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Keeping the trend going.
And here we finally are. The last part of the Pokémon Sword & Shield Expansion pass, The Crown Tundra, is up and running for everybody who bought the DLC. As it is the second half, we had a better picture of what to expect from it. An open-world style area with a bunch of returning Pokémon, a few new ones and a new story. There were some changes compared to the Isle of Armor that we knew about that (hopefully) made the Crown Tundra feel more than you a rehash. You got the brand new Dynamax Adventures, a big focus on Legendary Pokémon and a bigger map with an even greater focus on exploration then the Isle of Armor had.
Now that I've had my fair share of time with The Crown Tundra, what's my verdict? Well, the Crown Tundra is a clear continuation of the Isle of Armor. It keeps building on many of the improvements that part of the expansion while sadly falling into some pitfalls of its own.
Let's dive in.
After arriving in the Scotland inspired southern half of the Galar region known as the Crown Tundra you run into Peony and his daughter Peonia. Peony has brought his daughter to the Tundra for his great 'Adven-Toure' but Peonia has other plans. Through some shenanigans you end up going on the 'Aden-Toure' yourself, which take the form of three quests. These three quests form the story of the Crown Tundra and can be completed in any order. If you've kept up with the Crown Tundra's promotional material you know exactly what these quests are. The first is focused on Calyrex, the former 'king' of the Crown Tundra.
It's one of the better of the quests. While structured very similar to, say, the post-game story around Zacian/Zamazenta, it has the most 'engagement'. You actually get to interact with the DLC's characters and even has a surprise in store that was not in the promotional material. It's the quest that the game nudges you into completing first and as the 'opening' of the DLC, it works well. The second is all about the returning Regi's and their two newest members: Regieleki and Regidrago.
Sadly, this is the most disappointing aspect of the DLC to me personally. It's just so bare! In the original Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald the Regi quest was complicated yet rewarding. Here, it's the complete opposite. They try to make it feel like the original by including riddles, but these are laughably easy to solve and the quest just isn't engaging enough. You're also unable to get both Regieleki and Regidrago in one save-file, so that's another strike against it.
The third and final
quests focus itself on the Galarian forms of the Legendary Birds form Kanto:
Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. It's good. Can't say too much about this one for
spoiler reasons but it's definitely a good one, if not just a little too short.
Not each quest get the amount of attention and polish it might have deserved but all in all, it's a solid 4-5 hours of gameplay.
'Subtlety' is not one of Peony's strengths... |
Aside from the quests that make up the game's story, there are two more quests in the Crown Tundra. I won't spoil them for you here but one of them involves Dynamax adventures while the other can be considered the spiritual successor to the Isle of Armors Alolan Diglett hunt. Speaking of Dynamax adventures, it's the big new feature that the Crown Tundra brings with it. You and 3 others players (or NPC's) venture inside a Raid den where multiple Dynamaxed Pokémon lurk. The cave has branching paths, so you're able to choose the path towards the cave's 'boss' AKA Legendary Pokémon. Dynamax Adventures are a lot of fun, with or without friends. Journeying through the cave is never the same, from the different Pokémon your given at the beginning to the once that appear during your journey or the NPC's you might encounter.
Having to discuss which route to take, which player gets
to use the just caught Pokémon, gives rise to some fun strategies as well as
plenty of (delightful) chaos. They also fix a lot of the issues that plagued,
from removing the Dynamax Pokémon shield's to speed the fight up to NPC being
actually somewhat competent. I only wish there was a mode that would allow you
to bring you own Pokémon along instead of being stuck with one that the game
provides you. Can't have everything I guess.
Dynamax adventures aren't the only new feature of The Crown Tundra. There's also the Galarian Star Tournament. It's a set of Multi-Battles were your partner as one of the characters you encountered throughout the story, from your rivals to the Gym Leaders. It's not bad, there is some fun little dialogue between characters and it's actually quite challenging, but it's nothing we haven't seen before.
The Galarian Legendary Birds are being like 'dude... we're in the middle of something, go throw your balls somewhere else!' |
Conclusion
Just as the Isle of Armor before it, the Crown Tundra is a worthwhile addition to Pokémon Sword & Shield. It's very similar to the Isle of Armor, essentially just continuing nearly everything that part of the expansion started, but that isn't a bad thing. It keeps building on all of those things, has some fun and new features of its own and offer quite a bit of extra play value with all of those legendaries. It has its own problems and is of course still limited the shortcomings of Sword & Shield engine like the graphics for instance, but those don't detract from the overall experience too much. Thus, I don't think this expansion will win you were disappointed by Sword & Shield before. If you did like the base-game however, or even if you were not quite satisfied by it, The Crown Tundra and the Isle of Armor (they're sold as a package after all) is definitely worth your time and money.
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