Pokémon Violet (and its sister title Pokémon Scarlet) is already from ninth generation of Pokémon games. As a kid I played games from the first three generations of the franchise, so I had some nostalgia towards them, but I never was very into the pokemania that has taken by storm minds of many of my fellow kids during my childhood. And although later on I caught up to the video games and I liked them, they were behind in my preferences to such other franchises like The Legend of Zelda, SNES era jRPGs or various platformers. My friend borrowed me his Nintendo Switch during my rehabilitation time after the accident. He has much closer ties to Pokémon, trying his strengths at online competitive fights which is completely beyond me. He bought Switch specifically for this game. Although I would prefer The Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, it would be ungrateful to complain about the gift, so I decided to embrace what I got.
There is considerable gap and multiple games between last game from third generation I played and this entry from ninth generation. Despite of this, gameplay was completely familiar, even with the fact that it was first 3D Pokémon I played. Same turn based fight gameplay, only significant difference for me was the fact I could avoid encounters by simply avoiding Pokémons visible in 3D overworld. Of course, there were more minor additions to gameplay, but those nuances weren’t blocking me and I dived naturally into it. I didn’t feel any disconnection with creature design and from whichever generations given Pokémon, they all fitted for me into the same setting and tone. My personal favorite among types is Fairy type. Multiple Pokémons from first three generations are Fairy retroactively, but this generation was introduced only later on. They still feel properly like different type, because they always had different, but characteristic design. I was always choosing Water type as my starter and I like those too. Dragons are close behind in terms of design, but it splits, because I like more those of Dragons with more cute vibes.
It is also open world game, in contrast to linear games of first third generations, which at the beginning provided more struggle, but I quickly overcame it. Story consisted of three, mostly independent, threads with their own characters which connected in the last act. One was with overexcited champion trainer Nemona who becomes our “rival” (quotation marks because she is more like teenager mentor to our child protagonist). It is classic formula with rival, fighting through gym and Pokémon league. Then there is second thread of fighting Titans and trying to heal doggie Pokémon of Arven. Third one is school drama with highly organized school gang. They are not particularly original, but they provide sympathetic framework for our open world adventures. I like main 3 friends that came out of those storylines. Those storylines are quite low-key adventures. We don’t save the world here, rather save people from being expelled from school or save sick doggie. On the other hand, last act which comes almost from nowhere, brings us to mysterious Area Zero, literally at the heart of the land. To be honest, I liked the last act, but it tonally clashed with everything we did up until that point.
After the main game I played 2 DLCs which are collectively titled “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero” and they have one connected storyline and two main characters for both — older sister Carmine and younger brother Kieran — although placed in different setting. First DLC is “Teal Mask” and it’s shorter one. It takes place around small Japanese inspired village during mask themed local festival. There we meet mythical ogre Pokémon who descend to the village during the festival, masked and unrecognised by local people. It significantly more linear than main game or second DLC. Personally I prefer this DLC over other parts of the game in probably all aspects — setting, tone and vibe, characters and even storyline. It reminded me of so many anime I watched, especially those ones set in similar rural areas and within festival times. It’s probably no surprise that Japanese creators nailed this setting better.
Second DLC “The Indigo Disk” brings us to Carmine and Kieran’s school which is placed in artificial underwater terrarium. They have their own school League and actually it was the first time when I felt the game give me bigger challenge. I liked this setting, but it wasn’t as distinctive as first DLC. Kieran became more of traditional rival, but there was something tragic in the way that the game treated him. Player character inevitably becomes prodigious trainer, the way the game is set us up for bigger and bigger challenges, allows us to command legendary beasts. It wasn’t particularly significant in base game, but in DLCs it started to play greater role when it hits at Kieran and never allows him to success over player character. The way Kieran changes during both DLCs is quite tragic and I wanted him to succeed even though I knew it’s impossible, because game always makes us to win if we get to progress.
As much as I highlighted that last act of main game felt out of nowhere, here in “Indigo Disk” it was even bigger problem. Main storyline was all about Kieran and school league, but when it was finished, we were simply called by teacher to assist in expedition to Area Zero, same one as in main game. The title of this DLC has relevance only to this last act and in fact whole collective title of both — “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero” — makes sense only in relation to this small part at the end. However, again I had more mixed feelings because in the end I liked atmosphere of Area Zero, legendary Pokémon we find there and actual conclusion to Kieran storyline.
At the end we have very short, but sweet epilogue that allows us to see our friends from the main game in Kitakami village – setting of “Teal Mask” — interacting with siblings from DLCs. It’s very short, but nice addition that helped me to reconnect to main game characters after being invested with DLCs.