By Paul Harrington
Staff Writer
If you thought the school trip ended in Kitakami, then you must have misread the permission slip!
“The Indigo Disk,” the second half of the “Pokémon Scarlet and Violet” DLC “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero,” which was released in December 2023, is a substantial step forward from “The Teal Mask” in terms of content and difficulty, and is just the right challenge this game needed.
This second part was advertised to players as the follow up to “The Teal Mask” and expanded upon the introduced characters of Kitakami and established conflicts in the first half.
The second half of the academy field trip follows the player being hosted as a guest at the Blueberry Academy for an exchange program.
The artificial biomes of Blueberry Academy sets up four to explore. These each hold different Pokémon based on climates as follows - a beach biome, a rigid mountain, a sweltering hot savannah, and the Antarctic.
As soon as the player enters, they are immersed into the culture of Blueberry Academy, which focuses only on the concept of battles. The dedication to battle culture is incorporated into the curriculum, the method of battling done by students, and also the teams curated by trainers.
The main reason trainers attend this school is to have a shot at the BB League challenge in hopes of becoming champion.
The Blueberry League Elite Four consists of five trainers, with four trials you can do in any order, and a riveting champion battle to wrap up the story.
The trial challenges before Elite Four matches are all diverse from one another and do not feel similar to each other in terms of content. The one that stuck with me the most was my final trial with the Elite Four Member Drayton.
Drayton’s challenge is so simple because it is just a battle. But before you get your hopes up, you then learn that you can only use Pokémon you have caught during your time here. This prompts players to think outside the box and try out different teams.
Aside from the fighting frenzy of Blueberry Academy, there are a lot of returning Pokémon and mechanics for players to use during their time here. The feature that I found myself using the most would easily be the Synchro Machine.
By doing an in-game questline, you unlock this feature which allows you to play as your Pokémon. By becoming “one with the Pokémon” players can run around the map as the selected Pokémon, and can engage in fights with wild Pokémon.
The biggest drawback to this feature is that you can only use it in the Blueberry Academy overworld - but it’s nothing to lose sleep over.
Another mechanic that was long overdue - and should have been in the base game - is the return of Legendary Pokémon in the overworld.
Doing in-game quests known as Blueberry Quests (BBQs) and ranking up the number of completed quests allows players to obtain legendary treats to then summon Legendary Pokémon.
Though the average fan probably transferred all their Legendaries in from previous games, they cannot deny that two is always better than one.
The quintessential core to the journey of a Pokémon trainer is their starter Pokémon. The ability to catch starter Pokémon in the overworld is one that pushed me to originally buy it.
The ability to transfer Pokémon from past games into this current generation makes me feel more connected than ever to my previous journeys through the various regions. To see them with badges of valor is amazing.
“The Indigo Disk” is then complimented by a free epilogue titled “Mochi Mayhem.” This hour of content is sure to make even the most serious players laugh.
Players are invited back to Kitakami with their friends from Paldea. But it seems everyone in the town has been possessed by the new Mythical Pokémon Pecharunt’s “mythical mochi.” Players go through various battles to save the day. Though short, this epilogue was a fun way to wrap things up.
Overall, the trip to Blueberry Academy was refreshing, and created enjoyable challenges with leeway for flexibility in creating teams. I still think that with a little more polishing, this could have been an A+.
Rating: A
‘The Indigo Disk’ was super effective