A new chapter, but mainly bikinis

Bandai Namco has announced a landslide of DLC for the upcoming Tales of Zestiria, which doesn’t release until October 16. Fortunately, some of that upcoming DLC is free for a limited time, but other bits aren’t.

First up is the Exclusive Mystic Artes for Mikleo, Lailah, and Alisha. These are powerful abilities that can be used in battle and are included with the game for those who bought it via PSN.

Up next is an additional chapter focusing on the character Alisha. This is going to be free until November 18 through Bandai Namco’s VIP Corner, which will let you redeem it on PSN. After that, tough luck but you’ll have to buy it.

There’s also a load of cosmetics, which inevitably includes school uniforms and swimming costumes. There's also the "free 23-skit" pack, which has 23 little funny animated scenes of the characters.

Bandai Namco has released a gargantuan image to show exactly what DLC is coming.

This is one of the less offensive examples of pre-release DLC discussions. All but two or three of them are simply cosmetic, and for the PlayStation versions cross-buy is enabled, so you’ll have access to that content on both platforms.

It’s an example of the art teams not having much left to do a certain point into the development of the game, and so they pump out silly little side bits like this. It’ll depend on just how much they individually cost, which we don’t know just yet.

It’s not like some games (looking straight at you, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate) which have locked some of the most interesting bits of the game as DLC. But still, talking about DLC before you’ve even launched your game always rubs me the wrong way.

Tales of Zestiria launches on October 16 for PS3, PS4 and PC.