Concerning the DLC:

[SullyMcGully]

I got some extra money over the holidays and I'm thinking of getting some DLC for this game. I would like it if money and EXP were easier to come by, and I would also like to see some of the extra story content, but I'm not set on anything in particular. In your opinion, what's the best DLC to get, supposing I'm willing to spend about $20? 

[DefaultBeep]

Personally, I always like to get new characters above chances to grind or improve the characters I already have, so I went with the Cipher DLC myself. It's only two maps that are reused from the main game, but it's also four entirely new characters complete with art and voices. Alternatively, I've heard that the Deliverance DLC does a great job of expanding on characters like Fernand, Clive, and Mathilda, and I believe it comes with all-new maps, so that may be a cool choice as well. For $20, I think you can just barely not get both of these because of tax, but you could get the Cipher characters as well as the mid/late grinding maps if you want.

[Kysafen]

Answer: Don't get any of them and by extension don't encourage IS from doing this fucking awful business practice of overpriced day-1 DLC that should've came with the game to begin with.

[VincentASM]

10 hours ago, Kysafen said:

Answer: Don't get any of them and by extension don't encourage IS from doing this fucking awful business practice of overpriced day-1 DLC that should've came with the game to begin with.

I'm not terribly fond of their practices either, but I feel like Shadows of Valentia is pretty fair with its DLC. Most of the DLC is fluff that isn't necessary for the core experience (which is essentially a remake of Gaiden with some extra bits and bobs, plus a postgame).

Anyway, I would second the recommendation for the Cipher pack. Having more characters is always cool and the pack is decently priced at around 6 dollars.

I noticed you wanted experience and gold. In that case, you might like the Undaunted Heroes pack, which has money/item/experience farming maps for 10 dollars. But personally I think it's a bit pricey and unnecessary to get the whole pack.

Instead, you might be better off just grabbing Inner Sanctum for 4 dollars. That map is focused on farming items, but you can still earn decent experience and you can sell the items for money.

That's 10 dollars gone already. For the remaining 10 dollars, I'd save it for something else (like a future FE game) or maybe a meal out XD

But if you really liked the Deliverance characters, there is the Rise of the Deliverance prologue that costs 13 dollars for 4 maps (with additional story and support conversations). I thought it was decent, although nothing remarkable.

Edited January 17, 2018 by VincentASM

[Shiki]

If you want more from the characters, then get the Deliverance and Cipher DLC.
Cipher adds 4 new characters, Randall and Emma being really good ones gameplay-wise for both routes. Yuzu and Shade are pretty forgettable though. The Deliverance one is pretty much the prologue of the game and adds more supports to the Deliverance cast (like Mathilda - Clair, Lukas - Python etc.).

That's your 20 dollars. Everything else from the DLC is either unnecessary (3rd Tier class) or grindable in the game (EXP and items). The starsphere is only there for optimization which you will hardly need for the enjoyment of the game and it's not worth the money at all.

To be fair, the Deliverance DLC is pretty bad practice from IS since it should have been available from the start for free as it adds supports and more background to Fernand, both which the game sorely needed. Buying it is supporting this terrible decision. Cipher, however, is fair game since these characters in their entirety are 'extra' and for what you get it's appropriately priced.

[Seazas]

18 hours ago, Kysafen said:

Answer: Don't get any of them and by extension don't encourage IS from doing this fucking awful business practice of overpriced day-1 DLC that should've came with the game to begin with.

Lmao what the fuck. NONE of the DLC belongs in the base game. Cipher DLC only exists because of a collab between Cipher and Echoes which was really recent after Echoes released. The Deliverance DLC was an afterthought. 

[Kysafen]

15 hours ago, VincentASM said:

I'm not terribly fond of their practices either, but I feel like Shadows of Valentia is pretty fair with its DLC. Most of the DLC is fluff that isn't necessary for the core experience (which is essentially a remake of Gaiden with some extra bits and bobs, plus a postgame).

Fair? I strongly disagree. The season pass costs $5 more than the actual game, and over half the content it gives you is more ways to break the game in a game that doesn't need breaking (even on hard). The remaining content is 4 maps, the bundle of which costs $5 more than ALL 6 Heirs of Fate maps, and the Cipher DLC which, despite the production value of the voice acting/supports, don't even have their own levels. The individual levels exceed even Awakening's DLC levels by >$1.50 each.

And the overclasses are just shameless. When would you even use them, other than the latter half of the game? $15 for classes that curbstomp every enemy in the late/endgame isn't what I call $15 well spent. I don't care how many hours were spent in designing and animating them. They're great. They're kickass and look fantastic. I don't care; not worth $15. The only possible way they could be truly useful is making the latter half of the Tower of Thabes less insanely difficult, which puts the validity of Thabes' design into serious question- as if the difficulty was deliberately skewed to incentivize players to get these classes. The whole damn video below shows basically all of their animations, to which the only reasons you would ever part with your money to get them is "okay, but how would PYTHON look as an Oliphantier", or "I wonder if Alm can solo the final chapter", questions which aren't exactly keeping me up at night.

 

Or to put it another way: $5 less than Echoes' season pass gets me Birthright and Revelation, which gives me the other route's characters/classes/supports and over 35 maps. Fuck this game's DLC.

Edited January 18, 2018 by Kysafen

[VincentASM]

4 hours ago, Kysafen said:

Fair? I strongly disagree. The season pass costs $5 more than the actual game, and over half the content it gives you is more ways to break the game in a game that doesn't need breaking (even on hard). The remaining content is 4 maps, the bundle of which costs $5 more than ALL 6 Heirs of Fate maps, and the Cipher DLC which, despite the production value of the voice acting/supports, don't even have their own levels. The individual levels exceed even Awakening's DLC levels by >$1.50 each.

And the overclasses are just shameless. When would you even use them, other than the latter half of the game? $15 for classes that curbstomp every enemy in the late/endgame isn't what I call $15 well spent. I don't care how many hours were spent in designing and animating them. They're great. They're kickass and look fantastic. I don't care; not worth $15. The only possible way they could be truly useful is making the latter half of the Tower of Thabes less insanely difficult, which puts the validity of Thabes' design into serious question- as if the difficulty was deliberately skewed to incentivize players to get these classes. The whole damn video below shows basically all of their animations, to which the only reasons you would ever part with your money to get them is "okay, but how would PYTHON look as an Oliphantier", or "I wonder if Alm can solo the final chapter", questions which aren't exactly keeping me up at night.

Or to put it another way: $5 less than Echoes' season pass gets me Birthright and Revelation, which gives me the other route's characters/classes/supports and over 35 maps. Fuck this game's DLC.

Well, I don't disagree that the price point is kinda absurd. However I was more arguing that the DLC isn't necessary and doesn't really have a place in the base game, hence why I bolded the last part of your post.

As you also said here, the grinding maps aren't needed since you can already break the game with stuff like the Dread Fighter loop and the Secret Shine. Likewise, the Overclass are all fluff and absolutely not required to beat the game or even the postgame (which you can trivialise with a few Dread Fighters). These things are just designed for people to speed up gameplay and essentially give their characters another costume.

Finally, as others have mentioned, Cipher is a collaboration that definitely wouldn't have existed unless it was DLC.

Essentially, no matter what you think of the DLC, at the very least you're not being (massively) disadvantaged by not buying it.