The competitive trading card game and anime series, Pokémon is showing no signs of stopping its momentum any time soon. This momentum, most currently, is being continued by the recently released Pokémon Sword & Shield DLC The Crown Tundra.
Pokémon Sword and Shield received praise upon their release from critics, but many fans of the series found the core content of the game to still be largely underwhelming. This is an issue the franchise has had for a couple of generations, but Sword and Shield's DLC is a nice gesture to break up this trend. The Isle of Armor was generally liked by fans, but content-wise, some still found it a tad light. Despite this, The Crown Tundra seems to be taking a completely different approach than The Isle of Armor. Instead, The Crown Tundra DLC expansion appears to be taking notes from Pokémon's past to create an expansion that is full of not only content, but also mystery and excitement.
One might wonder, why get so excited over The Crown Tundra after playing The Isle of Armor? The Crown Tundra, simply put, has many interesting design choices that appear to effectively resemble Pokémon ventures of old. Most modern fans of the series have issues with lack of content, and this was a very valid complaint with Sword and Shield's core game. However, The Crown Tundra introduces regional variants of legendaries, new versions of an already existing legendary trio, and an interesting and mysterious new legendary Pokémon.
Pokémon Returns To Being "Mysterious"
Information on The Crown Tundra has been fairly scarce leading up to the update's release on Nintendo Switch. This sense of mystery surrounding the new Pokémon DLC makes it feel akin to older titles in the series. Before the internet was a mainstream platform, kids would share playground stories of crazy and ridiculous legendary creatures they found. The limited information currently available on The Crown Tundra and the lore surrounding the new legendary Pokémon gives this DLC the same mysterious feeling. All this new post-game material also seems quite similar to Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, as much of those titles' post-game was focused on capturing new and diverse legendaries. While some leaks may have spoiled a small portion of the shock that comes with discovering these new Pokémon, this approach to new content is not only very exciting but also quite refreshing.
On top of the new legendaries and regional variants being introduced in The Crown Tundra, many more legendaries will be catchable through raid battles. A huge complaint with Sword and Shield is the limited amount of Pokémon in the regional Pokedex. While Sword & Shield's Crown Tundra expansion doesn't completely fix the issue, it at least shows an effort to remedy it to a decent extent. Overall, the inherent focus on capturing older legendaries and meeting new forms of old ones is an intriguing prospect, and it is a step in the right direction for the future of every Pokémon game to come.