grain a disorder... now I'm sad
I started the Teal Mask last night. As soon as I hopped off the bus and made my way up to town, a shiny Corphish is sitting in the rice paddies. It was the first shiny I've ever encountered in Violet.
I find it rather odd that one of the negative points is the battle system. That’s just how the series plays and to expect any sort of change in DLC is foolish.
@Astral-Grain Yeah I've gotten lucky this year, TOTK and AWL was such a time sink that I semi forgot to buy games (adding to wish list though) and now I'm playing starfield and I usually dump 1000 hours into most Bethesda games. So I am hoping aside from a few games that I had on preorder I can take a purchasing break especially as I usually add about 60-100 games to my library come Black Friday. Which I plan on skipping this year. I have a ton I want to buy but don't see the point paying full price when they will sit in celophane for at least another 6-10 months.
Be careful reviewer! Some people are not happy at all with complaints about performance issues. I wonder if they were just able to make all the mess disappear... I don't know if I'm supposed to say there's some irony in my comment...
"Performance issues are still awful and abundant"
Same as with the base game, huge pass from my side. I won't give my money to lazy developers.
reading this review - I felt it would have gotten a 4 if it were any other game. Same with Scarlet/Violet - with it's problems it would have gotten a 3 or 4. It most certainly deserved it.
That score is way too generous lol
These DLCs are basically Pokémon Teal and Pokémon Indigo if you go by their titles. Imagine if they were outright the next generation's main pair of games, and this is what they were like. Stuck with the same horrible shortcomings as the previous pair.
It's sad to see how lazy Game Freak's become. They're so comfortable with the fact Pokémon will always be one of the biggest media franchises in the world that they just stopped caring about making good games. That's why there isn't a doubt in my mind The Indigo Disk is going to be just as bad.
As a wise Onion armored Knight once said.. "hmmmmmm hmmmmmm"
@Fulgor_Astral There is no reason to be sad, if anything it's a sign that the quality of games is better than it ever has been and we're lucky to live in an age where so many great games are available.
Just like anything else, we have to take it in moderation.
6 is too much generous, until we have Pokemon game that sold poorly(impossible to happen) Pokemon Company/Game Freak will keep giving us games of abismal quality, what a sad state for the franchise.
@Pink_Floyd Same here, I tried to start it but gave up within 30 minutes. The performance is almost even worse in this DLC area.
The visuals are just so horrible. It's like playing an old DS game in a slideshow.
So much for Nintendo's promise to address the performance issues. Guess even Nintendo can no longer be trusted!
@Savage_Joe I've never had a backlog of games. I'll only buy a game if I intend to play it. I don't get much time these days to play games so I don't buy many games.
I'm just waiting for the backlash of the gender neutral bathroom they put in.
I would give this 5/10 but otherwise completely agreed with this review, good job Nintendo Life.
Story is fine, Ogerpon is legit cute as hell and the new designs are all nice.
However.
1) Difficulty for anyone with boxes full of Lv100 mons is utter CRAP. Every single good DLC makes sure the difficulty curve increases a bit - but Pokémon's rigid insistance not to cap Levels below 100 until DLC get released (which would be a perfect solution here) destroys any sense of difficulty unless you self-restrict (which you should NEVER have to do at a well-design game, all of you Poké-apologists).
2) Gameplay in the wilderness is just very samey and boring, consisting in 95% of collecting trash on the ground and running into pokémon most of which don't even attempt to run. There need to be actual challenging/fun ways to catch pokémon, bumping into everything on a superfast Miraidon is just mindless.
3) Performance is still crap, sometimes even worse than in the base game.
(*One minor positive - they suddenly gave Shiftry and Empoleon new, very useful abilities - this is actually very nice and we need much more of this stuff to improve older, weaker pokémon in fun ways!)
@TimeGuy you are missing the point - it's not that turn-based system should go away, it's that it's SUPER slow and tedious here, much more so than in Legends: Arceus where everything was modern and swift.
You want the worst example? Use Leech Seed on the oponent, make him fall asleep and give your Pokémon Leftovers or Shell Bell. You will wait legit 30 seconds until your turn is finished. (Modern 2023 game design my a**)
@Hinade Nah I completely agree with the review, battles in Scarlet/Violet are often excruciatingly slow with a ridiculous amount of useless (often duplicated - 'Your opponent fell asleep.' - 'Your opponent is asleep.') text boxes instead of fast modern design. And Legends: Arceus already did it pretty well!
Only Nintendo allows something like this.
Selling a $40+ "Expansion pass" for a game that runs like this, and not even bothering trying to fix it. At least companies like CDPR had the decency to try to improve Cyberpunk before selling expansions, not Ninty.
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