Summary
Pokemon Scarlet and Violetwere released amid controversies regarding their performance and quality, with some fans pointing out that the Pokedex had weird inconsistencies in how some types were represented and treated in Gen 9 games. For example,Pokemon Scarlet and Violetand The Teal Mask add many Grass-typesto the roster, with Grass being the most represented type in the entire generation by a mile, whereas some types only got a tiny bit of love. Although The Indigo Disk could shake things up when it launches, The Teal Mask DLC is giving one specific type the short end of the stick - and it’s something the base game did as well.
Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Pokedexis much larger now than it was on launch, with 600 species available and more being transferable to Gen 9 games viaPokemon Home, including the very sought-after Hisuian forms fromLegends: Arceus. Still, one of the most hyped-up events whenever a new mainline game is released is going through the new region’s Pokedex to discover all the never-before-seen critters it has to offer and experimenting with their battle potential. Type combinations, especially new ones, are also a key factor, and Paldea is largely missing on entirely new creatures that share Ground as a type.
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Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s Teal Mask Only Have One “New” Ground-Type
Pokemon Scarlet and Violetonly had one completely new Ground-type Pokemonin the form of the Legendary Ting-Lu, which belongs to the Treasures of Ruin, all sharing Dark as their secondary type. This doesn’t mean that Gen 9 games didn’t have more Ground-types, but rather that the new ones were mostly different takes on existing creatures. Paldean Wooper is a regional form, Clodsire is a new species that still shares a lot of DNA with Quagsire, Toedscool and Toedscruel are regional fakes that also look a lot like their Kantonian counterparts, and then Great Tusk, Iron Treads, and Sandy Shocks are all Paradox Pokemon based on Donphan and Magneton, respectively.
Out of these eight, Ting-Lu is the only completely new one, and The Teal Mask is not helping the case of Paldea’s lack of new Ground-types all that much. AlthoughBloodmoon Ursaluna inPokemon Scarlet and Violetmakes for a compelling design and battle-hungry creature, it is the only new Ground Pokemon in the DLC, and it too is not exactly a novelty in the sense that it’s inspired by the original Hisuian Ursaluna fromPokemon Legends: Arceus.
What follows is that, in terms of all-new pocket monsters, Ting-Lu remains the only one whose design and inspirations do not share common ground with any other existing species in the franchise. Although Pokemon like Bloodmoon Ursaluna and Great Tusk remain both quite unique and competitively menacing inPokemon VGC, they are still redesigns of existing creatures with different labels than the series' trusty and true regional forms. As such, an entirely newGround-type Pokemonin The Teal Mask would have greatly helped with a more diverse representation of the type in Gen 9, especially ahead of The Indigo Disk.
In fact, considering all the leaked Pokemon for The Indigo Disk, there’s a very strong chance that there will only be one new Ground-type critter among them, and it will also be a Paradox version of an existing species instead of a never-before-seen one. With Gen 10 looming in the distance, Gen 9 games and The Teal Mask DLC both prove that Game Freak should attempt to achieve a more balanced distribution of types and new Pokemon in mainline games. In this regard, unfortunately,Pokemon Scarlet and Violetstick out like a sore thumb.
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