The Indigo Disk DLC has highlighted the biggest problem with Pokemon Scarlet & Violet due to one option that is no longer in the series.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet have been blasted for their terrible performance issues and low-quality visuals since launch. Fans had hoped that the developers would fix these problems via patches, but unfortunately, the few updates released haven’t made a noticeable impact on performance. Any remaining hope for graphical fixes was dashed when The Indigo Disk DLC launched and brought no visual improvements.
Related: Surprise Epilogue for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Releases Early 2024
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet Won’t Let You Skip Battle Animations
One of the most frustrating things about The Pokemon Company is its repeated stripping of QoL features without explanation. The most frustrating removal in Gen 9 is the ability to skip battle animations. This has been in the Pokemon franchise since the days of Pokemon Red & Blue, but it was removed in Gen 9.
Battle Animations are exactly what they sound like. When a Pokemon uses a move in battle, they will move their bodies or shoot projectiles to visualize that move. Disabling Battle Animations makes combat much faster, skipping over the slight arm wiggle of Scratch or the massive energy laser of Solar Beam.
The most likely reason battle animation skipping was cut is because of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s open world with multiplayer capabilities and the Raid battles. It might have been necessary to ensure everyone used the same settings, especially with so many game elements being timed.
Regardless of the reasons, removing the ability to disable battle animations in Gen 9 was one of the worst changes made to the series. This means that all players must sit through the attack animations and any other effects during battle.
The Indigo Disk’s Battles Exacerbate The Issues With Mandatory Battle Animations
The lack of battle animation skipping in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet is bad enough, but The Indigo Disk DLC makes it much, much worse. The reason for this is the high-level battles that happen throughout the expansion, which would be a welcome addition if not for the fact that you have to sit through so many annoying cutscenes.
See, many of the harder battles in The Indigo Disk DLC are Doubles matches, where each player uses two Pokemon. In these fights, enemy trainers often use terrain abilities (such as spawning different kinds of weather) and will spam status effect moves.
Not only do you have to sit through four attack animations each turn, but you also have to wait while every additional aspect of the battle resolves, such as weather or a status effect. Combined, these cause battles to crawl compared to the ones in the base game, resulting in slow, tedious affairs, leaving you looking at the clock while another round of confusion and sleep effects play out.
Related: How to Change Your Trainer Icon in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
It’s not as if Pokemon Scarlet & Violet and its DLC lack content, so it’s not as if removing the battle animations was implemented to pad the runtime. Instead, it’s just another bad decision on the part of the developers, and those hoping for the DLC to fix the problem were left facing an even worse issue, as what should be the most epic battles in the game turn into boring slogs.
