When The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC for Pokémon Scarlet/Violet was announced earlier this year, I was highly skeptical of its importance and, moreover, if I would even bother getting it. Pokémon Sword/Shield had attempted a similar package when it released The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra close to a year after launch, and it was…well, it was frankly boring. The entirety of Iron Island was trying to make a bear like you to get a single, one route mythic Pokémon that couldn’t do anything great, though I caught some extra Pokémon. Crown Tundra was unique in all the legendaries that came with it, but there was a massive pipeline problem in keeping people hyped, so, at launch, it went totally under my radar.

For Pokémon Sword/Shield, the attempt at open world while still being very closed was frustrating, and it carried into the DLC. You always felt like you could/should be able to go further, but boundaries weren’t clear and pathways were sometimes obtuse. In the end, it was an interesting footnote to a set of games that were a step forward in some ways but really fell flat in others. Pokémon Sword/Shield remains one of those games that I doubt I’d go back and revisit because, frankly, I didn’t care about it other than it being Pokémon, and that only carried it as far as completing the initial Pokédex and then walking far, far away.

But Game Freak has done something special with Pokémon Scarlet/Violet, and the drip feed of information and engagement has kept me coming back on a regular basis. We can talk all day about the framerate issues, the draw distance, the glitchy movements that persist to this very moment and more, but they nailed the extended enjoyment pattern. Having legendary and specialty raids every couple of weeks made sure I at least kept up my Nintendo Switch Online account and fired up the game regardless of what else I was playing. Bizarre new Pokémon like Walking Wake also kept me intrigued and hopeful that even more high strangeness would appear. And then the DLC dropped and things really started to get interesting.

The first chapter, The Teal Mask, is important if only because it sets up the second act, The Indigo Disk. Pokémon hasn’t always been great about storytelling, and the way that the big reveals of Pokémon Scarlet/Violet’s main story was rather confusing and disappointing. Something something time travel, something something paradox, something something Ed Sheeran. So to kick off a storyline where you nail some important aspects right away is impressive. Summer festival themed trip to a part of the world you’ve never seen before. Small Japanese town for lore-driven mythology. Optional but exciting sidequest with direct ties to Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The creation of an antagonist from seemingly humble but well meaning roots.There was a lot happening in the Kitakami area that didn’t just draw focus, but kept me seriously invested in what was happening.

In fact, I would say the only missteps with Teal Mask is that, once it’s done, it’s done. The limited map makes sense since it’s in a town, so it doesn’t take a terrific amount of time to really plumb the depths. You can go back and do the mini game, Ogre Ousting, to unlock a couple of goodies, but the main focus is just to complete the Kitakami Pokedex and get a charm plus three mythical Pokémon with terrible names. Ogrepon, the key mythic behind the whole story, is wonderful, but Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti reek of trying way too hard to make a pun work for a trio of Poison type idiots who entered into my Boxes and will never, ever escape.

Indigo Disk takes all of the setup from Teal Mask and then delivers in a massive way, both in terms of story, gameplay, Pokémon and game mechanics. Leaving mainland Paldea, you end up in an underwater school that clearly is both safe and sane, and has a series of biomes in it that reminds you there are no Gods or Kings, only Pokémon. Some batshit school director with absolutely no secrets to hide just funnels kids beneath the waves to learn and fight, though this school seems to never have classes. Just a bunch of fighting everywhere, which reminded me so much of my own junior high school days.

First and foremost, bravo to Game Freak for finally closing a story loop in a satisfactory way that made me care about the outcome of an event. Watching Kieran go from mild mannered kid to Patrick Bateman: Pokémon Trainer was not what I was expecting, but it was worth the price of admission. Plus, unlike when you beat his sniveling hide back in Kitakami, the joy of defeating him in Blueberry Academy is palpable, like a delicious jam spread on top of his milquetoast personality. Plus Carmine became more friendly and Perrin…is also there, so some actual reason to need to finish Teal Mask first is a delight.

Secondly, the new characters in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero are delightful and easy on the eyes. Pokémon Scarlet/Violet really stepped up their “NPCs you end up falling in love with” game with this generation, and they did a great job of making them fun as well as visually pleasing. While nothing quite beats Nemona’s “exuberance teetering into harassment” style, I loved our new Elite Four trio. You’ve got overly serious girl who secretly is caring and compassionate but isn’t going to show you. Big hairclip girl who loves all things cute. Lazy dragon trainer who will hit on you regardless of male or female character. Chef who is more expressive and passionate than the previous three combined. This could have been an easy phone in to simply bring back bosses from the Paldea region through a loophole (we have…Pokémon Passports! Sure!), but new characters helps keep the energy going.

Indigo Disk tries its best to answer to the call of players asking for more challenging battles, and it succeeds…sort of. Every trainer does Double Battles, and nearly every Pokémon they have hold an item, which requires you to theoretically use strategy to defeat them. I say theoretically because my old strategy – getting to level 100 and wrecking house – honestly worked perfectly well for every encounter. Even the battles where you were told you had to use Pokémon from Indigo Disk only (caught within the school, no hatching or Terra raids) were easy enough as long as you knew basic type counters and had a pile of XP candy lying around. Still, it was a good step up from someone just announcing they loved Clefairy and then being shocked you had a single Steel type to end it all.

In The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero, the four biomes of Savannah, Canyon, Coastal and Polar do their due diligence to be both exciting to explore and to offer a great variety of Pokémon. While I feel that Savannah was quite boring in terms of landscape (great, flat with some grass), the appearance of hidden caves that ran beneath the school with totally different Pokémon to catch was a delight. Polar did a solid job of showing how a frozen area could actually be fun to explore, unlike the desolate peaks in main Paldea. The discovery of so many new TMs, various items and fun nooks and crannies reminded me what worked well in Pokémon Scarlet/Violet in the first place.

 It was confusing, as a longtime Pokémon Go player, to encounter different monsters that I’ve caught recently on my phone and then realized I never caught them in Pokémon Scarlet. I’m so sick of encountering Digletts in my mobile walking game that it didn’t occur to me until I had Auto-battled a lot of them that I might need to catch one to complete my new Dex. But my massive collection of all sorts of Pokéballs meant not needing to worry about running low on supplies…especially not once the BBQs kicked in.

BBQ, or Blueberry Quests, are the main pull of Indigo Disk, and might be the smartest thing Game Freak has added to a Pokémon game. A never-ending series of minor quests that are relatively easy to accomplish, the BBQs serve an important dual function. One, it forces you to use those mechanics from the base game that you stopped using after a few levels. Auto-battling is essential to getting BBQs finished, not to mention sneaking up on Pokémon and Terastralizing versus a wild Pokémon, even if it is wild overkill. Two, it gives you a series of points that can only be spent in Blueberry Academy, but the purchases are worth their weight in gold, if not more so.

Yes, you can learn new poses and ball throwing stances in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. Yay? You can also add a special camera filter that tells you if a Pokémon contains a mark or not, vital to certain Pokéhunters. You can expand the biomes to have more diversity, unlocking the ability to catch all the starters from previous generations. Not only is this helpful to people who missed the different Raids throughout the year (or couldn’t finish them because Hisuian Decidiueye was rough), but it also helps out folks who didn’t want to throw their money at Pokémon Home in an effort to preserve their Pokémon. 

You can also purchase the Item Printer, which answers the question “Why doesn’t Pokémon have a gatcha mechanic yet?” Thankfully, it doesn’t ask for real money, just more BBQ points, and it only gets more gatcha-esque the further on you go. It’s not enough to get insanely rare and expensive items like Golden Bottle Caps or Ability Patches for almost free, no. The fact there is a rare but real chance that you get literally any kind of Pokéball when the stars align (and yes, I’m including Master Balls) means kids are going to be locked into the gatcha loop for a long, long time, and it’s done without an additional purchase wall to hurdle over.

Oh, there’s the Synchronization machine as well, which puts you into the shoes of any Pokémon you happen to own and then lets you walk around. This is genuinely stupid fun, and I’m here for it. I really got attached to Annihilape throughout this game, and being able to slip into my murder monkey shoes and then walk around, punching everything I see, was almost cathartic. No, Litleo, I don’t want to catch you, I want to make Mufasa cry when I rock your breadbox. This is my Savannah!

Naturally, the DLC has the basic shortcomings that happen with all hope that rides on Pokémon. Most importantly, it is incredibly short if you’re just looking to move the plot along. Between Teal Mask and Indigo Disk, players are able to brutalize their way from start to finish in six hours, potentially less. While no one who is playing a Pokémon game properly would do such a bum rush, it is possible and, as a result, means that the ask for the DLC price can be daunting for people simply coming in for the lore. After all, the number of new Pokémon added is quite negligible and, if you are a frequent user of Pokémon Home, all the hard-to-catch monsters and legendaries are ready to be transferred in at the drop of a hat.

Speak of which, Indigo Disk finally bookends the theoretical Pokédex potential, and players cannot get some of their favorites. For the first time in forever, Togepi and its evolutions have been left out, as well as one of my personal favorites, Honedge. It’s disappointing as hell, and there’s no justification for it, but it is what it is. Also, anyone hoping that the DLC was going to magically polish the game into a diamond and fix all the technical shortcomings will be sorely disappointed. I will never justify the decisions to axe Pokémon from a game nor to release a title that has constant glitches (I got stuck in a goddamn picnic table), but I also am not going to waste my time berating Game Freak for it. 

What I will say is that I adored this DLC combination. The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero is a significantly better step forward from the previous DLC attempt, and future players who were waiting for a full version can now purchase Pokémon Scarlet/Violet with the DLC baked in and know they’ll have a good time. My one and only concern is this will inspire Game Freak to release more incomplete games in the future, and just do enough to hook you in while asking you to spend another 50% of the price later on to get the full game. In fact, that’s probably what’s going to happen. And damn my eyes, I’m going to fall for it.

Final Verdict: 8.5

Pokémon Scarlet/Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero is available now on Nintendo Switch.