With Pokemon Scarlet and Violet working towards its Teal Mask and Indigo Disk DLC, one Pokemon Legends: Arceus feature could be further emphasized. Given the new explorable areas of Kitakami and the Blueberry Academy in Scarlet and Violet, players’ Pokemon teams could assume a larger role through their interaction with environmental resources.

One of Legends: Arceus‘ emerging features was its inclusion of Pokemon in the player’s collection of resources; with the game’s crafting system playing an important role in the journey across Hisui, item scavenging was a worthy expenditure made available through the assistance of the player’s team. Along with its emphasis on natural resources, Pokemon Legends: Arceus‘ setting felt more conducive to open-world interaction beyond the player alone, making its setting feel more organic and alive.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s DLC Could Build Upon Legends: Arceus’ Item Procurement

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet kept their overworld resources contained to ‘sparklies’ that the player could interact with, having TMs and items take the shape of Poke Balls and small, glimmering spots scattered throughout its land, similar to previous entries of the franchise. While this was a convenient way of collecting resources, considering much of the time spent traversing Paldea was through riding on the back of Paradox Legendaries Miraidon/Koraidon, it felt like a bit of a missed opportunity to play more into the games’ open-world setting.

While Legends: Arceus’ design was still a bit rudimentary, it pointed toward resources that actually felt in tandem with its setting. Sending out Pokemon to bash ore jutting out of the ground or to collect medicinal leeks growing from the earth felt like proper interaction with the world itself, playing into the concept of true item scavenging. Even Pokemon Legends: Arceus‘ berry trees could be seen with berries grown on their branches, which would fall to the ground once the player’s Pokemon had been called to bash into their trunks.

While Pokemon Scarlet and Violet did make strides in having players’ Pokemon teams interact with the environment by sending them out to explore, its design felt more attuned to its auto-battling than it did to its item procurement. With Miraidon/Koraidon taking the spotlight for traversal, it also mitigated how much the feature of Pokemon following the player character could be utilized to its full potential. Given that they couldn’t keep up with faster traveling speeds, much of the journey across Paldea felt segregated to the use of Miraidon/Koraidon alone rather than the whole of the player’s team. Because of this, it felt like the vast majority of the player’s Pokemon collection was relegated to just battling and picnic interactions.

That isn’t to say that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet didn’t incorporate some neat reactive features through the use of its Paradox Legendary pair. Miraidon and Koraidon could still bash into trees as seen in Legends: Arceus, making it so that rarer Pokemon like Applin could fall from the branches of Scarlet and Violet‘s Tagtree Thicket. Thus, the games’ emphasis on Paldea’s open-world setting begs the question of how Pokemon interaction within the natural world could be further explored in upcoming DLC, namely, in the act of collecting resources themselves.

Pokemon Interactions Could be Strengthened in The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk DLC

As a lot of the resources featured in Scarlet and Violet‘s world were manmade items like Super Potions and TMs, they can’t exactly be changed to be an organic part of natural terrain. The ways in which they are collected could see an overhaul that utilizes the strengths of the player’s Pokemon team to bring about an emphasis on world interaction. With the sheer array of Pokemon types and movesets, it would be interesting to see the return of HMs across Pokemon other than Miraidon/Koraidon, with additional being added to account for new types of reactive features. Much like how the HM Cut could be used in past Pokemon titles to shave off patches of grass, other types of moves could be utilized to make future Scarlet and Violet DLC settings feel more malleable.

One feature missing from Scarlet and Violet was the ability to dive underwater; while it might be too grand of an ask for underwater traversal to take part in The Indigo Disk DLC, a mechanic adjacent to this could make item collecting more impactful. Though it’s currently unclear how exploration will work throughout The Indigo Disk’s Blueberry Academy, there could very well be an opportunity to have resource procurement play a part in its story. Terapagos could require collectible sea glass shards akin to Arceus’ elemental plates; this could involve the player sending out a Water-type like Floatzel to dive deep under the Academy’s waters, following Legends: Arceus‘ organic world resources while making use of Pokemon other than Miraidon/Koraidon for interaction.

The Teal Mask’s Kitakami could mimic Legends: Arceus more closely in its emphasis on natural item procurement given its lush, Japanese-inspired land, though it could also benefit from building from the foundations of its predecessor by allowing for even more interactive cues among the player’s Pokemon team. Instead of just butting into ore or hitting trees, it might be interesting to see more specialized moves take precedence.

There could be an instance where the player must travel a ravine’s currents that are too tough for Pokemon to swim across; this could allow for an instance where the player must use a Pokemon like Scarlet and Violet‘s Cetitan to cast Ice Beam in order to make a safe path across its waters, making it so that certain items are only reachable through a Pokemon’s assistance.

In a similar vein, if Kitakami’s land includes dark caverns that the player must journey into, the DLC could benefit from bringing back something adjacent to ‘Flash’ from the previous entries, where a Fire-type Pokemon like Charizard could be sent out to light the way with its flamed tail. This could result in an instance where the player might traverse the cavern’s depths only to find a special Tera Shard waiting at its end, tying into the DLC’s narrative while making use of the player’s Pokemon team for assistance in item procurement. Whatever approach Pokemon Scarlet and Violet‘s DLCs end up taking, they could stand to benefit from the foundations of Legends: Arceus, allowing for its Pokemon to play a bigger role in its environment and resources.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are available now for the Nintendo Switch.