The Crown Tundra looks cold and repetitive at first glance but the snowy DLC is packed with things to do!

“it’s an area filled with all legendary goodness! And also a lot of snow!”

When you head into the new DLC you are immediately greeted by Peony and his daughter both quarreling. It is clear that Peony is overprotective and instead of taking his daughter on an adventure he lets you join his team of makeshift researchers in search of legendary Pokémon. Before you join his team you’ll be thrown straight into the Max Lair, one of the new mechanics in the DLC.

“On some paths, you’ll find people or items that can help you. Sometimes you come out unlucky with your chosen path. Like someone forcing you to swap to another Pokémon, not always in the type advantage you want. It’s a high risk but very fun mechanic that switches up how you play these Max Raids in the Max Lair. For Max Fun!”

The Max Lair is a cave where you can play with friends or NPCs to battle and capture a number of randomly chosen Dynamax Pokémon on a bunch of split pathways within the cave that ultimately result in a legendary Max Raid. The twist however is that you don’t use your own Pokémon, instead you rent one (for free) and hope it’ll be effective against the legendary you’ll face at the end of the cave.

Right at the start of the cave you’ll catch a glimpse of the typing and you’ll be able to switch to one of the Max Raid Pokémon you capture in the cave as well so you’ll probably get a good type matchup by the time you reach the end of the Max Lair. It’s a fun mechanic that adds some more risk and it also heavily relies on you getting a good (online) team together. You’ll need a healer, someone to inflict some status damage, and preferably 2 heavy hitters to make it to the end! Now, something I noticed in Sword and Shield is the fact that the NPCs accompanying you in Max Raids were pretty “dumb” and did not fit the healing/status infliction method well… In the Crown Tundra DLC the NPCs have received a noticeable boost in intelligence and even type matchups. When playing offline this was a welcome change!

“You’ll be keeping these legendaries at first, that’s for sure!”

After your first Max Raid you’ll be able to embark on the journey the Tundra is all about, secrets of the legendaries! Without going into spoiler territory I can tell you that the legend of the “King Of Bountiful Harvest” was a really nice story! It was a refreshing take on the bland “walk towards the legendary and catch it”-mechanic that Pokémon so often used in the past. It’s an enticing story and at some points I felt like playing a Zelda game, especially Twilight Princess came to mind. At one point I found some old birch trees surrounded by snow and mist with a bunch of flying Frosmoth dancing around. I feel like the devs at Game Freak had more time to make a nice and polished DLC that actually looks better than the original games. It’s nice to see some random caves where you can actually get lost and caves that bring back the multiple levels of verticality missing since the top-down games back in the day. It might be the Nordic setting and the mountains but I really enjoyed this DLC more than the Isle of Armor.

“The mysterious story is amazingly good and I wish it was longer. At least we know the series is capable of good storytelling and we hope to see these fleshed out stories more in future games!”

The way the game gives you clues to find all the legendaries is well fleshed out with nice cinematics that ties it all together nicely. It’s not revolutionary as such but I really connected with this story and I haven’t felt this since Pokémon Black&White. I wish the story took a bit longer to complete and had more hours into it but of course, this is DLC and not a full game. But again, it’s a really good DLC! You’ll be busy long enough to capture all the new Pokémon and find the legendary birds and giants spread around the entire map.

“The legendary birds each sport a brand new signature attack to match their new typings!”

Now you’ve all seen the trailers where the 3 legendary birds and the old and new Regis so no spoilers here! The birds are again roamers and this time they roam the lands with a twist. You don’t just walk up to them, they all have their own unique battle trigger this time! Especially Articuno, who has the best design IMO, is a hard one to get. Furthermore, it lost its ice-typing so the hail actually hurts it on every turn, you better start throwing balls as soon as you can! I really fancy these Galarian designs and I hope they reinvent old Pokémon this way further down the line, be it in another DLC or in the next generation.

“It’s a bit like the old Red&Blue Victory Road again, how do I get down there?!”

Of course, the DLC is also another leap into completing the “National Pokédex”. There’s a whopping amount of creatures returning to this gen for you to catch for the first time and with all their levels being high already it’s a fast way to add favorites to your team straight away. There’s also a lot of new clothing options with another layer of customization.

Overall the DLC is the best by far! I was least hyped going into it but I was surprised by the good storytelling and the amount of new mechanics that really add a fresh new wind the series can hopefully continue to sail on. The freezing adventure in the cold and white Crown Tundra doesn’t melt in comparison to earlier content. On the contrary, it stands proud and strong on an icy pedestal!