Summary
Pokemon Scarlet and Violetare arguably the most innovative mainline games in the franchise by a huge margin, even compared to the groundbreaking experiment that wasPokemon Legends: Arceus, and future titles may never be the same now.Pokemon Scarlet and Violetbroke many traditions, from a narrative standpoint with the way Professor Sada and Turo didn’t hand players their starters or Pokedex to gameplay with the new open-world formula and shiny sandwiches. With two DLC expansions on the way,Pokemon Scarlet and Violetcould break the mold yet again, and it seems like The Indigo Disk is already poised to do as much with how it handles starter critters.
The Teal Mask and Indigo Disk DLCs for Gen 9 will both feature new creatures for players to catch as well as new content to tackle, with the former including a mini-game called Ogre Oustin' and probably more enticing activities. Little is known about the exact contents of The Indigo Disk, but players can expect some tough battles with asecond set of Elite Four inPokemon Scarlet and Violetin the form of the so-called BB League. Furthermore, the Blueberry Academy will feature four different biomes that trainers can explore and where they can catch different species of Pokemon, including first partners from past games.
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Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Blueberry Academy Lets Players Catch All Past Starters
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s DLC lets players catch all starters from the mainline series for the first time, with past titles only allowing trainers to find a handful in the wild and then transferring other ones via trades or other apps. Even games that included all of the starters available up to that moment never allowed players to catch them all in that same title, instead only featuring some of them either as random encounters or even as one-time gifts where one had to choose which to get.
An example is howPokemon Sword and Shield’s Isle of Armor gave players one of the Alolan starters assuming they found most of the missing Alolan Diglett scattered throughout the island. In the case ofPokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk, however, players can seemingly find all of the past starters in the biomes available within the Blueberry Academy’s grounds. This is not only a major tradition being shattered, but it’s also a good move on The Pokemon Company’s part given recent controversies and given its live-service-adjacent model for the many Tera Raids that have come and gone since launch.
Multiple past starters were made available to players via thetime-limitedPokemon Scarlet and VioletTera Raids, with some trainers worrying that they would have to catch them all while the events took place if they wanted to have a chance at collecting them in Gen 9. As such, the fact that The Indigo Disk is making every first partner Pokemon ever available for all to catch is a much-needed respite from an otherwise long and potentially problematic grind. Furthermore, this is great news for all those players that attended the recent World Championships forPokemon Scarlet and Violet.
In fact, the event’s rules were much stricter than in the past, and some players ended up being banned despite taking part in the tournament for a few rounds and having flown all the way to Japan. This is because it’s relatively common to seegenned Pokemon in tournaments, so every team had to go through scrutiny to determine if every critter was legal. With how hard it has been to actually catch them all in the series,Pokemon Scarlet and Violetare doing something great for accessibility, and the fact that all starter Pokemon will be available in The Indigo Disk sets a good precedent.
Pokemon ScarletandVioletare available now for the Nintendo Switch.
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