80%Nintendo Switch

Good game overall. 8/10 (DLC)
The Teal Mask is a solid DLC that adds a new area, characters, and exciting Pokémon like Ogerpon to the Paldea region. The story is enjoyable, focusing on a school trip with some intriguing mysteries, and the expanded content feels fresh and fun. While the pacing can be slow at times, and the narrative is a bit predictable, the overall experience is a great addition to the ninth generation.

65%Nintendo Switch

Just like the main story, the gameplay is not bad. However, the performance is sub-par at times. Framerates drop more than once, resulting in jerky performance. Graphically, it is often blurry. I often had the feeling that I was looking at a blurry screen.

If you only follow the story, you will only need a few hours to play it through.

55%Nintendo Switch

The Teal Mask DLC for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is, unfortunately, not that great. While it introduces a new map to explore, a handful of old Pokémon, and a couple of brand new legendaries, the overall experience feels lacking. The story is short and features a few new characters who, frankly, aren't very memorable. It’s disappointing that some of the likable characters from the main game were completely sidelined, leaving the new additions feeling lackluster by comparison.

On the bright side, the gameplay feels slightly more polished, with fewer bugs than the base game, and the battles felt a little more challenging. However, the DLC’s main campaign is brief, and without much interest in the side quests, for me it felt rather dull and boring.

While revisiting Pokémon Scarlet and Violet years after release can still be enjoyable, The Teal Mask DLC doesn’t bring enough fresh content or excitement to make it a must-play addition.

50%Nintendo Switch

Pros
+ Ok storyline & characterization from what I remember (don’t ask me to describe anything)
+ Decent map design
+ Great callbacks to Legends Arceus (made me wish I was playing that instead tho)

Cons:
- Playing this is still as much of a chore as base game.
- Performance is even worse somehow?
- Kitakami was uninteresting overall despite a well designed map

85%Nintendo Switch

Not as great as Violet initially, but still pretty good.

85%Nintendo Switch

It was fine. I am mainly there to capture the Pokemon. Otherwise, it would've been a 3 hour breeze...

60%Nintendo Switch

It's just a setup for the Indigo Disk. Honestly apart from a new region and a few pseudo-legendaries, it does not add much to the core experience.

Indigo Disk does thing much better.

80%Nintendo Switch

The Teal Mask is more Pokemon which is great, but I am not rating this as highly as I did Pokemon Violet simply because it backpedals a little from the innovative ideas introduced in the previous two mainline games (Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet). The story goes back to being linear and is quite short overall. The soundtrack was nothing special. The map, while new, is fairly compact. Only 7 new pokemon are introduced in the Teal Mask and one new form for an existing pokemon. Of these 7 new pokemon, 4 are legendaries. Of those remaining 3, we have two designs that are alternative parallel pokemon that are not regional forms but might as well be and then a new branched evolution. The only legendary that really feels cool is the titular Ogerpon with its unique interactions with its masks. Surprisingly enough, the saving grace here are the new characters you primarily interact with. Carmine, Kieran, and Briar are all interesting and have a little more depth than your typical human npcs in a pokemon game. Carmine and Kieran make a surprising amount of growth, both in terms of training and character development, in the short story of the Teal Mask. Finally, it was nice to have a new zone to explore and be given a zone specific pokedex with an all new rewards track. All that said, I am looking forward to playing Part 2 - The Indigo Disk.

50%Nintendo Switch

Once again a dlc that wasn't meant for post game players, if you're using your post game team/pokemon then you'll be way to high a level and will one shot everything and all the pokemon are way to high level to use anything under level 50 so you can't really use weaker pokemon, they really need to start making the levels of wild and trainer pokemon based on the levels of your team. I also hate that they change your outfit and hair sure the outfit is quick and easy to fix but not only does it take longer to fix your hair but you also have to pay to fix it, clearly no one has ever told these old people to never touch someones hair but there are some new hair styles and some of them are actually kinda good.

70%Nintendo Switch

ScaVio's gameplay loop is pretty bad in this DLC, it has a short, alright story that mostly works as setup for the 2nd DLC, Ogerpon was cute, slightly disappointing otherwise, by itself it'd be mediocre but the 2nd DLC makes it worth the price

70%Nintendo Switch

I bought the teal mask after having a while from playing pokemon violet, though I enjoyed it for the most part it is fairly bland. However the story itself is fairly unique and worth the try. 7/10

70%Nintendo Switch

The Teal Mask takes us to the new region of Kitakami, a Japanese country-side styled area.
The plot revolves around a folktale that’s been passed down through many generations in this village, complete with its own festival and a new legendary Pokemon: Ogerpon.
The amount of enjoyment you get out of this DLC will be tied to how much you like this new creature and the new characters, siblings Kieran and Carmine. They undergo some basic but nice character development and they grew on me as the story progressed.
I also liked the soundtrack, with the main overworld theme playing in my head even after turning off the game.
On the technical side, this DLC is still marred by all the issues the base game is known for. Frame drops, ugly textures, mostly atmosphere-lacking locations, bad camera, low difficulty (which I compensated by forming a weaker party than the one I completed the base game with), etc.
Still, it’s enjoyable for what it is and it adds some new mons to the dex. On one hand I feel like this helps justify the DLC but on the other hand maybe it’s not so cool that you need to pay more to get mons that are not even new to this generation.

10%Nintendo Switch

Very cringe story with really obnoxious and annoying new characters (Carmine and Kieran), not much to the story at all and not many new Pokemon (6 + 1 new form). the fact they make you pay 40 bucks for mostly Pokemon you should already be able to get is stupid.

Not to mention they have still, one year in, not done anything to reduce frame drops or improve the graphics at all. in some ways, it's actually worse than the main game.

it's just a glorified cash grab.

60%Nintendo Switch

Scarlet

80%Nintendo Switch

like any great school field trip— The Teal Mask takes you to a new place that feels like you’re discovering the world for the first time, and while it may not be as consequential as your main coursework, it’s there where you have the potential to make some of your most lasting memories— just such fun DLC, more than justifiable as either fun side content to split up the main game or rewarding postgame content (way more than The Isle of Armor)— Kitakami’s surprisingly memorable despite how small it is, thanks in no small part to the deliberately chosen returning Pokémon giving it a real distinct identity on top of a fun lil’ story with instantly likable characters that, like the main game, is both better written than anything Game Freak’s put out in their entire history and goes to some surprisingly dark places by complementing the main game’s themes of past and future with new themes around historical revisionism— all that being said— it somehow runs worse than the base game and you can experience basically everything it has to offer in a single play session— but I hardly care— the potential here is huge and I really can’t wait to see where they go next with The Indigo Disk

80%Nintendo Switch

Surprisingly fun DLC. I played this with friends and throughly enjoyed it. The DLC didn't overstay it's welcome, had a nice little story, and amazing music. Kitakami is also a much better region than Paldea. Still this is Pokemon Scarlet and Violet so it was very buggy at times. Maybe I'm going easy on this DLC but I recommend it and look forward to playing part 2.

50%Nintendo Switch

It's alright but at the time of this being the only DLC released, I couldn't justify the purchase since the DLC wasn't fully out yet. From what I've heard about Indigo Disk, it sounds amazing and I can't wait to play it.

70%Nintendo Switch

A good start to the Scarlet/Violet DLC train. A fun new area with some interesting activities & the addition of a new Pokédex to fiddle around with. (New Pokémon designs were also entertaining, as well!)

60%Nintendo Switch

The story introduces some okay characters, and the story itself is not terrible. But with all pokemon DLC I just couldn't really get into it and pretty much forced myself to finish it. I also found difficulty with the leveling curve, as each boss fight was always up to 10 levels higher than my pokemon. I had to use items and cheese my way through fights (using pokemon I only caught in the DLC). Not terrible, but not great

20%Nintendo Switch

A bad dlc with an uninteresting new area, and a repetitive storyline where you fight the same 2 trainers over and over on repeat

45%Nintendo Switch

Gameplay - (60%) - Nothing particularly special. If you don’t do any exploration on your own, then you are basically just running back and forth between certain landmarks over and over with battles mixed in between. The difficulty curve isn’t great. If you use your Pokemon from the main game (assuming you got them to LVL 100 in the year since the main game released), then you will pulverize everything in your path. If you didn’t level up your team after beating the main game or (to an even greater extent) start a new one then the difficulty will increase at a rate much faster than your team without grinding.

There is also a new mini game that you will play once and then completely forget about, unless you play competitive Pokemon & want the benefits it gives for that (in which case you probably aren’t looking at reviews).

Exploration still felt pretty decent, though it doesn’t take long for you to unlock enough fast travel points to just teleport to wherever the next story-location is. Wish they tied more of the map into the campaign, because a lot of it goes unused if you don’t care about catching the new Pokemon.

Visuals - (30%) - They somehow managed to make it just as ugly as the base game & I think it even performs WORSE. It’s one thing for them to not try and fix the issues a year after launch, but I’m actually baffled at how they made it run worse on a much smaller map with less going on.

The design of the map is alright, just not very visually distinct. Would have been better if it was more tied-in with the ancient-japanese theme of the lore.

Story - (50%) - Pokemon games aren’t usually great at story when they’ve tried, and it can get away with this because the ‘real story’ is more so about your own adventure and the experiences you had. Scarlet & Violet were actually pretty damn good at a real plot when compared to the standard for the series. Unfortunately, the Teal Mask’s plot is pretty unremarkable. Not explicitly terrible or anything, just not engaging or interesting. The second DLC is apparently gonna be a continuation of the story (at least in regards to a specific character), but I can’t imagine it’s gonna be groundbreaking or make this one better when connected together.

Price - ($29.99** USD) - Although it’s technically $29.99 since you can’t buy DLC 1 or 2 individually, it’s a bit unfair to judge this DLC alone by the full price tag especially since the 2nd one isn’t out yet. If you could get it alone for $15, then I’d say it’s probably not worth it for casual fans of the series.

Overall - (45%) - Pretty lackluster start to the Scarlet and Violet DLC. I feel like I’m in the minority of people who enjoyed DLC 1 of Sword and Shield more than this one. Part 2 seems like it’s gonna be more interesting, so hopefully it makes up for this.

10%Nintendo Switch

I started playing the first part of the DLC hoping it would be as good as the Isle of Armor in Pokémon Sword, but I've been very disappointed.
The story is bad, the game is even more bugged than before, the map doesn't have anything special and I experienced lag in some locations; overall the new content doesn't offer anything new. I got bored pretty fast and wouldn't recommend it.
Only positive note are the new Pokémon, I've enjoyed playing with a few of the latest additions in competitive online battles and the latest legendary in particular has a new interesting terastallizing mechanic.

65%Nintendo Switch

Not great, decent story same bad performance not much to write home about.

80%Nintendo Switch

Exploring Kitakami in The Teal Mask DLC was a refreshing way to continue my adventure in Pokemon SV. I’d definitely recommend building a new team of Pokemon because of the level curve. The story was light, but I still had a good time experiencing it. Kieran and Carmine were both fun characters, and I’m interested in seeing how they continue to develop in the next DLC. I’m also a fan of the rural Japanese setting. My one criticism is that the story didn’t have many big set piece moments. Regardless, the most exciting thing is the build-up to the Indigo Disk DLC coming later this year. I’m really excited to explore Blueberry Academy and continue the new storyline.

50%Nintendo Switch

DLC for the sake of being DLC. Nothing substantial is added, go to 3 locations, play a mini game, go to 3 more locations, cutscenes and then catch the legendary Pokemon.

DLC is just 1 mountain, 1 town, 1 shrine and a few farms.

If you like Pokemon, this is more Pokemon. If you wanted something epic like Black/White 2 or the DLC from Sword/Shield....you'll be disappointed.

70%Nintendo Switch

Buggy but fun, just like the main game.

70%Nintendo Switch

I have a weakness for the Japanese inspired setting, but felt the main story was too short and the DLC introduced too few new Pokemon. Of the new ones, Ogerpon was very cute, Poltchageist/Sinistcha was both very well designed and effective in battle, and Bloodmoon Ursaluna proved very strong. But I was underwhelmed by this DLC's "legendaries", the Loyal Three's strength and designs. The new human characters were generally alright, with Perrin being a standout. Carmine is definitely heavy handed but grows on you over time, while it's unfortunate seeing Kieran go off the deep end. These two and their teacher will clearly reappear in the second DLC, the Indigo Disk this winter. The other characters were fairly unremarkable. Speaking of the second DLC, it's a good thing both are included in the $35 price for the DLC, since it'd be a ripoff if that were the price for the Teal Mask alone. Also I had expected Gamefreak to patch more of the bugs and visual issues plaguing the main game by this time, so am disappointed to see they have not. Overall this DLC is decent but too short.

30%Nintendo Switch

Pretty disappointing. Ogerpon is absolutely precious, but all the other new pokemon, new characters, and the new map, are all really boring. It was too short, tedious, laughably easy, and very repetitive too.
Every trainer has a poochyena, seedot, or spinarak, even though I've 100% completed the game. This game has been out almost a year, and now has pokemon home support. I think it's fair to assume most people playing the DLC will have very high level pokemon, but every trainer here has one or two unevolved bottom tier pokemon. Like seriously Kieran, stop fighting me. I've got a level 100 Arceus, what do you think you're going to accomplish with a Hoothoot??
I'm not usually one to complain about pokemon games; I know it's got it's issues but I don't often care about them. This just felt pretty bad to me though. Like there was no attempt to even try make something good. It feels so lazy and so low quality, even for pokemon standards. I just hope the next part of the DLC is better.
Also worth noting, performance feels even worse in the DLC map than the base map. I don't mind when it's infrequent, but this is pretty consistently bad.

75%Nintendo Switch

The Teal Mask DLC is alright although I wish it was longer to beat as I was hoping for atleast 20-25 hours.

50%Nintendo Switch

After scarlet and violet being an unfinished and poorly designed mess, the first dlc in their 2 dlc plan does not make up in quality in any way. Don't get me wrong the story was cute, while not the deepest thing ever, but it was really short and the side quest with perrin didn't make up for it either, since that ones legit no longer than 30 minutes. completion isn't much longer either, considering that out of the 200 pokemon in the new pokedex, more than half of them are from the original game and not anything new so it's hard to promote something so short, when it costs 17.50€ (35€ for 2 DLCs). The music was also once again kinda disappointing. yes it was better in most cases than what the og game had, but the soundtrack is really lacking overall. I feel like considering that Toby fox does these, he either has no passion for this and is just in it for the money, or gamefreak just won't let him be creatively free. Character design is as always the only real redeeming quality for pokemon, though admittedly even this time they fell a little short. Overall I believe this to just be a time passer for them to have a little more time to finish the second dlc, since that one (according to gamefreak) will have a looot more features, pokemon and story. but yeah so far considering that this whole ride has cost people up to 90€ (60€ base game + 35€ DLC) I'm not sure if I want to join in on the next game. I'll play the second dlc since i purchased it already, but if that flops as well I'll just stick to the older games then or whatever the competition is. Don't buy this DLC it's not worth the money.