Games Happy

I had hopes that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Space Zero may supply the kind of important enchancment that Pokemon Sword and Defend’s Enlargement Cross contributed to turning these video games into a few of my favorites within the franchise; a heel flip from my preliminary ideas on the video games at their unique launch. On the identical time, nevertheless, I have to admit that I used to be frightened that the issues which have plagued Pokemon Scarlet and Violet is likely to be significantly tougher to repair. Sadly, whereas The Hidden Treasure of Space Zero might be price choosing up in case you’re a Pokemon fan who remains to be taking part in the video games every day – and is an plain enhancement to what was initially supplied again in 2022 – Sport Freak’s newest launch fails to enhance upon what made the video games so tough to suggest within the first place.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Space Zero is a set of expanded content material for the unique video games, comprising two halves of content material updates which have been delivered over the previous few months – The Teal Masks, which was launched in September, and The Indigo Disk. Each updates delivered new and returning Pokemon to the sport, new story content material and minigames, and most significantly – new areas for gamers to discover, full with their very own distinctive places and secrets and techniques to find. Pokemon Sword and Defend’s Enlargement Cross delivered an analogous fashion and amount of content material again in 2020, so whereas particular person particulars may differ between the 2 choices, it is in all probability honest to say that the quantity of content material added by every is broadly equal.

After I reviewed the Sword and Defend Enlargement Cross, I praised it for straight addressing a lot of my – and others’ – criticisms of the bottom sport. The brand new Wild Areas that had been added had been a major enchancment from the one discovered within the unique launch, and the addition of recent postgame content material helped make up for the way missing issues felt at launch. It did not do something to actually deal with how poor Sword and Defend’s story was, however I used to be by no means going to complain about that when it wasn’t making an attempt to be something substantial to start with. Whereas Sword and Defend nonetheless had its faults, by the point I would had my fill of the expanded content material my emotions on the sport as a complete had been upended.

Whereas they may share the identical rating, in some ways my emotions on Pokemon Scarlet and Violet had been antithetical to my impressions of the earlier video games. At their core, the content material of Scarlet and Violet are glorious; the paradigm shift to a very open world was a hit from a gameplay perspective, and the quantity of content material on supply at launch was greater than sufficient to whet my curiosity. The story, which I admittedly have by no means thought of to be core to what makes a Pokemon sport nice, was a nice shock; persevering with the pattern set by Pokemon Legends: Arceus earlier within the 12 months. Nonetheless, all of this reward felt for naught within the face of the evident technical points plaguing the expertise.

I nonetheless keep that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet mustn’t have been launched as they did, and Nintendo even got here out to apologize for the state of the video games at launch. Have issues improved within the 12 months since? Sure, however solely marginally so. Essentially the most evident of bugs have been patched out, however doing so has been something however a clean expertise. Efficiency – akin to graphical pop-in, and framerate – hasn’t been ironed out to any measurable diploma, both. Sure areas of each the bottom sport and the DLCs nonetheless carry the efficiency to a crawl, which has been downright painful to have interaction with at instances.

What The Hidden Treasure of Space Zero has added by way of content material is generally welcome, regardless. Blueberry Academy, and to a lesser extent Kitakami, are enjoyable additions to the sport. The brand new options added, each main and minor, are price a shout too; new raids to have interaction with, new Legendary Pokemon to search out scattered internationally, and even the Academy Ace Event is upgraded following catching Terapagos. If you happen to’re advantageous with the technical state of the sport not having been noticeably improved, there’s positively sufficient to contemplate choosing up the DLC, particularly in case you deliberate to play it alongside your mates. Gaining the flexibility for Miraidon or Koraidon to fly makes partaking with nearly each different facet of the sport all the better, and once more I have to stress that that is undeniably a marked enchancment to the sport general.

But, moreover the efficiency points – that are completely inexcusable now, as they had been at launch – I’ve some qualms with one other core facet of the DLC. Specificallly, the story that revolves round Carmine and Kieran.

There is not any method getting round it; the story that The Hidden Treasure of Space Zero tells sucks, and the best way that the participant is pressured into enabling abuse levied towards Kieran is dangerous. Whereas some may say that since Pokemon is a franchise focused at youngsters, and the standard of a narrative could not matter as a lot, I’d counter that the precise sort of story that’s advised all through this DLC is inherently dangerous in the way it handles the subject material. Carmine’s actions in the direction of Kieran are horrible. She snaps at him in lots of scenes in The Teal Masks, forces the participant to mislead Kieran’s face all through the story, after which the story ends with you – the participant – being pressured to fairly actually crush his desires, proper to his face. 

Her actions in The Indigo Disk aren’t significantly better; because of the abuse that each you and her sister inflicted upon him within the prior replace, Kieran turns into disillusioned – and obsesses over changing into as sturdy as attainable. He is aggressive to his buddies and classmates, and his fellow League members at Blueberry Academy specific concern about him; however not as soon as all through the story does Carmine personal up and apologize for her actions, which led to the state of affairs within the first place. Neither is the participant given the choice to apologize, for that matter; on the finish of the day, it’s Kieran who apologizes for his actions and no person else.

I can solely communicate for my very own ideas on the matter, however contemplating how the bottom sport dealt with familial abuse significantly better with Arven’s story; I used to be shocked at how the sport tackled an analogous situation with the DLC. Will most gamers care about this? Most likely not, however even when efficiency had been improved to a noticeable diploma, I really feel that my general impressions nonetheless would have been soured from this alone. 

It is onerous for me to really feel strongly about whether or not or to not suggest The Hidden Treasure of Space Zero to gamers. Chances are high, in case you already know that you really want the DLC, you’ve got been taking part in it for the final a number of days. If you have not already picked it up, and are not feeling the necessity to return to Scarlet and Violet, then I do not know if I can suggest setting apart each the money and time to play it. Whereas the Pokemon Sword and Defend Enlargement Cross was a straightforward suggestion, if something Scarlet and Violet’s equal has left me much more combined on the video games than ever earlier than.

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