Pokemon’s Teal Mask DLC has too many repeat Pokemon from mainland Paldea

Since the release of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Teal Mask DLC, I’ve spent quite a bit of time finishing the main storyline whilst exploring the newly introduced land of Kitakami. The DLC brings quite a few classic Pokemon back into the fold, which is one of the main allures of the Hidden Treasure of Area Zero. As a DLC, Pokemon’s latest content for their mainline games has excited many with the sheer amount of new Pokemon returning. In the Teal Mask, many old favorites like the Poliwag, Vulpix, Feebas and Sewaddle lines are up for grabs, which means that the Teal Mask is brimming with nostalgia.

That being said, alongside many of the newly reintroduced Pokemon, Kitakami seems to be filled with many of the Pokémon already found in Paldea. Of course, in one sense, it’s passable that there would be some overlap in terms of Pokémon, as many regions in past games have seen pocket monsters from previous generations make an appearance (Paldea included). That being said, the Kitakami dex seems to have an overwhelming amount of Pokémon returning, which invariably really breaks the level of immersion that this portion of the DLC offers.

Kitamai, at its core, is supposed to be a “faraway land” that takes the player character a plane and a bus to get to, which makes it clear that we are dealing with a separate region. My hope, as was likely the hope of others, was that Kitakami would be home to far more “new” Pokemon (i.e. returning Pokemon) than ones that were available pre-DLC. Game Freak’s choice to re-include an overwhelming amount of Pokémon already available in Paldea on this scale is quite disappointing, as the inclusion of more new creatures would have made exploring Paldea all the more exciting and enticing.

In addition to this, one of the game’s main quest-lines, offered by the photographer Perrin, requires that the player character fill their Kitakami Dex to 150 known Pokemon. Having filled up your Paldean Pokedex prior to this, players start with well over half the needed Pokemon already registered. It almost defeats the purpose of the requirement in question, and sadly takes away from what could have been a far longer and more enjoyable adventure to get to the point where a player is ready to help Perrin with her task in the first place.

Kitakami as a region is filled with many nooks and crannies for the player character to dive into and explore. Unfortunately for us, these crevices are filled with as lot of the same-namely Pokémon we’ve had access to since the game’s initial release. It is my hope and expectation that the second part of the DLC, the Indigo Disk, will rectify this and provide the abundance of variety many of us have been looking forward t in our DLC play-throughs.