For reasons unknown to me I didn't sit down and review this when I actually played it so my thoughts are going to be a less detailed and organised than I'd like. Nonetheless, I'm quite impressed by this DLC. The writing continues to resonate, there are some seriously challenging battles in the post-game difficulty mode, and it makes me really excited for the Indigo Disk. My only complaint would be that it's a bit short, but since it's part of the same purchase as its other half, it works fine as a set-up and teaser, as long as Disk continues to impress.

Same frame rate issues, better story. The story was so much better here as it was linear compared to the 3 branching paths. The returning and new pokemon are nice to see always loved sentret and Ogrepon is incredibly silly. The soundtrack from what I had heard was amazing with the one playing in Keirans battle being my favourite this time round. Overall this dlc was great with only one area I have been to so far being the apple orchad place having the frame issues so I think the smaller map helped here can't wait to try dlc 2 to find out more about the story and about Carmine and Keiran.

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.

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

It's a fun DLC, I probably liked it a bit more than Isle of Armour in SWSH. Region has lots of fun nooks and crannies to explore, but still suffers from the same issue as the main game with a lot of... bland areas. The story is nice and I like Ogrepon, so adorable! Though it does feel like setup for part 2 DLC overall, which I expect will be a big step up like Crown Tundra was. I did basically everything (including finishing the Pokedex) other than grind up 1M pokebucks, and it all felt worthwhile, I thought it was clever where they hid some of the ogre clan members. Unfortunately the performance is pretty bad, there's some really shocking framedrops in areas that remind me of the base game at launch, which is very disappointing (and why I'm leaving this unscored).

Also man, that Legends Arceus fanservice went way harder than I expected, I can't believe I already feel nostalgia for that game

Pretty weak compaired to the main game. Again, Pokemon is like Pizza, no matter how underwhelming it is, its still Pizza so its good. I like going for the more traditional Japanese festival style, having been to Japan alot of the small details like the booths outside the shrines where you would buy things felt very nostalgic. Its just, like the main game, everything feels half baked. Pokemon is just not a series that gets remotely the same amount of care and attention that 90% of RPGs actually do, which is a shame.

Decent expansion that offers more of the same content in a smaller package.
+ sweet character-driven plot involving a cute legendary
+ pretty new map with slightly interesting lore
+ sizable number of older Pokémon added
- very little improvement to the technical issues

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet have its massive slew of issues. A lot of bugs, performance issues, and just a lot of other things that keep them from being as good as they could be. Even then, I thought Scarlet and Violet were pretty solid games aside from their issues, with great story, music, and characters. This is to say, of course, my autistic ass was assuredly going to play the DLC, Pokemon has been a major part of my life, and it won't stop yet. Overall though, much like the base game, it still contains some issues that I can't neglect.
Especially since this DLC released only a couple days ago, I'm not going to talk about the story in much detail. But it's a pretty nice story all things considered. It's not the most complicated, but through that less complication, there's some fun antics to be seen in it. And at the same time, I really like the new characters they introduced, and I'm curious to see how they continue in the second half of the Expansion. The ending to the main story of The Teal Mask, and a specific fight in it was super cool to me, and was probably the highlight of the DLC I was say.
Kitakami obviously isn't as large as Paldea, and that's to be expected for a DLC Expansion, and ultimately I feel mixed on it. When you're in an actual named location like a forest or a mountainous path, there's some really nice stuff to be seen! But there's also just really empty spaces at the same time, and while I get that they're meant to be "Kitakami Wastes", I wish that there was ultimately less of what felt like empty space. Especially cause the places that are filled are really neat locations.
The new pokemon introduced in the DLC are cute. I love Ogerpon, I think it's a silly pokemon, especially as seen through playing the DLC. The other legendaries I don't really have a strong opinion overall, but their names are really silly, I can't get over Okidogi particularly. And the couple additional pokemon they introduce are really nice, but I'm uncertain if those were the pokemon they needed to spotlight first.
But god, the one thing that kept me from really enjoying the DLC to the fullest was the performance. I may be worse than the base game's performance issues. The game had frame drops so often, both in docked and handheld mode. I remember a time where the game just freezed for a couple seconds, and I was worried the game had crashed. While I'm fine with the occasional frame dip, it was so bad here. And I'd argue even more inexcusable here than in base game. Though keep in mind, I don't blame Game Freak for this, as yearly release schedule for games with this much ambition behind them is bound for issues like this.
Yet again, I found the Teal Mask DLC to be quite nice. Though until I see what the Indigo Disk DLC offers, I don't think it's worth the $35 dollar price tag just yet. It's nice for what it is, with a good story, characters, and pokemon. But since this is only half of the total, the quality of the other half will determine its overall worth.

I realise I completely forgot to write a review for this months after finishing. Truthfully, I have little to say. Many of the problems that plague the base game are even more noticeable, such as unacceptable and insulting performance. That alone has doomed this DLC to be nothing more than extremely mediocre. While we have some neat things, such as fun characters with an actual story to follow (the bar really isn't high here), there are few things this DLC does we haven't seen before. The area we get to explore is painfully dull, only made slightly interesting by the giant mountain its centre that we can travel through.

I do hope the Indigo Disc is better. This franchise needs to be better than the horrible state it currently is in.