Highlights
- Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk DLC offers innovative ways to obtain new Pokemon and endgame content, such as the Indigo Disk BBQ grind for BP and the Item Printer for special items and Poke Balls.
- The Indigo Disk missed an opportunity to turn Lacey’s BB League trial into a full-fledged mini-game, despite its refreshing and interactive nature.
- A fully fleshed-out mini-game based on Lacey’s quiz trial could provide a fun and educational experience, rewarding players for correctly answering Pokemon-related questions with various items and potentially featuring daily questions.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s Indigo Disk DLC manages to break the mold quite a lot compared to past titles or even previous Pokemon expansions, successfully providing players with innovative ways to get new and returning critters as well as endgame content to go through. This takes the shape of various new activities, such as the intense Indigo Disk BBQ grind to get BP, the DLC’s main currency, or the Item Printer in the League Club Room where players can obtain plenty of special Poke Balls and items. With multiple new gimmicks and things to do in the game, it almost feels like The Indigo Disk missed a big opportunity to make one BB League trial a new mini-game.
Mini-games in Pokemon titles have long been a thing, dating back to Pokemon Gen 1’s Game Corner, which is essentially a casino where players can spend coins to try and get cool prizes, including a Porygon. Not all mini-games in the series have had rewards attached to them, and some have played a very small role in the overall title, but they can often be a fun option for players to sink some currency or time into. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Indigo Disk’s Lacey has her own unique BB League trial, and it’s a refreshing piece of content that should have been a full-fledged mini-game.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk Dropped The Ball With One Big Unova Easter Egg
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Indigo Disk features several callbacks to Gen 5 games and Unova, but a big one wasn’t done justice.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet – Lacey’s BB League Trial Deserves to Become a Mini-Game
Why Lacey’s Trial in The Indigo Disk is an Effective Mini-Game
There were several other mini-games in Gen 9, such as some Gym Leaders’ tests in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, with one of the most popular ones being the Olive Roll at the Cortondo Gym where players are tasked with scoring a goal with a massive olive. These mini-games are often self-contained activities that make sense at a given moment of the story and then quickly fade away from the bulk of the content.
However, the BB League trials in The Indigo Disk can be quite interesting, with Crispin having players make a very spicy sandwich, Amarys introducing proper flight mechanics, and Drayton tasking players with catching Pokemon in the Terarium and use them to defeat some fellow school students. Lacey’s quiz trial is more unique, though, as it consists of six questions about various species of Pokemon where players get to zoom in on a given critter’s 3D model and interact with some of its body parts to answer the question. For example, players can rub Pikachu’s ears or touch its cheeks to signal their answer, and it’s both effective and refreshing to see.
Lacey’s Quiz in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Should be More Than a One-Off Experience
A fully fleshed-out mini-game where players can go through multiple Pokemon questions, from easy to hard in terms of difficulty, could be a teaching moment when it comes to actual in-game mechanics and battles as well as a way to learn more about Pokemon and have fun with the franchise beyond its typical formula. Much like spin-off games like Detective Pikachu or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon explore completely different gameplay styles, a mainline title could introduce Lacey’s quiz as its own mini-game, rewarding players for correctly answering a set of questions.
Players could be rewarded with low-value items for easy questions all the way to powerful or useful items like a Choice Scarf or an Ability Patch for answering harder questions. The questions themselves also vary greatly, with some being about which part of a Pokemon’s anatomy does a specific thing to following a Minior’s movements on the screen among other identical Minior specimens to then determine which was the original one. This sort of mini-game is rather unexplored in Pokemon games, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s successors should try and implement it – possibly even featuring daily questions for players to return to.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet
Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet are the upcoming main series Pokemon games. These two versions will be the arrival of Generation IX.
- Released
- November 18, 2022
- ESRB
- E For Everyone Due To Mild Fantasy Violence
- How Long To Beat
- 31½ Hours
- Metascore
- 72
