The Teal Mask

The player is invited to participate in a student field trip to the land of Kitakami. Accompanied by Ms. Briar, a teacher guide from the sister school Blueberry Academy, the player travels to Kitakami and meets Carmine and her younger brother Kieran, two Blueberry Academy students native to Kitakami. The player is paired with Kieran and tasked with visiting three signs telling the story of "the Loyal Three". Many years ago, an ogre-like Pokémon wearing a Teal Mask named Ogerpon, attacked the land of Kitakami but three Pokémon named Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti battled it and died protecting the land. Ogerpon was never seen again, and the villagers buried the three Pokémon in a shrine, named them "the Loyal Three", and held an annual festival to celebrate them. During the festival, Carmine and the player briefly encounter Ogerpon, who drops her Teal Mask before fleeing. Carmine stops the player from telling Kieran what happened, as he idolizes Ogerpon and she fears his feelings would be hurt if he knew he missed a chance to meet her.

The next morning, Carmine's grandfather reveals that Ogerpon was a nice Pokémon who was rejected by the villagers along with her original trainer due to their appearance. However, their ancestor, the village mask maker, took pity on them and gave them four masks; the Teal Mask, the Hearthflame Mask, the Wellspring Mask, and the Cornerstone Mask. Ogerpon and her trainer used them to blend in with the villagers. However, the Loyal Three attacked Ogerpon's trainer and stole three of the masks. Ogerpon killed the three Pokémon, but before she could get the masks, the villagers scared her away, thinking she was trying to attack them. Carmine decides to make amends with Ogerpon by repairing the Teal Mask. However, they are unaware that Kieran overheard their conversation; the next day, he steals the Teal Mask and angrily confronts the player at the shrine over being lied to his face. After being defeated at the shrine, he gives the mask back. Suddenly, the Loyal Three come back to life (implicitly because of Kieran's anger) and head for Kitakami Hall.

The player and Carmine follow the Loyal Three there, but find that the villagers ignorantly gave the Loyal Three the other masks and mochi implied to be infused with Herba Mystica (as the mochi later cause the Three to grow to Titan size); they then learn that the Three went after Ogerpon, intending to settle the score with her. Realizing Ogerpon is completely defenseless against the Three without any of her masks, Carmine heads off to get the Teal Mask fixed, while the player goes after the Three and fends them off. The player and Carmine eventually resolve to help Ogerpon recover her masks, the player bonding with Ogerpon in the process. While the player and Carmine pursue the now Titan-sized Three and defeat each of them, getting the masks back, Kieran tells the villagers the true story and they apologize to Ogerpon. After returning her to her cave, Ogerpon reveals she wants to stay with the player but Kieran demands to battle the player for her. After defeating him, the player successfully catches Ogerpon after a long fight, leading a distraught Kieran to flee home and lock himself in his room. The next day, Briar announces that she, Carmine, and Kieran must return to Blueberry Academy due to a development regarding Area Zero, so the player and Carmine bid goodbye to each other.

In a post-story scene, Kieran, now consumed by resentment, swears to get stronger and make the player pay for their perceived betrayal of him.

The Teal Mask

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: The Teal Mask received a score of 65% on the Metacritic reviewing aggregator, indicating mixed or average reception.^[13] In comparison to the base game, The Teal Mask underperformed by 5–6%, which concludes that The Teal Mask performed noticeably worse than the base game.^[14][15] This is further cemented by HowLongToBeat, where The Teal Mask has a 66% rating, with an average completion time of 6½ hours on the main story.^[16] Reviewers generally felt that while The Teal Mask enhanced the main game's strengths, the Teal Mask also exacerbated the main game's weaknesses: IGN's Rebekah Valentine cut to the chase on the game's volatility, such as "...the overall ugliness and performance issues did detract from locations that looked like they were probably quite beautiful in their concept art, just not their final execution..."^[17] In addition, Kotaku's Kenneth Shepard says The Teal Mask "embodies the best and worst parts of the original game", through "The story is where The Teal Mask shines in spite of the technical troubles, so perhaps fittingly, this DLC embodies both the best and worst parts of Scarlet and Violet."^[18]

Outside of the worse performance issues (such as frame rates and graphics), the Teal Mask received generally good reception on the story and music. However, one aspect that was not present from the base game is that The Teal Mask lacked the freedom to explore the region, since there was only one story to focus on, resulting in linearity. In particular, Sports Illustrated's Ryan Woodrow shared that "There are plenty of little caves and nooks in the world of Kitakami, but they aren’t as rewarding as the ones you can find in the main game." Despite this, The Verge's Charles Pulliam-Moore claims that "...one of the most unexpectedly pleasant things about The Teal Mask is how strongly it establishes Kitakami as its own distinct space that exists within the larger world."^[19] Further, the Digital Trends' Giovanni Colantonio commented that "That [the] central story doubles down on Scarlet and Violet’s storytelling strengths by telling an endearing tale that’s custom-built for young players."^[20]