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Downloadable content
Downloadable content (often abbreviated DLC; referred to as add-on content in PAL regions) is additional content provided for released video games which is separately obtained after release to expand the base game. This can constitute both patches and updates to the pre-existing features of the core game and entirely new content which is often sold for additional money, the latter being the form the term usually refers to. Paid downloadable content takes a variety of forms in many games, selling everything from simple costumes for pre-existing characters to entirely new story and gameplay scenarios.
The Fire Emblem series first formally started using downloadable content in 2010, with the release of Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem. Both games since then have made heavy use of DLC.
Precursors to modern DLC
Before the advent of modern digital distribution and the release of New Mystery of the Emblem, Intelligent Systems conducted several experiments with other forms of distribution of additional content for Fire Emblem games. These included:
- Fire Emblem: Archanea Saga, where each of its episodes was downloaded to Super Famicom systems via live broadcast for limited periods of time
- The rare promotional trial maps of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, which appear to have required being manually loaded into copies of the game
- The ability to use a pre-order disc for another game to unlock bonus items in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
- Distribution kiosks for Japanese copies of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, which unlocked bonus items like the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! bonus disc
Downloadable content by game
Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem featured a small number of free digital distributions of bonus content. Although described as downloadable content by Nintendo, the "download" actually just unlocked content that already existed on the cartridge. The content constitutes three bonus chapters and three items, which were released over a period of weeks after release in 2010.
New access to this DLC on physical cartridges is no longer possible as of May 20th, 2014, as a result of the discontinuation of most Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection services.[1] However, the English fan translation comes with a save file which has all downloadable chapters episodes and items already unlocked.
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Fire Emblem: Awakening
- Main article:
Downloadable content in Fire Emblem: Awakening
Fire Emblem Awakening was the first first-party Nintendo title to support paid downloadable content in Japan (elsewhere in the world, mariowiki:New Super Mario Bros. 2 did it before the international release of Awakening). In Awakening, DLC is distributed in the form of individual chapters, many of which offer a major character from a prior Fire Emblem game as an obtainable bonus unit at the end. Each chapter has a different intent: the original set is a long series of battles against characters from prior Fire Emblem games, one set is intended purely for grinding for experience, money and regalia weapons, another set is devoted to character interactions, a fourth set provides an alternate scenario for the doomed future Lucina came from, and the final set provides challenges greater than the core game.
Fire Emblem Fates
- Main article:
Downloadable content in Fire Emblem Fates
Fire Emblem Fates makes use of downloadable content in an expanded form. In addition to selling legacy characters as bonus unit DLC in a similar manner to Awakening, DLC will also be used as part of the game's split-version format. After purchasing one edition of the game, the player can buy the opposing campaign at a somewhat reduced price as DLC, and there are plans to use DLC to release a "third route" campaign, where the protagonist unites both Hoshido and Nohr.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U
This article or section is a short summary of Downloadable content. SmashWiki features a more in-depth article. |
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U began to sell paid downloadable content in April 2015, alongside the release of free update patches. Roy is one of four currently available DLC characters for purchase.
References
- ↑ Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service for Nintendo DS and Wii has ended, Nintendo, Published: 2014-05-20, Retrieved: 2015-06-30
External links
- Downloadable content on Wikipedia