Even if Sword and Shield's DLC was probably the best thing about that game, it was the best part of what I'd consider one of the most sauceless Pokémon games ever put out. Scarlet and Violet on the other hand, I actually really liked, which made me excited to see all the cool things they could do with it post release (if it was just fixing the performance, which they didn't). Unfortunately, I came out of this with another conclusion; the way they make these DLCs just pisses me off.
Let's get the biggest caveat out of the way; when are you even supposed to play this? The level scaling is super fucked up. If you played the base game at all after completing the main quest, there's no way your party isn't totally overleved. Do they expect you to catch new Pokémon and make a party out of those? Sure, I did that. It still doesn't work when things jump 20 levels from one area to another. And it's not like you'll ever grow particularly attached to these fucking nobodies you catch unevolved at level 60 something and use for 4 hours. That was already something I felt about the Gen 8 DLC and it undermines any enjoyment I could have playing this. It's not like these games aren't easy, but even if you use terrible underleved shitmons in any main series game just to make it slightly harder, you'll grow attached to them. That's the magic of Pokémon as a franchise, in my eyes. If I'm either plowing through the games with 0 effort or just catching "some guy" that I form no connection to, it makes me judge the rest of the experience way harder and take it at face value, as I do here.
The structure has been simple enough: provide players with a big area to explore, catch returning and a couple of new Pokémon, play some minigames for rewards, do a little story thing, add competitive QOL features that should have been there in the first place and catch a legendary that's slightly overtuned for OU but not so much that it gets banned immediately.
Kitakami itself is surprisingly big but there's not a lot in terms of landmarks that I'd consider particularly notable besides the FPS dropping crystal lake and some nice, hang-outtable parks. There's really only one "town" with a few NPCs. I'd normally consider that a downside but honestly, with how much they've already retreaded similar Japanese settings, it's not like it's anything we haven't seen or won't see done again in the future. If anything, there was an opportunity to do something closer to Paldea's real life inspiration but whatever. It's alright.
In terms of returning Pokémon selection, YMMV. What gets me is how much of the supposedly "new" Kitakami dex are actually just guys who are in the base game. I completed the Pokédex in the base game because it was fun to do so but here it felt really underwhelming since I already had half of the 200 entries done. 100 is a fine amount for new+returning Pokémon, I suppose.. but if they needed to pad it out THAT badly, it's not like 50 more returning ones couldn't have been crammed in just for the sake of feeling fresher.
Getting competitive Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet was already easy but the biggest complaint has always been how much grinding you needed to do for Tera Shards. Now you can get an item to grind them faster so.. cool? It really should have been like that from the start. Same thing with the new EV resetting mochi. It's not like this is the thing that'll stop players from just hacking in their Pokémon... but it's nice to have.
The story content is decent and about what you'd expect from this generation; teens traumadumping on you for 2 hours and uhh, a legendary is there. The school trip set-up is ridiculous when the only other students present are 3 nobody NPCs with no personality whatsoever, but you're not really meant to think about it. If they brought in the main characters from the base game, they'd steal attention from the new characters so that was the only way they could have done it,IMO. I'm interested at how a certain character's development is going to carry on to the next part of the DLC, which is something they've not attempted before.
I was disappointed by how lacking the photography quest was. Judging by the trailers, I was expecting it to be something like BOTW's or TOTK's Hyrule Compedium feature but nah,just a 10 minute section. That ties nicely into a complaint that'll be completely irrelevant in a few months but I really dislike how they promoted this DLC. Why show so much of the second DLC when you're still announcing the first? It ended up just confusing the fuck out of me in terms of what's were, specially since the second one seems to be the meatier offering. The fact that these two are even sold together comes off as a bit problematic to me because... this isn't worth even half the asking price. But there's a vague plot connection between them now, so "obviously" can't be sold separately.
Overall, it doesn't feel substantial enough on any front. If you're a casual player you'd probably tolerate the content at offer but feel ripped off until the second part eventually comes out, by which point you'll have forgetten everything that happened in this one. If you're a competitive player, you'll probably need to pick this up to make life easier but still feel ripped off because it's just not enough to not learn to pkhex better.
Let's get the biggest caveat out of the way; when are you even supposed to play this? The level scaling is super fucked up. If you played the base game at all after completing the main quest, there's no way your party isn't totally overleved. Do they expect you to catch new Pokémon and make a party out of those? Sure, I did that. It still doesn't work when things jump 20 levels from one area to another. And it's not like you'll ever grow particularly attached to these fucking nobodies you catch unevolved at level 60 something and use for 4 hours. That was already something I felt about the Gen 8 DLC and it undermines any enjoyment I could have playing this. It's not like these games aren't easy, but even if you use terrible underleved shitmons in any main series game just to make it slightly harder, you'll grow attached to them. That's the magic of Pokémon as a franchise, in my eyes. If I'm either plowing through the games with 0 effort or just catching "some guy" that I form no connection to, it makes me judge the rest of the experience way harder and take it at face value, as I do here.
The structure has been simple enough: provide players with a big area to explore, catch returning and a couple of new Pokémon, play some minigames for rewards, do a little story thing, add competitive QOL features that should have been there in the first place and catch a legendary that's slightly overtuned for OU but not so much that it gets banned immediately.
Kitakami itself is surprisingly big but there's not a lot in terms of landmarks that I'd consider particularly notable besides the FPS dropping crystal lake and some nice, hang-outtable parks. There's really only one "town" with a few NPCs. I'd normally consider that a downside but honestly, with how much they've already retreaded similar Japanese settings, it's not like it's anything we haven't seen or won't see done again in the future. If anything, there was an opportunity to do something closer to Paldea's real life inspiration but whatever. It's alright.
In terms of returning Pokémon selection, YMMV. What gets me is how much of the supposedly "new" Kitakami dex are actually just guys who are in the base game. I completed the Pokédex in the base game because it was fun to do so but here it felt really underwhelming since I already had half of the 200 entries done. 100 is a fine amount for new+returning Pokémon, I suppose.. but if they needed to pad it out THAT badly, it's not like 50 more returning ones couldn't have been crammed in just for the sake of feeling fresher.
Getting competitive Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet was already easy but the biggest complaint has always been how much grinding you needed to do for Tera Shards. Now you can get an item to grind them faster so.. cool? It really should have been like that from the start. Same thing with the new EV resetting mochi. It's not like this is the thing that'll stop players from just hacking in their Pokémon... but it's nice to have.
The story content is decent and about what you'd expect from this generation; teens traumadumping on you for 2 hours and uhh, a legendary is there. The school trip set-up is ridiculous when the only other students present are 3 nobody NPCs with no personality whatsoever, but you're not really meant to think about it. If they brought in the main characters from the base game, they'd steal attention from the new characters so that was the only way they could have done it,IMO. I'm interested at how a certain character's development is going to carry on to the next part of the DLC, which is something they've not attempted before.
I was disappointed by how lacking the photography quest was. Judging by the trailers, I was expecting it to be something like BOTW's or TOTK's Hyrule Compedium feature but nah,just a 10 minute section. That ties nicely into a complaint that'll be completely irrelevant in a few months but I really dislike how they promoted this DLC. Why show so much of the second DLC when you're still announcing the first? It ended up just confusing the fuck out of me in terms of what's were, specially since the second one seems to be the meatier offering. The fact that these two are even sold together comes off as a bit problematic to me because... this isn't worth even half the asking price. But there's a vague plot connection between them now, so "obviously" can't be sold separately.
Overall, it doesn't feel substantial enough on any front. If you're a casual player you'd probably tolerate the content at offer but feel ripped off until the second part eventually comes out, by which point you'll have forgetten everything that happened in this one. If you're a competitive player, you'll probably need to pick this up to make life easier but still feel ripped off because it's just not enough to not learn to pkhex better.
5 Comments
@LordDarias it's crazy compared to how relatively accessible everything else is, baring stuff like getting 0 Speed and Attack IVs. But even now, the way to get the actual item means most players won't ever bother to get it 🥲
"...teens traumadumping on you for 2 hours and uhh, a legendary is there."
This is such a funny and true way to describe S/V's story lmao.
I can confirm that you are able to play the DLC the moment you reach the school for the first time in the base game, so basically you can go at any time. That works for something like Breath of the Wild, but I don't think works for this game at all.
Making a new team was also a major problem I had. There's just not enough time to grow attached tho these guys, and unless you pump them with candies, they're usually gonna get blasted by your opponents (also, since the time of day is fixed until you beat the story, if you need a certain time of day to evolve a Pokémon, you're SOL in Kitakami at some points and have to travel back to Paldea).
I felt that the story and new characters were good enough for my experience to be overall good, though. And I still love the process of finding new Pokémon for the Pokédex.
This is such a funny and true way to describe S/V's story lmao.
I can confirm that you are able to play the DLC the moment you reach the school for the first time in the base game, so basically you can go at any time. That works for something like Breath of the Wild, but I don't think works for this game at all.
Making a new team was also a major problem I had. There's just not enough time to grow attached tho these guys, and unless you pump them with candies, they're usually gonna get blasted by your opponents (also, since the time of day is fixed until you beat the story, if you need a certain time of day to evolve a Pokémon, you're SOL in Kitakami at some points and have to travel back to Paldea).
I felt that the story and new characters were good enough for my experience to be overall good, though. And I still love the process of finding new Pokémon for the Pokédex.
Oh, and I kind of think having version exclusives for DLC is a bit silly? Especially since there's, what? Three? It just means that if you look at a list of what's new and decide to use it, it may just be not in your game. Happened to me with Aipom.
@electrode version exclusives really are just a formality at this point, even moreso when you can literally hop on some random raid and catch said version exclusives on your own version. Also forgot to mention this because it doesn't have to do with the game itself but it's real stupid that since I bought the DLC for Violet, I'd have to buy the whole thing again when I eventually play Scarlet. They're the same game!
LordDarias
6 months ago