DLC done *right*

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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Kikki
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I've seen a lot of complaints (mostly on social media) about the Olive Town DLC lately, and while I think Xseed was quite clear about the exact contents of the DLC...everything is listed, so it's not like they were tricking people into buying something other than what it was...I do agree that as usual, Marvelous does DLC in a very substandard way. The special characters are all contained in their little areas and don't interact with others. THey don't go to festivals. They can't wear the special costumes. And of course, the DLC doesn't include anything like new farmable land, or new crops, or new animals, or anything like that.

If the DLC DID have those things, there would be rampant complaining from DLC-haters that it was 'content that should have been in from the beginning' or 'content held hostage' or...etc. Which you can make an argument for. But in trying to please everybody, Marv again succeeds, imo, in pleasing no one. Or at least, pleasing the smallest possible group rather than the largest possible one.

*This thread was not actually created to complain about Olive Town DLC.* I just want to note that. I'm just setting the scene for why this topic has come up. The topic of discussion is this:

What do YOU think would be GREAT DLC? What would be the best way DLC could be handled? Not for Marv or Bokumono specifically, but ANY DLC situation. Any game, any company.

What I thought of first was Dragon Quest Builders 2. IT already has a bunch of DLC that was available right from release, and it's nice stuff, but I would loooooooooooove if they would come out with new DLC now! The game was first released in North America nearly three years ago. But releasing a nice fat DLC package could almost be like creating a whole new game, without having to design all new characters or assets or home base or anything. It could be like a new game that only took half the work for the devs. I don't know why game companies only create DLC for newly made games. Why not make use of games that already have a nice big install base and fans who are hungry for more, with no new game in sight?

For example, they could add any (or all) of these things:
  • A new major destination island (like Furrowfield, etc) with a new theme and its own story like the others. We have a rustic farming island, an arid mining island and a wintery war-torn island. Maybe we could have a crystalline fantasy island, or a windy cloud island.
  • New design element packages. New blocks, a new tool or two (maybe to make curved edges, or rippled ones, or whatever), new deorations and furniture. New Explorer's Isles would go along with these.
  • New crops and/or recipes
  • New building challenges for the Isle of Awakening. THis is the one I probably want MOST. I'd love for all the characters you brought back with you to your home base to develop their own little story and/or having a bunch more building challenges for you, maybe with new room recipes, too.
I would pay full-game price if they included all of that into one package, and I'd pay a good chunk even if they only offered one of those things as new DLC. I don't care that they're reusing an existing world and characters and assets. I base how much money I will spend on how much fun I expect to have. If I think I will get a new-game's worth of enjoyment out of it, I'd totally pay full-new-game-price for it.

Well, that's one situation. But if we go with Bokumono, I think of Trio of Towns. I would really love if they suddenly came out with DLC that did any of these things:
  • New farmland, especially attractively themed, maybe with new associated special (perhaps magical) crops. Like a field of sugary white sand with cotton candy trees and chocolate mint bushes. Etc.)
  • Extra story. Perhaps the towns could enter into some kind of competition with each other, or with another region.
  • The ability to play as your child. I'd love to see you be able to build your child their own little garden where they can grow their own things. Maybe they could even have some appropriate child-like business, like a lemonade stand (just an example.)
  • Rival marriage and rival children. For my taste, this could be something that either unlocks post-marriage (meaning you won't see ANY rival stuff unless you're already married) or you have to jump through hoops with special quests to unlock it, so that people who don't care to get married can still enjoy the match-making, if they want. Match-making would be part of it...you could be the one to influence your friends to marry each other. Different children would be born accordingly. And maybe not all pairings are wise...maybe they're not all happy-fun-forever. Perhaps Yuzuki and Kasumi would be a wonderful couple, but Yuzuki and Lisette would be a disaster. Or whatever. That idea might be tricky and bug some people if their chosen pairing don't actually mesh, but I certainly think it would be interesting. Some people really are NOT suited to be with each other...sometimes their strengths and weaknesses make each other worse instead of better. Or that part doesn't even need to be in. Maybe all pairings would just be happy ones and the only difference would be in what child they have. And if you have the opportunity to play as your own child, it'd be awesome if your child (you) and the rival children could have their own stories to play through.
Anyway, this is long, so I'll stop, though I have loads more ideas for these and other games. Now I'd like to hear what the rest of you think are great DLC ideas. What, to you, is DLC done RIGHT? What's worth the money? Do you have any examples of existing great DLC?
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Ronin19
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I've bought a lot of DLC in my time as a gamer. I think the first DLC I ever bought was for Dragon Age Origins.

I've always thought what makes a great DLC is if you enjoy the base game because you're essentially buying more of the same. I've bought every Mass Effect and Dragon Age DLC because I love the games and I want more. I bought the Trio of Towns DLC because I wanted more.

More locations, more characters, more lore, more story. That's what I generally think makes a good DLC.

Of course, if you don't like the game, why would you buy the DLC? It's more of the same. I didn't enjoy Borderlands 3, and while I did buy the DLC, I have no desire to play it because I didn't enjoy the base game.
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Kikki
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I just wish that devs would make the best DLC they can and forget about those who complain about it...no half measures like the ones Marvelous goes for. Make a great base game, and then add more to it sometime later.

I also wish they wouldn't only do DLC on release or staggered over the first half year...what I want for my favourite games is DLC that comes a year or two later, or more if the console it is on is still current, to bring you back for fresh fun with the game. Plus DLC that is released with the game or soon after it is bound to get the most complaints about locking content behind a paywall.
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Mikodesu
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In terms of the content itself I agree with Ronin - people bought the game for something, if you're making DLC they want more of that. Though even that can get a little tricky, because that can vary a lot. Breath of the Wild's DLC for example - if I had my druthers I would have asked for another region, not more shrines. So I didn't get the DLC, wasn't worth it.

The other issue with DLC is the value proposition attached to it. If you feel you're being charged for cut content or a complete lack of creativity, that feels icky. There's quite a few complete games that go for less than AA DLC and offer more content. DLC can be a good way to support smaller companies though, which is nice.

I'm not sure what the last time I felt really excited/satisfied with DLC was. The last time I did consistently...they were called expansion packs. :lol:
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Kikki
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I didn't buy the DLC because I didn't like the game enough to go back and complete it after stopping about 60% of the way through, but as far as I can tell, the Fenyx Rising DLC is very well done. They give you a full story and loads of extras...but the DLC adds three entire new central stories (new deities, new regions). I've heard several people say that each wave of DLC is nearly an entire new game added on to the original game. (Can't say for myself, but it does look that way.)

I think DLC that is released at the same time as or soon after the release of the main game increases the feeling that it's cut content, that could (or maybe even should, if the base game seemed lacking in anyway) have been included in the base game. Plus when a game is first released, it's harder to grow tired of it. You can play on for post game stuff, or replay, or whatever. It's now...two and three and even four years later...that I really want DLC for DQB2 and Trio...and BotW.

If I'd had my way with the BotW DLC, it would NOT have been more battle challenges...it would have been more story. I was particularly disappointed in the final wave of DLC for that, which claimed to be story, but was really just rehashing the Divine Beast battles with one extra cutscene per champion. I was very unsatisfied. (Though some of the extras are awesome...love the travel medallion, and it was fun collecting the extra armor sets.) Though it was pretty good if more shrines and battle challenges were what you wanted.
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Simply Unknown
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I think the only really good DLC I've ever seen is the DLC for Our Life: Beginnings and Always. Each wave of DLC introduces 5 new moments to a section of the game, essentially doubling playtime for that specific moment and doubling your game if you end up getting all three. It's not that the game felt incomplete before I bought the DLC, but I loved the world so much that I wanted to experience more of it through those moments.

Now, to be fair, there have been DLC for other games that I like, such as Pokemon Sword and Shield and FE: Three Houses. But a lot of it falls under 'neat, but not for me'. The DLC I usually tend to go for either involve creating an entirely new story or adding something that I really want/makes the game easier. Etrian Odyssey usually falls under this category.

I do think that a lot of the anger about DLC depends on both the price of the original game and how much was being charged for the DLC. If someone pays $60 for a base game and then DLC is offered at around $20-$30, I think that makes people a lot angrier than if the DLC was priced at $5 or less. But by charging around half the price of the original game, it feels like they're implying that the game itself isn't worth it without the DLC, and that ruffles a lot of feathers.
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Code_Name_Geek
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I don't like having a ton of content locked behind DLC. I think DLC should be mostly cosmetic, though I don't mind an extra story episode or two if they truly feel like an "add-on" rather than something that should have been in the base game. I wouldn't really like paying for different kinds of crops or anything like that though - that sort of thing bugs me as somewhat of a completionist.

As for the reason I don't like having too much stuff locked behind DLC, it's that storefronts will inevitably close (especially when it comes to consoles) and that DLC will then be inaccessible to anyone wanting to play the game for the first time. There are already so many games that are difficult or impossible to play nowadays, and thinking of all the current games that will have their content severely truncated by lost DLC is kind of sad.

Edit: I forgot to say an example of DLC that I thought was good. The "Legacy BGM" pack for Persona 5 Strikers lets you switch the battle music to battle themes from past games, which I thought was a neat way of providing additional content for veterans of the series while still being totally optional gameplay-wise.
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