Leliana's Song DLC

Spoilers ahead - just a fair warning.

Alright, first thing is first: If I love a game, I am going to support it and buy its Downloadable Content. That usually leads me to spending more than I should, in all honesty. A good example of this is the game Cross Edge. Just pop in on the PSN store and look how much DLC it has - some of it is free, some of it costs. But yeah, point being, I spend too much usually. Anyway, I bought this DLC last night so here we go with my initial thoughts and reactions for it.

As for this DLC for Dragon Age: Origins. It is my favorite game for current generation of consoles. Wonder if I'll get any fanboys of Final Fantasy on my case over that? Oh well, not that I care.

Um, anyway!

I love Dragon Age: Origins and its expansion, Awakening. The only DLC I do not own yet is Darkspawn Chronicles. I was going to get it yesterday but I saw Leliana had her own DLC and as she is my favorite character of the Origins cast I had to get it.

Am I disappointed? Yes and no.

I am not disappointed in the fact I get to delve into the fateful event that lead Leliana to be who she is in Dragon Age: Origins. Plus, it was nice to see how she used to be, before being a devote of the Chantry and the Maker.

However, what I am disappointed in is the price of it. $6.99 (US dollars) is a bit too much for something I completed in an hour and a half with no trouble from any of the fights or bosses. In this writer's humble opinion, the DLC should have been $2.99 or at most, $3.99. I understand they had to go through the time and money to create the models for the new characters and previously existing ones. Well, in Leliana's case, change her hair.

As well as spend the money to get the Voice Actors to come and do the voices - however, they reused maps. I think only one area was unique and that was the hideout. Everything else was already done in Origins and Awakening.

They also introduced quite a bit of new characters. Sketch and Tug, Leliana's partners in crime, so to speak. A Dwarven Warrior and an Eleven Mage. I'm all for new characters, but in the time it takes to complete this DLC, I felt no emotional attachment to them as I did some of the characters throughout Origins and Awakening so when Tug died, story wise, I wasn't left with my mouth open I was just like "well, whatever" and Tug is immediately replaced by a fellow named Silas, a former soldier and that's about all we get to know about him.

I will say it was nice to know Marjolaine's motives for doing what she did. Hell, it made me hate her even more and made me glad I killed her each time in Origins instead of letting her walk away. However, Commander Harwen Raleigh, the man who is the final boss of this DLC. I didn't like the way he did his prisoners, but beyond that I had no real feelings towards him, so killing him (or letting Silas do it, which is what I did) felt like I was just killing a standard unnamed enemy that stood between me and my ultimate goal.

Now, I did like something in this DLC other than getting to know my favorite character more - when you are escaping Raleigh's dungeons, you can rescue some people along the way, one of them an Elven woman named Adaia. I know this doesn't seem like much but having recently played the City Elf's origin story in Origins it actually meant something. Anyway, the point of this is the City Elf's deceased mother is also named Adaia. I found that to be a neat little reference.

So, there are my feelings on this DLC. I liked it, as short as it was, but it has many, many faults and is priced a bit too high for something that can be completed in an hour and a half or less. Bioware really doesn't know what they are doing when it comes to DLC.

Oh yeah, you also get a light armor if you find all the pieces (6 in all) of the Battledress of the Provocateur. You get to wear it in the DLC, even if it is just before the final battle and it carries over into Origins and Awakening as well, so, that's a nice little bonus I suppose.

Anyway, yeah that's all from me for now - Bou out.

PS - Final Fantasy XIII sucks.