Dust off those Poké balls and return to Paldea one last time in our Pokemon Scarlet: The Indigo Disk DLC review!
The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero concludes in this part 2 DLC for Scarlet/Violet. Following on from The Teal Mask, (you can read our review here) this marks the last paid content for this Pokémon generation. With a brand new area, new and returning Pokémon and a whole lot of things to do, let’s see how this final chapter holds up in our Indigo Disk DLC review!
Look at that amazing, slightly less, pixelated view.
Pokémon Scarlet: The Indigo Disk DLC Review – Story
Similar to Part 1, the story begins with a phone call from the Headmaster, asking you to meet someone. It’s none other than Headmaster Cyrano of Blueberry Academy, who you may remember as the school Carmine and Kieran go to, whom you met in The Teal Mask. He will invite you to join him as an exchange student to explore and discover the secrets of his Academy.
No, that hair over your nose is still annoying.
Whisked away to the floating school, you learn that most of it is located underwater, including a huge terrarium filled with Pokémon! Some new characters are introduced that are a part of the League club, which is essentially a mini Elite Four and the leader being Kieran of course.
The main stage is above water for all the biggest Pokémon battles.
Kieran has now become solely focused on being the best after his loss against you previously, turning him into a cold and hard trainer. His sister and many of his friends are worried about him and think that beating him again will make him see he doesn’t need to be the best. So you must travel all over the terrarium through four different weather zones and beat each member of the League club in order to face the leader.
A very cool way to introduce a new area rather than just another island!
After finally facing Kieran, the last mission refocuses the story back to the titular Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. Without giving too much away, it almost seems like an afterthought and a quick way to tie some loose threads. Whilst it ends hastily, the story comes to quite a neat close on your wonderful adventure in Paldea and features a few callbacks to the campaign from the main game.
Watch out, he has purple hair now!
Pokémon Scarlet: The Indigo Disk DLC Review – Gameplay
At Blueberry Academy there is only one way to battle and that’s with two Pokémon! Every single battle against a trainer is 2v2, which sounds like it would be easier right? Wrong, it is in fact quite challenging. With some opponents having alternate types, more often than not at least one of your Pokémon will be at the disadvantage. Throw in the starting level at around 60 and it’s possibly the hardest campaign across Scarlet/Violet.
Make sure you know those Pokémon types!
This was quite refreshing though as you have to think a bit deeper about what moves and which Pokémon to use at certain times. Unless you have a level 100 team which will bulldoze the competition. The other main additional element to The Indigo Disk is the BBQs. No not the cooking kind, the BBQ system lets you complete small tasks to earn points.
So over picking up items…
These points can go towards other clubs in the academy that unlock new items or cosmetics for your League club room. Finish 10 tasks and unlock a harder one for more points. Any of these tasks can consist of catching certain types of Pokémon, auto battles or even picking up items on the ground.
Many different room styles are available!
Unfortunately, some of the better things to unlock are insanely expensive and would take hours of grinding. For example, to unlock the original starter Pokémon you need 3000 points per area! When small tasks give you around 20-30 points and the larger ones 100-200, this is quite annoying and a huge end-game grind if you do want to catch em’ all.
To unlock all previous starter Pokémon will cost 12000 BP which is just ridiculous.
Another gameplay element unlocks after you complete the story, Pokémon appear all over the terrarium with the new Tera type which you can capture and use in battle. However, the new Stellar type isn’t available for your existing Pokémon and can only be accessed after completing the story.
Shh Spoilers!
The last cool yet pointless addition is the ability to control your own Pokémon! Yes, you can run around as Pikachu or any of the new legendaries but it is only available in the terrarium. The disappointing part is that the limit of your actions is restricted to just punching other Pokémon…
I could play as Lucario all day but rather fruitlessly.
Pokémon Scarlet: The Indigo Disk DLC Review – Presentation
Returning Pokémon isn’t the only thing that has made a comeback in this DLC, the battle soundtrack is a remixed version of the original theme from Black & White. The Unova throwback is an enjoyable inclusion to the new story and a great way to bring back some classic tunes.
On the graphics side of things, not much has changed however the performance has been noticeably improved. The drop in distance is no longer obvious and the stuttering of some high-traffic areas have also been refined. As such the whole experience in The Indigo Disk is a lot smoother.
Not perfect, but much improved since release.
Pokémon Scarlet: The Indigo Disk DLC Review – What Else
As with most Pokémon games, the end-game task is to catch them all, however, The Indigo Disk inserts a rather frustrating roadblock in the way of the BP System. Once the story is complete you will be introduced to Snacksworth, who will give you snacks to lure all the Legendary Pokémon. The catch? You must complete 10 BP tasks for each snack and with 25 legendries out there, that’s a lot of boring tasks to complete. He will then give you a clue about where that certain Legendary is and you must find it yourself back on the Paldea map.
The legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh!
There is a few other side activities to do, including a mission for the photographer Perrin who you ran into in The Teal Mask. This unlocks more Pokémon to catch and adds a nice side mission to boot. You can also take part in flying courses that you must fly through rings in a certain time limit. This enables Koraidon to free fly, not just glide and this flying ability is unlockable to use anywhere after the completion of the story.
Fly you fool!
Lastly, for fans of this journey, there is a free story epilogue releasing on January 11th! With the trailer only showing some familiar characters and the Kitakami region, rumours are the new content drop will introduce another legendary to catch!
Friends return for the free epilogue!
Pokémon Scarlet: The Indigo Disk DLC Review – Conclusion
Generation 9 of Pokémon has probably been the most rocky of the Nintendo Switch era. With its first true open world brought an abundance of performance issues and glitches that made for funny yet frustrating times for fans.
However, a year later and two story content drops, Scarlet/Violet still keeps the Pokémon world alive with mystery and of course, a crazy amount of Pokémon to catch. If you have slept on this title and are itching to put on your trainer belt again, now is definitely the time to fly into Paldea!
The sun sets on Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
So, why should you play The Indigo Disk?
- Great conclusion to a year-long story
- Almost all previous Legendry and starter Pokémon are available to catch
- Brings back some classic battle soundtracks
But why Shouldn’t you play The Indigo Disk?
- A long end-game grind to catch all Pokémon
- Actually a challenging campaign if your team isn’t max level
- Too many menial tasks
A review code was kindly provided by Nintendo Australia for the purpose of our Pokémon Scarlet: The Indigo Disk DLC review. If you haven’t already, be sure to have a read of our Pokémon Scarlet review or Pokémon The Teal Mask review and join the Qualbert Discord to find out about the latest Pokemon updates!
