The stat and money boost DLCs are obviously things you can get by just investing time into the game. The DLC weapons, however, are not available in the game normally. They are essentially god-tier weapons that make playing the game much easier. A completionist might be disappointed they cannot acquire these, but their entire purpose is just to cheapen the game experience.

Agarest Zero is plagued by cheap, pay-to-win DLC, too. There are a couple of DLC packs that offer extra scenarios or alternate costumes, but the bulk of the DLC is just like the stuff the first game is riddled with. Regardless, if sales of the first game are good enough here, I don't see why Zero couldn't get a GOG release eventually either.

While it's nice to see a variety of games released on GOG, I wouldn't recommend this one to fans of Japanese RPGs, especially ones who like tactical RPGs with some real meat on them and want them to be free of possible of BS mechanics. Agarest adds mechanic upon mechanic into this big fat broth of gameplay incoherence. It's really just an excuse to make things as convoluted as possible. If you want to really play the game, you have to be prepared for the most ridiculously stupid balancing decisions and one-sided tactics you can imagine. For instance, the mechanics revolving around items and weapon/armor tweaking in this game are eye-bugging-out insane. Just about everything in the game makes you jump through a ridiculous hoop. It doesn't add complexity or make the game more nuanced. It's there for the appearance of depth alone.

On top of that, the story is listless and just kind of floats to its conclusion, full of stock characters who don't display much uniqueness outside of the bland traits their design suggests and it's got tons of scenes where the obvious intent was to display some sort of angle of individuality or comradery ala Fire Emblem or Sakura Taisen, but just ends up being a flat joke that's carried on far too long.

If you're familiar with Idea Factory games, that's the kind of quality you can expect. This isn't a thoughtfully designed, carefully written game. It was slapped together hastily and it really shows.

If you haven't checked it out yet, you would do much better to buy The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky for your Japanese RPG fix. This is just an insult to the genre.

But you don't take my word for it, that's just my take on this game and I thought it might be helpful to prospective buyers. (Though sorry to GOG, they're just the curators. :P)

It seems savegames from the Steam version are compatible for the GOG version so, if someone who would like to have the DLC in GOG they just need to get a savegame from the Steam version from someone who has it and that's it.

good to know !

I tried this game today and at the beginning you can choose a difficulty level. When you choose "Easy" it sais that this is for the players who want enjoy the story. The enemies are not so tough and there will be added several help packs. So maybe some people did some prejustice and the game is already fitted to everyones desires? I didn't play it for a long time yet, so I can't assess if that huge grinding is also needed on a lower difficulty level.

I played this on the playstation a long time ago, the grinding was inherently built into the game. I actually enjoyed the game, EXCEPT how they made you fight so many battles inbetween story nodes. That's where the grinding came into it for me, not the difficulty but the number of battles you had to fight to progress. The battles were also very similar, so it's almost like you would be fighting the same battle 3-4 times in a row before you moved on.

I've tried playing it through a couple of times, but I always lose interest about 20% of the way through as there were too many of those boring battles(not because the battles were inherently boring themselves, but rather because you had to repeat so many similar ones all in a row). They really needed to cut out one battle between each story node, and even then it would be a bit much, though tolerable.

I don't think lowering the difficulty will have any effect on this part of the game. If going through the same battles over and over don't bother you as much as they did I, you could greatly enjoy the game. These extra padding battles were my only complaint about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yideFiibHv8

Is that the same as the soundtrack in CE ?

I have not forgotten...

However, some real life issues have arisen in the last couple weeks that have stolen my focus, and I expect that will continue to the foreseeable future. As a result, not sure how much gaming I will get done anytime soon. Therefore, not expecting to pick up for myself much in any sale soon. Time will tell how accurate this prediction is.

Still will be interesting to see what is presented.

good luck with it, whatever it is

Thanks - will definitely need it!

I strongly prefer that you allow us to decide for ourselves whether or not particular DLC is worthwhile.

Tastes differ. For example: Many consider alternate skins worthless, "not real content", etc. But I loved the Batman Beyond skin for Arkham City. It added to my enjoyment of the game and was most definitely worth the price I paid for it (one can of NOS).

Put simply: Your version lacks options that other vendors provide. Customers face a choice between a DRM'd package with all options available and the GOG DRM-free package lacking those options. That is a crappy situation, and imo GOG made the wrong choice here.

Steam version has no package with all-in-one dlc atm

if you exclude the one which updates the version to the collector's one :

there are 6 separates dlc ; for a total price almost the double (for no real content , aside some items) of the Collector's edition ; plus those dlcs will pose some problems with GOG catalog.

Left the option to have a all-in-one dlc package , but does the publisher will accept that , not sure.

And of course all items not avaible while playing the game , are across all dlc....

Note that I did not say it does. I said "all options available". ;)

I'm counting two DLC not available on GOG... "DLC Bundle 1" & "DLC Bundle 2" for $4.99 each...

er no ;P , expand the list ; there are 6

I cant believe people actually want cheats just to have the options available....