Summary
- Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have reinvented the classic Pokemon formula, offering a fully explorable region with no separate areas, breaking tradition.
- The Teal Mask DLC takes players to a different region, while The Indigo Disk DLC introduces a new Elite Four, a first for the mainline series.
- The BB League in The Indigo Disk features unique trials and a point system to determine the academy's top trainers, with a potential champion using new exclusive Pokemon.
Modern Pokemon games have constantly tried and succeded to reinvent the classic formula that has been used all the way since Pokemon Red and Blue, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet might have done so in the most astounding way. While Gen 8 games and Pokemon Legends: Arceus experimented with the open-world formula in different ways, it was Pokemon Scarlet and Violet that broke this tradition first, offering a fully explorable region with close to no separate areas. Gen 9 has done even more than that, however, and it has broken plenty of franchise-long traditions along the way, and it seems like The Indigo Disk DLC will this prove once more.
Although both The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk expansions seemingly share a lot of their DNA with the DLCs available for Gen 8, they are still very much Gen 9 offerings, including a tendency to try and break the mold of what past games in the series have achieved. The Teal Mask DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will take players to a different region altogether, which didn't happen since Pokemon Crystal, although the scope is quite different from the return to Kanto in Gen 2. On the other hand, The Indigo Disk will do something that even Pokemon Crystal couldn't, and that's a tradition that has never been broken by Pokemon games.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Indigo Disk Introduces a Second Set of Elite Four
It has been confirmed that The Indigo Disk DLC will take players to an entirely different area, which is most likely still connected to the region of Paldea due to it being the location of the third academy in Gen 9, Blueberry Academy. Here, players are seemingly going to enjoy a tournament akin to the one held at the very end of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's story, this time facing multiple trainers.
Unlike any other game before, however, The Indigo Disk will feature Gen 9's second Elite Four, as the Blueberry Academy has its own four champions that players will have to face. Not only that, but it has been leaked by a renowned Pokemon insider that the new Elite Four will also have a champion waiting at the end, much like Geeta can be battled at the end of the Pokemon League in Paldea. This is something that has never been attempted before in the mainline series, and even Gen 2's return to Kanto still featured one set of Elite Four despite its total of 16 gyms.
It's unclear whether Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's Indigo Disk Elite Four are officially recognized as such within the confines of the in-game world, but that would be an interesting precedent to set. The so-called "BB League", short for Blueberry League, seems to be fundamentally different from the Elite Four of past games. In The Indigo Disk DLC, players will have to pass several trials in order to face the Elite Four of the BB League, which has its own point system to determine the top trainers of the academy, and likely its champion.
These trainers are Lacey, Crispin, Amarys, and Drayton, with the latter using the new cross-gen Duralodon evolution in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, called Archaludon. This paves the way for the still unrevealed BB League champion to have their own signature Pokemon, and an option could be their ace being either Raging Bolt or Iron Crown, the new Paradox Pokemon coming with the DLC. Either way, this new spin on the Elite Four is something that could easily be used in future games as well, especially if the current base game plus expansions model stays the same.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for the Nintendo Switch.