Before I get to talking about the actual story and ignoring that said story had nothing to actually do with Area Zero which makes this a bit weird to consider it an epilogue of sorts to the DLC, I really hate when games do this. Where they literally have everything ready to go, but wait for some random frame of time for people to actually be able to access it through some download or event or something.
I don’t really mind like… Holiday stuff with games like Animal Crossing and other games that take real time into effect– that’s fine, but Pokemon has done things like this before where an area or small scene or short story that goes to a Legendary gets cut out unless you manage to get the special item through an Event or something and it just… really bugs me? Like I love story stuff, having it locked away like that is really annoying. And while thankfully this is just an easy downloadable from the internet for everyone, there’s still the issue of it likely not always being available and eventually, people just won’t be able to access that part of the story.
Similarly, what was the point of holding it off for a month? It’s not like there was an update or anything to add the content– We simply had to wait for them to put the item distribution up. There isn’t anything special about today. There is nothing that ties into the Nightmare Fuel of the DLC plotline that this entails. It feels nearly as random as Ghostwriter’s finale.
That said, I did enjoy the DLC when it wasn’t terrifying me. I really liked everyone hanging out together. More than anything though, it made me wish we could’ve had the friend group the entire DLC over introducing 3 characters we never saw again and putting all the focus on two new ones. I feel like maybe that could’ve integrated better. ALSO, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GAME, LET ME BE AN INTROVERT AND RELATE. STOP FORCING ME TO BE AN EXTROVERT.
With that said, let’s get to talking about the Epilogue more in depth– as always, there will be spoilers so keep that in mind!
For whatever reason, after getting the special Pecha Berry, you need to head over to the outdoor vendor to kick off the DLC. While looking at a mysterious doll, you suddenly get a call from Arven who asks if he can visit you at your house (for some reason??). Upon turning around, the plush has now disappeared.
And that, along with the border literally sliming down on the title screen set the tone of what to expect with the DLC which, at least for me, was unsettling to say the least.
It would’ve been one thing if they like… wanted the DLC for Halloween or a spooky time (though, waiting 10 months for a 90-minute DLC with a few other added things would probably not go well), but nope, here it just is in January for some reason. The DLC tones vary from cute friendship vibes to nightmare fuel (at least for me, I scare easily) and it’s really weird, but it’s made one thing very clear to me: I wish Arven, Penny, and Nemona could have been part of all the DLC. Not at the expense of Carmine and Kieran, but with them. I like how they all interacted and having that for two full DLCs and an epilogue would have been a lot more fun to me than having two new characters hoisted along with three characters that will never show up again.
And I say that as someone who doesn’t really vibe with Nemona either (or more accurately, wishes she could just say no to battling please). It’s just kind of frustrating. Regardless, after the title card, it’s time to head back to our house in Paldea to meet up with Arven and well, now everyone is there because they overheard Arven and I’m still not entirely sure why he wanted to see us in the first place.
Interrupting the room discussion, we suddenly received a letter from Kieran (I’ll just ignore that they used the book template again).
You then head down to eat dessert and discuss everything as you have enough tickets for everyone, so once the day is done, you decide to meet at the school to prepare to head to Kitagami.
With everything all set, we headed off to meet Kieran who seems to be doing better. He at least doesn’t have bags under his eyes anymore.
As we head back to the community center, things get a bit weird when Carmine shows up creepily and then essentially starts doing a chicken dance while yelling Mochi.
You get her back home and learn she has been doing this since Kieran sent you the letter (In general, I have no idea how much time has passed between any moment at this point). Regardless, everyone decides to work together to try and figure out what’s going on.
In the meantime, you head back to the community center and decide to try and watch something together, but Nemona mentions having had some “free mochi samples” shortly before you all decide to try and find the remote to change the TV from its usual tour advertisement.
Alas, despite finding it, we do not actually get to do anything because Nemona has suddenly vanished. Leaving Arven and Penny behind, we head out with Kieran to take a look. Unfortunately, we are stopped by two NPCs who have also been infected with Mochi Madness. And that is more or less how the DLC continues to go.
We notice Nemona running off to the Festival area and while there, run into Kieran’s grandparents. Unfortunately, his grandmother has also been hit with the Mochi Madness and before his grandfather can tell us where Nemona went, he takes mochi from her despite all the creepiness and glowing and gets cursed as well. After battling them, we get a call from Arven and quickly head back to see if they’re okay.
And while they are when we get there, it doesn’t last long because despite noticing the suspicious Pokemon, they still decide to catch the Mochi it throws at them in their mouths?? Meanwhile, we manage to dodge… And well, I guess it hitting Kieran in the head instead of the mouth technically counts as dodging.
We follow after the suspicious Pokemon all the way to the shrine of the Evil Three. After beating Nemona, we can finally challenge it and then catch it which breaks the curse.
Everyone is happy. And then we go back home I guess.
The “Epilogue” also unlocked Kieran’s Dorm Room, lets Kieran and Carmine sometimes show up at the club room, and lets you invite the Paldea crew over to the League Club.
But what gets me is that… this feels like an awful epilogue. No questions were answered. We don’t even go to Area Zero again. The only thing this did was explain the Purple Plush Pokemon AND show Kieran was okay. That was it.
I liked the moments where everyone was hanging out together. Too bad we barely got any of them.
At the moment, my only goal is to try and get all the Pokemon you can get from everyone as I think that’s a cute touch. I hope I have enough BP to do so though because I’m already tired of grinding it. I’d still like to upgrade/get everything for the Club Room, but we’ll see what happens. If I do manage to get all the trade Pokemon, I’ll update this post.
Edit: As promised, an update! I did manage to get all trades done and even unlocked all the Clubroom stuff too. If I do anything else, it’ll just be to try and do Group BPs to unlock the rest of the snacks. Still not sure if I will catch any of them yet though… Maybe if I somehow get like 40 Master Balls.