True, but unfortunately they're not the only game in that town anymore. My Life as a King costs you $15: the combined DLC will run you over twice that. And lots of that DLC is either a single costume change for a single character, or the Race Pack (which should have been included from the get-go). Conclusion: DLC is a great way to nickel-and-dime us. Namco's just making it more obvious than others.

Namco's making it more obvious because they do it with every game. Soul Calibur IV had how many DLC packs on day one? Like ten? I don't agree with what Square did with Crystal Chronicles either. The only time I feel the nickle and diming is appropriate is with the music downloads provided by games like Singstar and Rock Band, because of the vast amount of musical preferences out there.

WoW doesn't offer neither unless you buy them from other people. Although in that case it's against license and you probably will get banned from game.

A tad off-topic, but I can't stand the prices Rock Band et. al. charge for their DLC either. You get the game's engine and fifty-plus songs for $50: you only get a single song for $2+. That annoys me to no end. In fact I've been trying to think of a single bit of DLC that you're charged for that's ultimately worth it, and I keep drawing blanks.

Although I don't contest that Namco's the chief DLC offender; I'm just concerned that the plague is reaching other publishers now. How much longer until it's the norm that we get half a game at retail, with the rest coming via DLC?

That is completely ridiculous. Player A works for 20 hours and gets to lv. 50, Player B pays 3000 Microsoft points and gets to level 100. Fair?

I see no problem with this at all, I mean if you don't like it don't pay for it simple.

I think this is perfect for those that are lazy and don't want to grind, for those that enjoy the game but simply hate grinding, or for those with jobs that simply have no time to grind but still want to enjoy the game.

I'm gonna stand with Onyx on this one.  Rock Band DLC is one of the few I feel is very worth the price you pay. Obtaining master tracks with their appropriate license fees and making note charts for 4 different instruments is getting a lot for the $1 - $2 you pay.  There are no songs more than $2, alot at $1, and plenty of bundle packs of songs that make them less than $2 each.  I would rather spend the cash there than the $1/song you get for DRM'ed low quality junk you get on itunes and other DD services.

Of course you're going to get more for your money on a disc but there are lots of songs on the disc I could care less about.  Even if they kept the releases frequent and up to date I would much rather have the DLC model for expansion rather then the disc based model they have in place for the Wii/PS2.

Well, the question is: Can you even find items to buy at the start of the game that costs 300k Gald? The vast, VAST majority of JRPGs I've played (and WRPGs too) usually have the more expensive items way late in the game - making saving cash up early on, virtually useless.

The only RPG that comes to mind that broke that was Chrono Trigger - on my 2nd or 3rd playthrough, I realized that obtaining the supersword in 1000AD, at Medina Village was do-able if you saved properly, when you just get to the village. I then would save like a madman, to buy that sword for 65,000 gold, and then have a sword for Chrono that was better than any sword for the next ~10hrs of gameplay.

So will ToV have something of that nature? 300k gald would be virtually useless if there wasn't a big-ticket item early in the game that would allow you to beat up on the enemies easily with it.

hey this is a good idea.
The game isn't multiplayer. DLC that other people buy don't affect people who won't. People who don't want to waste as much time fighting and instead want the story can pay extra. This is awesome.

edit: I think some people need to relax. This offers more revune options for expensive to produce games. Without hamppering or forcing others to pay.

Then I stand corrected and you MP guys are screwed.