Fantasy Life on 3DS

Fantasy Life has been available to purchase in Japan since December 2012. An expansion for the game was then released in July 2013 called Fantasy Life Link, which added a new area called Origin Island, new story content, a range of new equipment and pets, and online play and chat.

The game is due for release across Europe on September 26 and North America on October 24 for $40. We were expecting to get the full game, including the expansion which is now over a year old. However, Nintendo and/or Level 5 has decided otherwise and is turning Origin Island into a day-one DLC option. The only exception to that being online play ships with the base game. This decision was highlighted on NeoGAF and confirmed in the official Nintendo press release about its end of year plans.

Gamers in general do not appreciate content that’s already completed being held back from a new game release just to offer as paid-for DLC. And in this case it’s a bit ridiculous considering how old the content already is. We should be getting the complete game and all the available content in the west as part of the game price.

A similar tactic was used at the release of Mario Golf: World Tour earlier this year. It had the option of a $15 Season Pass and day one DLC. One of the course packs was available at launch, meaning it could have been part of the main game, where as other packs came later as and when they were completed.

I have no issue with DLC being offered for content worked on after the original game was released. But to have content available and then hold it back as a DLC pack, let alone offer that content on release day, is a bit much.