Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Expansions Announced [IGN]

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are getting major chunks of story DLC akin to that of Pokémon Sword and Shield, with the first expansion coming in fall this year.

Announced during February’s Pokémon Presents event, The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero will feature two separate DLC products, available to preorder on the Nintendo eShop “soon”.

The first will be available in fall 2023 and is called The Teal Mask, during which players will visit an area beyond the Paldea region called Kitakami. The second expansion is The Indigo Disk and will be released in winter 2023 and have players attend Blueberry Academy as an exchange student.

Alongside the two new legendary Pokémon, the spooky masked Ogerpon and the sparkly Terapagos, each expansion will also feature Pokémon previously unavailable in Scarlet and Violet including Shiftry, Milotic, Ninetales, Dewgong, Metagross, and more.

Pre-purchasing The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC will also get players new outfits (that are available immediately) and a special Hisuian Zoroark. Also available today is the Walking Wake and Iron Leaves Tera Raid Battles, available in Scarlet and Violet respectively.

Pokémon Home connectivity was also announced for Scarlet and Violet, though only a vague “early 2023” date was revealed.

Pokémon GO support will also be made available today, with players able to send postcards in GO to Scarlet and Violet in order to catch special Vivillons. Doing so will also let players catch Gimmighoul in Pokémon GO, and collecting 999 Gimmighoul Coins (replacing candy) will allow an evolution into Gholdengo.

Sword and Shield’s Expansion Pass was relatively well received, with IGN saying its first drop, The Isle of Armor, was entertaining but a little bit shallow. The second drop improved things, however, as we said The Crown Tundra was “another fun DLC that offers more cool Pokémon to catch, an awesome new game mode in Dynamax Adventures, and a surprising amount of discovery and secrets.”

Various fixes will hopefully be made ahead of the DLC being released so that players can enjoy the extra content without the same issues that plagued the base games. These included a broken PvE experience in the endgame, a rigged Battle Stadium, duplication glitches, a bizarre method of running at double speed, and more.

The poor performance was also a major factor in our 6/10 review, as IGN said: “The open-world gameplay of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is a brilliant direction for the future of the franchise, but this promising shift is sabotaged by the numerous ways in which Scarlet and Violet feel deeply unfinished.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.