You know what? This is actually a pretty solid improvement over Isle of Armor, and at points it's better than the base game. The big thing is that the Wild Area just works, finally; there isn't even any point in referring to it as a distinct location because it's so fully integrated into the world, which is how it should have been in the first place. And dungeons are back! They're small-ish compared to the old games, but it's a step in the right direction. The part of the game I'm having the hardest time sorting out my feelings for is how it's basically one giant legendary rush - I think I love it, but I know there's also a massive amount of nostalgia at play there. Of course, this all comes with the same caveats the main games did: the online functionality isn't even close to being up to snuff, and it's obviously a series going through some growing pains. Still, it's the most fun I've had with Pokemon in years.

The Isle of Armor had a great start to improving Sword and Shield, and Crown Tundra took that further. The wild area is much more expansive, with more interesting weather patterns and Pokemon roaming around, and the quests to find legendary Pokemon were cute! Calyrex's story was a lot more fun than I thought it would be (even though I wish Peony would have gotten more involvement) and overall it was a solid addition.

The real joy of this mode are the Dynamax Adventures. I wasn't expecting to find them all that fun given that you're forced to use rental Pokemon, but working together as a team to take down difficult legendary Pokemon is very fun! Coordinating with people would be much easier with some method of communication, and there are definitely issues with this mode (players idling and not being kicked out, for example) but overall it's a fantastic addition and a step in the right direction.

I'm sincerely hoping they take what they've learned from this expansion pass to make the next Pokemon game even better. Please give us a base game better than Sword and Shield...

really conflicted on how i feel about this expansion. i feel like the only true enjoyment i've gotten out of it has been doing dynamax adventures to shiny hunt for legendaries, and yeah thats pretty cool, but apart from the dynamax adventures feature it's still pretty barebones. I think the tundra itself is still extremely rough looking and pretty boring, and the only area i thought truly built off of the wild area was the small ocean coast and the near the top of the cave system, but even that was somewhat ruined by the cave's uninteresting textures and the fact there's nothing really to do at the top of the mountain other than catch calyrex at the end of the story. story wise, i thought peony and nia were cute but they don't do much and they hardly interact together which sucks. lastly i think the new pokemon are just fine, with the exception of calyrex who sticks out as one of the worst designed pokemon of gen 8. overall i don't see the swsh dlc as a huge improvement of the base game, only a small glimpse at what features like raid battles and the wild should've been in the base game, and even then it's hard for me to not compare swsh to countless better rpgs.

The Crown Tundra is the second half of SW/SH's DLC, and offers a more legendary focused experience than Isle of Armor. Peony and Calyrex are great new characters you meet in the main legendary storyline, making up for the fact this DLC is much less NPC focused. While you'll be talking to Peony and even Sonia as you hunt down legendaries, they'll only really have a few comments to make. Instead of that, the DLC is much more focused on Pokemon itself - in the snowy wild area, there's 100+ new (to the game) Pokemon to discover, with the main attraction being the legendaries. The Galarian forms of the legendary birds must be hunted down after you startle them during a scuffle at the mysterious giant tree, the Regis are locked behind temples with each one having a puzzle you must do before they open for you, the Three Musketeers require you to track down their footprints so Sonia can narrow down their location (with Keldeo having a little puzzle required to catch him), Calyrex and his steed are obtained through the main storyline, and the remaining legendaries are obtained via the new Legendary Dens - pick up a rental Pokemon and traverse several raid battles in a row, swapping out for other Pokemon you catch until you finally confront the den's legendary. Thanks to that, this DLC has the potential to add a decent chunk of time to your playtime.
The new content isn't just limited to the Crown Tundra - once you've completed all the story content of CT, IoA, and the base game, you'll now get the Galarian Star Tournament. 17 different partners to choose from (most unlocked via wins in the mode) as you engage in a multi battle tournament, made for those who prefer to engage in battles rather than do raids or explore a new wild area.
Overall, Crown Tundra is an incredibly solid DLC to round out SW/SH, fleshing out an already solid game with extra content.