Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo, The Pokémon Company
Platform: Switch
Tested on: Switch
Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: Mochi Mayhem DLC – Review
We’ve only just reviewed The Indigo Disk, the supposed finale to Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC, and we’re already returning to the game for a final encore. Mochi Mayhem, as the epilogue is officially titled, was supposed to be a surprise addition to the game, although the existence of its starring monster had already been somewhat spoiled by data miners. With the addition of said critter, the ninth generation of Pokémon comes to a close, with a whopping total of 1025 species of the titular pocket monsters. Is this a surprise addition worth returning to the technical mess that is Scarlet and Violet for or is this the chapter that overstays its welcome?
There are quite a few hoops that you have to jump through before you’re able to access this final chapter of Scarlet and Violet’s story. Not only do you need to have finished both the main game and both DLC stories, but you’ll also need to have participated in the Academy Ace Tournament at least once. In addition to this, you’ll have to access the game’s Mystery Gift feature to obtain the Mythical Pecha Berry item. No deadline for this final step has been announced, but even if you’re only at the start of your Scarlet and Violet adventure, we recommend grabbing this special berry as soon as you can, just in case. Once you’ve done all this, head to the Kitakami region and interact with the strange item that has suddenly appeared at Mossui Town’s only store to start the Mochi Mayhem epilogue.
Said epilogue doesn’t add a whole lot of content to Scarlet and Violet, with the main attraction being the addition of a brand-new Pokémon: the mythical Pecharunt. In essence, Mochi Mayhem is simply a more elaborate way of distributing an event-exclusive Pokémon, although we do like this approach way more than simply downloading it with a serial code. Over the course of roughly an hour, Mochi Mayhem further fleshes out the relationship between the protagonist and their friends from both the Paldea and Kitakami regions, while also making Pecharunt feel like an actual character. We won’t spoil Pecharunt’s backstory outright, but we will say that it ties in nicely with The Teal Mask. If you send out one of the four legendary Pokémon that were introduced in that chapter of the DLC in the final battle against Pecharunt, there’s even an easter egg in how the Pokémon respond to one another.
Scarlet and Violet have always felt more like story-driven affairs than any prior Pokémon game, with perhaps the exception of Sun and Moon, and Mochi Mayhem drives this home even further. This is the closest that we’ve ever felt to playing an episode of the Pokémon anime, with the way the story is structured and how the cutscenes play out. However, unlike Sun and Moon’s excessive hand-holding, the narrative push forward doesn’t feel quite as forced here. At this point, you’ll have played your fair share of Pokémon, of course, so the game doesn’t feel the need to outright force you to do things in a certain way and instead gently nudges you in the direction that the story requires. Should you feel the need to walk away to go hunt for shiny Pokémon in an outbreak or take part in Tera raids instead, you can do this at your leisure.
In The Teal Mask, we saw something similar with the Bloodmoon Beast side quest . If this is how the Pokémon games push things forward in terms of storytelling, we’re eager to see what the future brings. The bite-sized narrative provides the perfect excuse to return to Kitakami for an hour or so, and we’d love to see future games include more of these kinds of side-stories. These small missions make the world feel more alive without getting in the way of the main story, while also making unique Pokémon feel special. The only downside to Mochi Mayhem in particular is that it’s paywalled behind the DLC pass, even if it’s technically a free addition to the game. It certainly wasn’t announced to be included in the season pass. Players that don’t buy into The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero can technically still obtain Pecharunt indirectly, either through future distribution events, by trading with players that have it, or through Pokémon Home, but this is far from an ideal situation of course. We’d hate to complain about a surprise gift, because that is what Mochi Mayhem essentially is, but hopefully, non-DLC players can get their hands on the new mythical creature sooner rather than later. Perhaps a distribution of Pecharunt’s shiny form for everyone is in order sometime over the coming months?
Conclusion
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. The Mochi Mayhem epilogue turns out to be a surprisingly enjoyable addition to Scarlet and Violet, and serves as a fantastic way to introduce a brand new mythical Pokémon. Here’s hoping that similar side quests make their way into the next pair of mainline Pokémon games, although we assume that the next games are updated remakes of Pokémon Black and White, either as a final hurrah on the Switch, or as the first Pokémon titles on its successor.
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