Topic: New DLC Available for WiiWare Final Fantasy Game

[NWR_Neal]

Square Enix also announced future downloadable content for Final Fantasy: My Life as a King.
 http://nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=15837

 Square Enix announced the availability of a new piece of downloadable content for their Japanese WiiWare title, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. The new content, which costs 300 Wii Points ($3), contains 11 new locations which amount to 20 new dungeons. Completing these dungeons unlocks new shops, parks, and other locations. This content marks the second batch of downloadable content for the game.    

In addition to the new available content, Square Enix also announced the release of future content:    

- Various 100 Wii Point articles of clothing with names such as "The King’s Mischievous Clothes" and "Chime’s Startling Bikini"    

- A new 100 Wii Point dungeon that, once completed, will give you the option to change your adventurers' names.    

- A 200 Wii Point library that will teach your warriors new skills.    

- A challenging 300 Wii Point dungeon dubbed the "Infinite Dungeon" which can be replayed endlessly.    

For those keeping track, if you bought the game and all of the downloadable content that has been either been announced or released for it, It would cost 3900 Wii Points ($39).

[Nick DiMola]

This disgusts me.

If they intended on just selling a full game piecemeal they may as well have just released it on a disc and called it a day.

[Morari]

THIS POST HAS BEEN CENSORED FOR YOUR PROTECTION

--Bureau of Internet Morality

[DAaaMan64]

Square just loves to strip the class right out of their games don't they? 

But they've been milkers for like 20 years now, right?

[Crimm]

This disgusts me.

If they intended on just selling a full game piecemeal they may as well have just released it on a disc and called it a day.

I disagree.  It lets me pick and choose what matters to me.  It puts some of the choice in my hands.

Let's be frank, I don't want the bikini or mischievous clothes.  Those sounds stupid.  But I could be interested in a dungeon or new skills.

[Nick DiMola]

This disgusts me.

If they intended on just selling a full game piecemeal they may as well have just released it on a disc and called it a day.

I disagree.  It lets me pick and choose what matters to me.  It puts some of the choice in my hands.

Let's be frank, I don't want the bikini or mischievous clothes.  Those sounds stupid.  But I could be interested in a dungeon or new skills.

Fair enough, but I can see this just being the beginning of the DLC. By the time they are done, the gamers who want it all will get milked for more than $60 I'm sure and the amount of content they will have to show for it will more than likely be less than what would've been on the full retail release of the game. I don't know for a fact that this is true, but hell, it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Bikini.  Yes.

[Kairon]

This disgusts me.

If they intended on just selling a full game piecemeal they may as well have just released it on a disc and called it a day.

I disagree.  It lets me pick and choose what matters to me.  It puts some of the choice in my hands.

Let's be frank, I don't want the bikini or mischievous clothes.  Those sounds stupid.  But I could be interested in a dungeon or new skills.

Fair enough, but I can see this just being the beginning of the DLC. By the time they are done, the gamers who want it all will get milked for more than $60 I'm sure and the amount of content they will have to show for it will more than likely be less than what would've been on the full retail release of the game. I don't know for a fact that this is true, but hell, it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

I actually like downloadable content. Horse armor no. But I'm of the belief that it has the potential to let microtransactions give the consumer more flexibility of choice in their experience, and allow experiences to be more flexible in the market they reach. A one size fits all is fine, but it may also involve some exclusion of some markets.

That isn't to say that DLC isn't being exploited. But there are applications where DLC does wonders: like music games or free web MMOs. Episodic games are also benefitting from the processes of DLC. DLC in and of itself can be a good thing. It can also be made to be a bad thing.

[animecyberrat]

wrong, they are using the funds from the Wii DLC to fund the PS3 FF games, therefore we should BOYCOTT this evil practice and stop it dead in it's tracks.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

DLC is alright since the asking price isn't high.

Unlike something like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where I have little desire to unlock most of the extras.  I have my Strikers Daisy trophy.  The rest of the game is sketchy onrine with ruined classic fighters and forgettable music.

[that Baby guy]

I've got mixed feelings on this.  On one hand, the content is cheap and all sold separately, so you can pick up what you want.  On the other hand, even though SE says that the game is complete without any DLC, looking at the idea behind "Infinite Dungeon" scares me.  I assumed you could send search parties to dungeons whenever you wanted, but this leaves me with the impression there's an end point, where you can no longer do so without SE's DLC.

Aside from that, it's obvious that a lot of cheap-to-create content was intentionally left out of the introductory package in order to nickel and dime us later on.  I'd rather have a complete game with genuine add-ons available as DLC.

[UncleBob]

For those keeping track, if you bought the game and all of the downloadable content that has been either been announced or released for it, It would cost 3900 Wii Points ($39).

Better question, how many blocks of Wii Memory would it take up?

[GoldenPhoenix]

Xbox 360 has tempted and made me fall into that temptation of DLC more than I'd like to admit.

[Crimm]

For those keeping track, if you bought the game and all of the downloadable content that has been either been announced or released for it, It would cost 3900 Wii Points ($39).

Better question, how many blocks of Wii Memory would it take up?

Depends if it's already on the disk or not.

[Plugabugz]

What next? You have to pay to download the download?

[Kairon]

On the other hand, even though SE says that the game is complete without any DLC, looking at the idea behind "Infinite Dungeon" scares me.  I assumed you could send search parties to dungeons whenever you wanted, but this leaves me with the impression there's an end point, where you can no longer do so without SE's DLC.

Let me assuage that as much as I can. You can keep sending parties into dungeons, but at a certain point a dungeon is "cleaned out." This means that no major quests are in that dungeon to do, and that adventurers sent there can only gain experience and have a low level of finding specific items. You're most likely going to move your adventurers to newer and newer dungeons so that you can get the biggest rewards.

At least, that's what it looks like with what the booth worker explained it to me at the media summit. Perhaps Windy could clarify a little more?

What this "infinite dungeon" says to me is that this will be a dungeon that never gets "cleaned out" but will offer constant quests, probably requiring extremely high level adventurers, that have substantial rewards. The "Infinite dungeon" will never give you diminishing returns, so to speak.

[that Baby guy]

But that's the thing, Kairon.  When you drain all the other dungeons, you'll have to pay $3 to get one that you can keep using.  Since this is the only dungeon that never diminishes, it means there's a point in the game where you can't use much else beyond their DLC, right?

[UncleBob]

You know, back in the day, you used to not be able to even replay levels (Super Mario Bros. 1,2,3).  And other games, you could go back into the level, but you wouldn't get anything extra for it (Legend of Zelda, Zelda II, Link to the Past).

And you didn't even get the *option* do download new content to these games.

[Kairon]

If you're asking if the game reaches a point where you've pretty much done everything and all you have left to do is grind dungeons over and over for little reason... yeah, I suspect there might be such a point in this game. But doesn't the same hold true for most games? Like Harvest Moon (yay two years are over I can... farm... more) or WoW (yay I hit 60 I can... grind... for marginally better gear) ?

Maybe Windy can shed more light on the subject?

[that Baby guy]

Yeah, I suppose you guys are right, but I still feel like we're getting a short-end of a stick here somehow, and that this game isn't going to work great without some of this content.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Yeah, I suppose you guys are right, but I still feel like we're getting a short-end of a stick here somehow, and that this game isn't going to work great without some of this content.

I think I may have to agree with you, thatguy, in regards to this particular game. DLC is great if they work like smaller scale expansion packs but to start charging for more content the DAY of launch comes across as a way to gouge money. In fact I'd be far more comfortable with it if it came out at least a month after the release.

[UncleBob]

I think I may have to agree with you, thatguy, in regards to this particular game. DLC is great if they work like smaller scale expansion packs but to start charging for more content the DAY of launch comes across as a way to gouge money. In fact I'd be far more comfortable with it if it came out at least a month after the release.

I'd agree if they were charging full price for the "main" game, then charging extra for DLC.  But think of this as buying a trial size version of the game (obviously, at a discount) - if you like it, you can buy more.  If you don't like it, then save your money...

[that Baby guy]

It's not a full game, itself, though.  I could go get a PS2 and Dark Cloud for a more complete game with a somewhat similar theme.

The game itself, if I understand correctly, is a sim-type game along the lines of Sim City.  I've played sim games before, most notably, Roller Coaster Tycoon.  There's a lot to do, several scenarios, and a near-infinite number of ways to build a park.  Essentially, I feel like the actual gameplay that this game consists of is about equal to one individual scenario of Roller Coaster Tycoon, only it's probably not in real-time, and there's less available options.  However, this game is obviously prettier, I'll give it that.  Roller Coaster Tycoon ran for $30 when it came out, IIRC, and it, as far as I can tell has several times the content available than what this game could have if you bought everything.  Yes, you can factor in inflation and all that jazz, but we've learned that inflation and technology don't go hand-in-hand.

On top of that, the character, building, and world models have probably already been developed, at least to some extent,  for the Wii FF:CC that's on the way (supposedly, since we haven't heard about it in about a year).  My point is, this game was likely very cheap for SE to make.  The gameplay, as far as I've read, seems to be very immature and devoid of any decent level of interaction.  The biggest issue for me, is that I don't feel that what SE is offering for a $39 whole package is even worth the "trial" $15.  If SE would say that the game is an investment, and that what happens here can benefit other games, maybe I'd go for it.  I like real gimmicks.  They haven't, though, and I'm seriously debating whether this game would be worth my money, something I rarely do, rather, I worry about titles being worth my time.

I don't know.  Maybe there's more there to it.  I certainly haven't followed every little piece about it.  It just seems to me that the "trial" UncleBob suggests isn't even much as a trial, I see more gameplay available for free demos than I expect from this game.

We'll just have to see.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Well I can about guarantee that I'll fall into the trap because I'm getting this game, I LOVE simish games.

[NWR_insanolord]

This is another game that I would definitely buy if I had the blocks. Nintendo needs to know how much money they're losing out on because of the lack of a storage solution.