There’s a horse armor joke in here, and it’s as dated as it sounds (even if there is some payoff later). The whole running gag of having to constantly pay to make any progress isn’t really handled in a clever manner, and a few jokes have aged badly. It has its moments, like the absurdly high requirements for earning a sword and the unexpected true ending, but the short length becomes its greatest strength because playing much more of it would quickly become dull. The original game is basically one big joke. The Live Freemium or Die expansion continues from the last story with a new scenario that has various NPCs killed by strange creatures, but the story ends up shifting in a direct confrontation with the real evil: Exploitative market strategies! In order to make any significant progress in this game, you have to keep using money gathered via gold coins in the world to buy more DLC packs, up until you finally defeat the bad guy. This is where the merchant comes in, a man who offers you DLC packs that add features to the game itself and the hero’s moveset. Problem: You start the game with no jump or animation. A princess is kidnapped by a bad guy, you go and stop him.
You’re a random videogame protagonist with no discernible features besides being the guy who has to be the hero. Well, the Live Freemium or Die expansion does. Released originally as an Xbox Marketplace game and eventually ported to PC, DLC Quest is a game all about mocking these practices, and it manages to be enjoyable to boot.
Even back in 2011, the growing trend was already being parodied by Ben Kane and his small Going Loud Studios. With the rise of cellphone gaming and social networks, more companies are focused on creating skinner boxes disguised as games, and major studios are cutting up content in their games proper for extra cash from whomever indulges. One of the modern plagues on gaming has become DLC and freemium game design.
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