Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: The Teal Mask DLC Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet: The Teal Mask is an interesting bit of DLC for a few reasons. The biggest one is that it’s part of a set of two, which means the story that it tells is going to continue with The Indigo Disk when that releases later this year. The other reason it’s interesting is that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are, at least in my opinion, some of the worst entries in the franchise we’ve had.

I’ve not gone back to Pokemon Violet since my review of it, partly because incredible games haven’t stopped releasing since November last year, but mostly because I find the experience sort of depressing. Despite the potential of the open world and the new free-form approach to everything, the game’s performance on Nintendo Switch is so mind-bogglingly bad that it makes it hard to focus on anything else.

Unfortunately, The Teal Mask doesn’t drop alongside sweeping optimisation or essential performance fixes, and instead, just opening the map up to warp back to the school to start the DLC is a painful reminder of how sluggish everything is. Things are alright once you’re inside and chatting with the teacher who’s going to take you on your school trip to Kitakami, the new subregion for this DLC, but that is a fleeting moment.

I’m going to try and keep my complaints brief, but I also want you to understand that there’s no escpaing them. The glitches and performance issues are ever-present, and if you can’t deal with that fact, you won’t be able to enjoy this DLC.

Once you hit the new area, you’ll notice that even during the cutscenes, textures and shadows pop in and out of existence like Thanos is performing a jazz-inspired finger-clicking session. Then you’ve got other little things, like sending a Pokemon off to fight on its