So, yeah! The Teal Mask DLC! Real life really got in the way of writing and playing this in a relatively timely manner. But here we are. This one would probably be a bit of a less comprehensive or talkative review compared to what I did for the base Violet/Scarlet. I am mostly taking my time with this DLC, though as far as I could tell the story for this one isn't all that long. It is interesting to know that the two DLC's are actually connected not just to the Area Zero storyline, but also to each other, since the "Teal Mask", despite taking place in a completely new region and going for a 'festival holiday' trope in anime, that the "Teal Mask" and the upcoming "Indigo Disk" both make two halves of a story. That was always one of my problems with Sword/Shield's DLC, in that at the end of the day the two stories feel so much like standalone episodes that after completing those DLC stories... the Calyrex one did stick with me, but I barely remember the the far more bland Kubfu one.
Anyway, Teal Mask!
After getting the DLC, I get a bunch of new clothes that were already available to anyone that pre-ordered these DLC games, and... well, the New Winter Clothes do look pretty snazzy. I still hold that it's a huge shame that Nintendo/Gamefreak gutted so many features, and I will still bitch about the lack of a national Pokedex until they actually fix it. But Scarlet/Violet at least get a pass for actually delivering with their 'open-world' promises.
Jacq calls me to tell me that there's a collaboration between Uva Academy and a brand-new school, which is Blueberry Academy. And that there's a school trip to the far-off region of Kitakami, based on the real-life Tohoku region in Japan. I'm obviously playing this after I've completed the main story of Violet earlier this year, but realistically you could buy the game and presumably get this DLC's notification around halfway through. Jacq frames this as basically a lucky draw, and that I'm lucky to get in, but that's just protagonist powers.
We also get immediately introduced to a brand-new character called Ms. Briar, who is an instructor from Blueberry Academy. She's okay. Jacq talks a lot with her and I think the game's kinda setting up some light shipping between the two? Jacq is easily the most under-developed teacher in the base game, and I mentioned as much in my recently-released 'reviewing Paldean humans' article or whatever, so it's nice to get some actual development from him.
We get some exposition, namely that Blueberry Academy is from the Unova region, which... Generation V would be up next for a remake, wouldn't they? I didn't play the Generation IV remakes because they are just straight remakes. I do wish that if we do get Unova game remakes that they do something similar to Sinnoh and give us something extra... like the content we got in Legends Arceus.
To tie to the main 'Area Zero' plotline in the DLC, apparently despite being in Poke-Japan instead of Poke-Spain, Kitakami also has a lot of Terastral phenomenon, despite being a more rural region with rice fields and whatnot.
More interestingly, though, is that Briar wants to go around and investigate the Great Crater of Paldea. Pending, of course, some bureaucracy and approval here and there. I do wonder why I can't just call my good friends Director Clavell or La Primera Geeta, but plot's gotta plot. After Jacq upgrades my pokedex and leaves, Briar reveals the very random bombshell that she's actually the descendant of the original writer of the Violet Book, Heath.
I did really like the writing team incorporating a fair amount of backstory to the Great Crater of Paldea with all the investigation and archaeology reports given to us by Heath, and... well, I can definitely see that Briar's desire to investigate this is going to lead into the main story in the Indigo Disk and our investigation of Terapagos (which won't appear in Teal Mask).
Turns out, though, that the censored pages in the Violet Book isn't just because of blotched, old papers, but because of some actual censorship done by the publishers. Briar holds the original manuscript, which... well, we're smart enough to already figure out what Heath is talking about, but we basically get the full talk about the mysterious Disk Pokemon and how it's tentatively named "Terapagos", and how it's body is made of material that causes the Terastral phenomenon.
I do find it ridiculous that in a setting where you can stumble across any region and meet like a half-dozen legendary, reality-warping Pokemon that apparently these pages were censored because the general public laughed at Heath for finding something 'so ridiculous' as a giant disc Pokemon. In a region where the Terastral Pokemon and Paradox Pokemon exist, and the Paradox Pokemon aren't even censored in the Violet Book? Eh. Either way, this gives us some motivations for Briar, and her primary goal when she's not overseeing kids and their overseas trips is to clear her great ancestor's name.
Then the other three students who will be coming for the trip show up, and... they're three generic-ass dorks. They aren't Arven, Nemona and Penny! They're the bargain-bin versions of them! Hell, they don't even have names. Yeah, these dorks aren't going to be important.
After a title screen, I finally enter the region of Kitamani, specifically in a bus stop. It's a gorgeous environment, and I really do love the rustic, small-town vibe surrounded by hills of scalloping rice fields while Yanma hover around and Corpish and Wooper poke in and out of the mud that the paddy plants grow out of. It's a very distinct environment, and that has been one of my complaints with the Kubfu DLC in Sword/Shield... the environment there is such a boring 'generic biome island' that it's hard to get excited exploring it once the novelty's worn off. Both Kitakami and the Crown Tundra manage to have a very distinct identity just from the get-go.
Generic Short Kid gets a tummyache, which is just an excuse for the NPC's to stay behind while Briar sends us off to go to Mossui Town and get the caretaker to come and help them... but really, it's just an excuse to give me free rein to run around at least this opening area.
And there are a lot of older Pokemon showing up here and I do appreciate the mixture of Generation I-II Pokemon with newer ones from Generation V-VI. We've got some real oldies like Yanma and Spinarak and original-flavour Wooper hanging out with Sewaddle and Cutiefly. And I just had some fun running around and capturing Pokemon and stuff.
There are also a bunch of new trainer classes, which... just seem to be the same models with the kimono that is prominently showcased in all the Teal Mask promotional art, but I do like that we're fighting "Festival Boys" and "Festival Girls" instead of just "Students" all the time. Also it might just be because the Kitakami map is a bit tighter than the entirety of Paldea, but I do really feel like there's a lot more trainers? They might just be packed a bit more denser.
Speaking of rivals, right after entering Mossui Town, I'm immediately accosted by a pair of siblings -- older sister Carmine and younger brother Kieran. They both have the same trait of having some real interesting hair, and having the middle portion of their fringe cover their nose. It's... it's really weird. And while it does kinda work with Kieran's already-messy hairdo, it looks kinda off on Carmine.
And at first glance, they do seem to be pretty basic anime archetypes. Kieran is very insecure and quiet and shy and hides behind his big sister, while Carmine is immediately boisterous and abrasive, initially trying to fight me with talks about not liking outsiders and whatnot. I do really want some more 'asshole' rivals, though, so I'm definitely a fan of Carmine being a jackass in the beginning. "Welcome to Kitakami! For your first experience, eat dirt!" Now the levels are a bit off thanks to the (thankful) level scaling, but Carmine sics a Poochyena, a Vulpix and a brand-new Pokemon... Sinischa!
And Sinischa seems to be a... one of those regional mimicry or convergent evolution stuff similar to Diglett/Wiglett and Tentacool/Toedscool, except the differences are a bit more pronounced. Where Sinistea is a bright blue-and-purple Western tea set, Sinischa is an old-fashioned little tea jar complete with a little stirrer it uses as a weapon. The 'face' pattern on Sinischa and Sinistea are identical, and when the green tea ghost starts to pop up its head, it even has the same swirl as Sinistea. Pretty cute!
Anyway, I bulldoze Carmine's team without much of an issue, and Kieran (or 'Kiki' to his sister) just keeps going 'wowzers' over and over again. Carmine talks big shit and deigns to allow me to be one of her grunts, before the nameless caretaker charges in and drives them off before talking to me and welcoming me to Mossui Town. As much as I know that the caretaker and the three students with Briar are going to be unimportant, I kinda wished they had names, y'know? Part of what made Legends: Arceus and indeed basically every other RPG game feel like it's a living world is that most speaking characters have a name.
The caretaker goes off and grab Briar and the rest of the students to town, telling me to sleep and stuff. And... there's as always a lot of nice modeling that went into the scenery. There's a cute Chingling fried rice decoration in the entrance of the hotel, wind-chimes that look like Chimecho... and there's the cute little detail that the Nurse Joy is a completely different model as well. I particularly like the general goods store -- even if they sell the same things as a Pokemart, I do appreciate the amount of work that went into modelling it.
Anyway, there's a brief cutscene afterwards of the caretaker introduces Carmine and Kieran to the rest of the Uva Academy students. We basically have to adventure around the region see three signboards, each of which contain a part of the local folktale. It's pretty fun fluffy stuff. The caretaker gives us a selfie stick of all things, which I have to use to take selfies with the signboards. This, despite my Rotom phone being perfectly able to float. The caretaker teaches us a 'rad' pose that Briar isn't too impressed with.
This leads to another conversation with Carmine and Kieran. Carmine tells me that Kieran has been super-excited and kinda obsessed with me, to his horror, and Carmine... is basically trying to be kinda mean but also try and get Kieran to open up and make friends. It's kind of obvious, and I do appreciate this extra layer of depth, even if it isn't much. The two do make an interesting, contrasting pair, even if I don't think they'll be my favourite Pokemon characters any time soon. Carmine puts me into a 'but you can't refuse' not-choice, telling me to battle with Kieran since he's so excited to meet me.
Kieran is all shy and stuff with his stupid 'wowzers' catchphrase, and fights me with... a Sentret and a Yanma? Not even a new Pokemon to show for his efforts. After beating him, I get paired up with Kieran, and I'm off to look at the first signboard, which is at a location called Loyalty Plaza. Thanks to game limitations, though, Kieran notes that he'll be traveling a 'short distance' behind me, which I guess is just to not hinder us with our exploration.
And that's basically where I stop off in Mossui Town. I explored a bit of the outskirts, but I'll leave most of the Momotaro storyline until the next part of this playthrough.
Random Notes:
- Yeah, I'm starting back with 'Part 1' so as not to balloon the numbers too much. I'll do the same when I play Indigo Disk.
- At the moment of writing, I am 100% unspoiled about anything other than the existence of Ogrepon, the three Momotaro funny animals, and Terapagos. That's about it, and I'm trying to keep myself spoiler-free!
- Buying the DLC is annoying enough, but it really is very irritating that I had to do a google search to figure out how to even apply and download the DLC into my copy of Pokemon Violet. There's like a bunch of nonsense and completely different things to go on the app '+' options and the Nintendo eShop and everything just to access the damn contents of this DLC.
- In addition to the clothes, I also get a bonus Hisuian Zoroark for my purchase.
- My party's going to change a lot as I go through the DLC since I'll be trying to use the brand-new Pokemon, but as of the time of writing it's comprised of this Hisuian Zoroark, the Spidops and Arboliva I retired at around level 50 in my original playthrough, Chi-Yu, and two slots that I level up these insane level 57 first-stage Pokemon to get their evolutions in the Pokedex.
- Miraidon isn't available until the beginning of the signboard-hunt activities, which was a bit annoying. Especially since the game blocks me out of exploring beyond the town and the entrance area anyway.
- In Kitakami, Noctowl replace the Squawkabilly in the flying animation. I thought that's cute. They also make a special airplane animation for going back and forth between Kitakami and Paldea.
- I have been around paddy fields before and I can tell you that there's a surprising chance you meet freshwater crabs and even fishes and eels there. Corphish and Wooper are definitely appropriate!
- I did find it hilarious that the game needed to take time to point out that 'don't worry about the shoes, you can wear them indoors' because the game doesn't want to animate shoe-less feet for every NPC, I guess?
- There are a bunch of extra quality-of-life stuff that they added, like being able to change the, uh... menu borders or whatnot in the Pokedex and map screens; the ability to reflect your Rotom Phone Case on your menus; as well as more photography options and poses? They're nice.
- But while I don't personally experience it, there are apparently a lot of people that report terrible performance issues with the DLC and it kinda sucks that people still can't enjoy this game despite it being out for already more than a year.
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