DLC is something that gets a very mixed reception from people. There are times that it is used correctly and other times it is used to squeeze more money out of the people buying the game. For many seeing DLC added into a game can leave a very sour taste in the mouth of many consumers who feel ripped off that they bought a game for $60 and have to put in more money to get everything out of it.
So you can imagine the reception when Kingdom Hearts 3 and Pokémon Sword and Shield, three of the biggest games for 2019 were announced to be getting DLC. Now this might’ve been understandable if Kingdom Hearts 3 and Pokémon Sword/Shield were not some of the more controversial games of 2019. Many said that Kingdom Heart 3 felt unfinished in terms of its story and felt like it offered less than its predecessors, only to find out that DLC launching in the new year would help improve these areas. And for Pokémon Sword and Shield with the backlash of not adding all the Pokémon to the game, animations not looking as good as promised, and many other complaints fans had leading up to the game to find out that DLC was coming (even though Game freak said you wouldn’t need the DLC to get all the pokemon when they were added) of course there was uproar because of this added content that two months after the game came out you would have to pay to access.
And this sucks I won’t sugarcoat it. If they needed more time to put the game together I feel that we would’ve been better off getting Pokémon Sword and Shield this year either in November or somewhere in the middle of the year with the DLC added on as a full package and more people would’ve been happy. And while Kingdom Hearts 3 could of done the same thing it has a bit of a different expectation. But I feel as if it was the safest things the companies could have done to improve the experiences of the games.
Now I feel Pokémon is relatively self-explanatory but I will explain why I feel this way. Pokémon has always operated off of a year-by-year basis. We could get a new game each year or they could need time to complete the actual new game so they release a sequel to the game from the year before. While these games added more content to play through it meant you were buying the same game for some new pieces of content at the same full price the game cost originally. The only game I wouldn’t call a carbon copy is Pokémon Black and White 2 to which they added new things such as a new story and new characters. But before this if you were buying a new version of a Pokémon game be it Emerald, Platinum, Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby, or Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon they were the same game with a little more added content. So I think Nintendo and Game Freak we’re trying to take a step towards the future in embracing DLC by adding things later when it was finished instead of releasing a new version of the game for $60 where you restart the game and can’t transfer everything over.Pokémon I feel has always deserved a break between its releases so if we had waited an extra year to get Pokémon Sword and Shield and got the DLC built in it would’ve felt like more of a complete package. But as things stand now it seems like the DLC will take the place of the Pokémon game for this year so at least we know they’ll take their time on the DLC and not rush to finish a full Pokémon game. And what was show already looked interesting, but we will have to see.
Kingdom Hearts is a harder series to explain. While many people tell you that we’ve been waiting 15 years for Kingdom Hearts 3 that’s technically not true. While Kingdom Hearts 2 came out in 2005 there have been a number of new KH(Kingdom Hearts) games that have come out since. Kingdom Hearts 3 itself has only been in development since 2013.
Kingdom Hearts 3 was put off until Final Fantasy 15 was done so it was actually started in 2013. Numora didn’t want to start development on it until Final Fantasy was done. And even when it was announced in 2013 Nomora thought it was announced to early. Nothing shows that more than the limited info we would get yearly and the impatient growing within the community. It’s understandable that they would have wanted to release it as early as possible. I, however would of rathered a different strategy. I would’ve rather seen some gameplay from different worlds last year to show us that the game was progressing well and then had it released this year with the DLC with it than having had the game released last year albeit in a state that I think was still a good game, but a confusing one and have questions that would not be answered until a full year later.
But even saying that Kingdom Hearts 3 when it was released sold well despite the divide with fans and many are excited for the DLC. We do know that the DLC will be well worth the wait as Kingdom Hearts has a tendency to release a final mix version of the games which adds more stuff. These were done in a time where DLC wasn’t really a thing however so in the year 2020 it’s nice to see that they’re taking the DLC route instead of the final mix through at least right away. Many people may not be happy about having to buy DLC but it is cheaper than a brand new version.
Do we have to be excited that’s really content came as DLC? Of course not. But I ask long time fans of this series, would you rather buy a new version of the game for retail price or DLC that’s half the price? I fee like with both DLC we are getting our moneys worth and I am excited for both of them. What do you think? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter
Kamec's game corner 