So I never played the DLC for Sword and Shield, meaning this is my first experience with mainline Pokemon DLC. It's split into two parts and, for $35, I can't say that it's less appealing than a "brand new" game in the same time period. This series has had it bad lately and DLC seems like a decent way to slow things down to focus on quality...
That being said, this left a lot to be desired. It was cute, but really not anything special. It's interesting only so far as it is just more of the thing I like.
See, I'm deeply fucked in the head, so I of course completed the Kitakami dex and will likely do the same for the second half of the DLC, but I didn't do it because it was fun or because I liked the expansion all that much. I'm just a feckless little fanboy that still buys these unfinished games, so it's not like my opinions mean much in this instance.
If you're not huge into Pokemon, this DLC probably isn't worth it. We'll see how the bluray disc or whatever the second half is called goes, but I doubt it will be enough to justify such a lackluster opening act.

Love the new area to explore and train in but found the newer characters a little annoying. I appreciate the effort to add some narrative into this franchise, but it moves fairly slow for such a short plot and feels like a slog to get through at worst. The new characters and boss Pokemon also posed at least a bit of a challenge for me, but mostly because I don't have a lot of variety in Pokemon over level 70.
Ogre Oustin' ain't so bad at least, though I don't see myself getting hours of play out of it. The lore around the new mythical Pokemon was a little more intriguing than I expected, but overall this DLC doesn't do enough to elevate or compliment the experience of the main game.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are some of the best written stories in the entire Pokemon franchise, bar none. Starting with Arceus and then into the four main plotlines that make up SV, it truly feels like it's in a story renaissance (albeit at the sacrifice of some performance issues).
The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero cranks that story up to 11. Teal Mask introduces a pair of delightful characters whose dynamics are fun and inviting and who are fascinating to see operating outside of SV has you understand of Paldea. Kitakami is an absolute delight to explore, if a bit small, and the small-town rural Japan vibe is absolutely unmatched (especially since it allows for Hisuian Pokemon to show up!).
The box legendary (Ogerpon) is maybe my favorite legendary in the past few years, even if the three sub-legendaries are... lacking.
Seeing even a scrap of Teal Mask convinced me to pick up the DLC and I did not look back... especially after Part 2.

man this is infinitely better than the base game

way more focused, story is actually somewhat engaging
battles are harder (still pretty easy tho)
huge step in the right direction

Calling the Teal Mask half-baked is probably too kind. It's basically still raw.

The performance issues from the base games feel significantly worse here — probably because the region is incredibly bland, just a mish-mash of standard series biomes that feels like a procedurally generated iteration on the base game's region. There's not even a real logic to where the new pokemon show up, nor are there any interesting locations or areas. Add to that that the entire DLC (not just the story, but fully exploring the region, completing the new pokedex, etc.) takes, generously, about six hours to finish, and even as someone who loved Scarlet and Violet despite their flaws, I think they'd have been better off just not releasing anything at all.

Dipplin is cute though. I will give them that.

After everything that was said about this, I actually really enjoyed what The Teal Mask had to offer. I liked the new characters, I was interested in their stories and dynamics. Kitakami was really fun to explore and pulled a lot from the feeling of Johto that helped if feel like it had its place in the pokemon world. It's not perfect but I think as far as DLC goes without interrupting the stories of the previous main characters, it really worked for what it was.
The complexities of the new caves really appealed to me to, it gave a great sense for exploring and having to fight my way back as I see myself falling past something I'd want to explore.

A great first DLC. I really liked the story here with ogerpon and those the loser three (screw those three FOR REAL leave ogerpon alone you LOSERS). I also enjoyed Carmine because at first she was annoying me but then once her reasoning and motivation was revealed I understood her so much better. I do not trust Miss. Briar or whatever her name is I feel she is doing something malicious and that will come in the future. The one thing I didn't like was where Kieran's story went because at first I was really liking him but then all of a sudden he does this 180 complete flip out of nowhere and becomes a completely different character. I thought the design of the new area was cool and I really like Ogerpon as a pokemon. I also love dipplin. Not much else to comment gameplay wise since its just the same as the base game mechanics which I already enjoyed. Starting the indigo disk tonight