Summary

• Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's DLC expansions have been well-received, but they lack a new version of the engaging Dynamax Adventures feature from Gen 8's Crown Tundra DLC.
• The Blueberry Quests in The Indigo Disk DLC provide access to past-generation Legendaries, but they feel more like tasks from a battle rather than a dedicated game mode.
• The franchise has a history of abandoning mechanics from past generations, such as Mega Evolution, which can make the series feel like it regresses rather than advances.

Although the DLC expansions for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, The Teal Mask and The Indigo Disk, have released to generally positive reception, they're still notably missing a major feature from the DLC of the previous generation. As the second Pokémon generation to expand through the release of DLC, rather than a third version along the lines of Emerald or Platinum, Scarlet and Violet have seemingly solidified DLC expansions as the late-generation approach to releasing more content as the franchise moves forward. However, the change hasn't made the franchise any better at retaining its features.

Despite a troubled launch, and technical performance that can still be considered shaky at best, the ninth generation of Pokémon has received a significant amount of post-launch , with Scarlet and Violet receiving a post-game epilogue for players who purchased and played the DLCs. However, as has been the case with many games in the series, Scarlet and Violet can still feel like the franchise is taking two steps forward and one step back, particularly regarding the features and mechanics from past games that get left behind as the franchise moves to a new generation.

Scarlet and Violet's DLC Is Missing Crown Tundra's Dynamax Adventures

Although the DLCs for Scarlet and Violet add plenty of new content, including new areas, Pokémon, and activities like The Indigo Disk's Blueberry Quests, they're notably lacking something that mirrors Dynamax Adventures - one of the more unique additions made by Sword and Shield's Crown Tundra DLC. Building on the base game's Max Raid Battles, Dynamax Adventures allowed players to party up in teams of four and tackle a series of Max Raid battles against random Pokémon, sometimes rare additions from past generations, before culminating in a battle against a Legendary.

Though they had their pain points, like the available rental Pokémon sometimes having suboptimal movesets, Dynamax Adventures were a compelling way to catch Legendaries, starters, or other rare Pokémon from past generations, and the ability to swap out a rental Pokémon with any other Pokémon defeated along the path added an element of adaptation. While Dynamax Adventures didn't require the most complicated strategies to complete, they essentially served as a rewarding "endgame" to Crown Tundra, and Sword and Shield as a whole.

Comparatively, the equivalent activity in The Indigo Disk are Blueberry Quests, which similarly grant access to past-generation Legendaries, but function much more like tasks from a battle than a dedicated game mode, asking players to do things like catch a certain type of Pokémon or make a specific kind of sandwich. Though they can similarly be completed in multiplayer through Union Circles, there's little difficulty and no real reason to team up other than optimizing the amount of BP that's gained from the quests, whereas having actual players instead of NPCs for Dynamax Adventures could make a significant difference.

Notably, the base game Scarlet and Violet had already built on the Max Raid Battles of Sword and Shield with Tera Raid Battles, which function almost identically to their previous generation counterparts - the only real differences are in how the Terastalize mechanic differs from Dynamaxing, and the lack of a set turn order for Tera Raids. Despite the implementation of raids in the game, though, Scarlet and Violet's DLCs haven't included an equivalent "Terastalize Adventure" mode - instead, Legendary Pokémon caught through BBQs in Indigo Disk are simply found at certain locations on the map.

Catching Legendary Pokémon in Scarlet and Violet involves doing BBQs and talking to an NPC named Snacksworth, who makes a random Legendary available and hints at their location. While this does leverage Paldea's open-world map, it's also a less unique battling experience than Crown Tundra's Dynamax Adventures.

Dynamax Adventures Are One Of Many Abandoned Pokémon Mechanics

The loss of Dynamax Adventures, or other alternate game modes like it, is hardly new for the series - Pokémon games have regularly ditched mechanics from past generations instead of building on them, or introduced different (sometimes worse) variations. Maybe the most prominent and popular example is Mega Evolution - introduced in X and Y, Mega Evolutions were the focal gimmick of the sixth generation, and were generally popular for giving older Pokémon new forms. By the time of Sword and Shield, though, Mega Evolutions had been cut from the games completely, seemingly replaced with Dynamaxing, and then by Terastalization in Scarlet and Violet.

The lack of feature continuity between Pokémon games can also be seen in plenty of other one-off features from older games. The Battle Frontiers of the third and fourth generations, Horde Encounters in the sixth generation, and even smaller features like the Sinnoh region's Pokétch are all example of generally well-received mechanics that were cut from the following games, sometimes seemingly to make way for similar features with less depth, like the Battle Chateau of X and Y. The loss of these mechanics can sometimes contribute to the series feeling like it regresses just as much as it advances.

While the loss of certain mechanics, some of which don't even return in remakes of the original games they were present in, can be disappointing, there are a few reasons for some features not to return. For a franchise based on visiting different regions, the varying features of each generation and game can add to the sense of each region having its own distinct identity - Z-Moves, for example, feel like a uniquely Alolan mechanic. Additionally, some mechanics might not fit with others if implemented in the same game - having Mega Evolution, Dynamax, and Terastilization all at once, for instance.

Though the DLCs for Scarlet and Violet have a lot to offer, the absence of a feature like Crown Tundra's Dynamax Adventures is a disappointing exclusion, especially with Tera Raid Battles already building on the Max Raid Battles of the previous generation. Hopefully, as the series moves on from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet towards newer generations of games, it will retain and build on its mechanics more than it abandons them.