As some of you might have heard, a week or two ago there were rumours that the PSN store as we knew it would be closing soon and the official announcement was made today/yesterday. At the same time, access to the old PSN store (with the PS3/Vita/PSP content) from a desktop computer was blocked and now redirects to the revamped store (with only PS4 and PS5 content). The only way to access, purchase and download the old content is via the PS3 (ending July 2), Vita (ending August 27) and PSP consoles (also ending July 2). The problem: the user interface on the PS3 (which I used) is slow as molasses and unwieldy as hell. Makes browsing the store a massive headache compared to browsing from a PC.
I'm into game preservation so I'm just doing what I can to grab some stuff before they disappear especially gameplay-related DLC (extra stages, scenarios, characters, etc). I believe most or all of the free DLC has been backed up and they are making some progress on the USA region DLC. However, I'm into the paid Japanese-region DLC of which a decent chunk does not appear to have been preserved yet by NoPayStation and No-Intro. I'm not sure whether there are other people are pursuing the same thing as me.
In any case, I've gone ahead and bought a 10,000 yen Japan PSN card and slowly going through the DLC available and purchasing/downloading anything that stands out. I'm just one person with limited funds so I can really only buy DLC from the game franchises I'm interested in (see end of post). First and foremost, I focus on games that has not been ported/remade/remastered to other consoles (i.e. unique).
In terms of what kind of DLC I will buy, it will be prioritised as follows:
1. Major gameplay-related content (e.g. extra stages, characters, scenarios, etc)
2. Minor gameplay-related content (e.g. extra equipment, etc)
3. Cosmetic-related content (e.g. extra BGM, costumes, voices, etc)
4. Themes
5. Avatars
So far, I have bought the Japanese DLC for the following:
Hard Corps: Uprising (Konami) (945 yen)
Extra Characters
追加キャラクタ Leviathan
追加キャラクタ Harley
追加キャラクタ Sayuri
Akumajou Dracula: Harmony of Despair (Konami) (~2500 yen)
Extra Missions
全ての始まり
多くにして、一つなるもの
蝿の王
月風魔伝
Extra Characters
シモン・ベルモンド
リヒター・ベルモンド
マリア・ラーネッド
月風魔
Extra Music
BGMパック1
BGMパック2
I'll update this thread as I buy more stuff. I cannot stress enough how annoying it is to browse the PSN store with a PS3.
Looking at some of the Tales of... (Namco Bandai) and Legend of Heroes (Falcom) games, the total cost of DLC for a game could be more than 10,000 yen... more than the cost of the game itself.
I haven't figured out how to transfer the DLC files from PS3 to PC yet but I'll leave that for later.
Some more discussion on the topic: https://forum.no-intro.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3716
List of game franchises I'm focusing on: https://home.exetel.com.au/layzee/temp/ps3gamelist.jpg
Worth mentioning is that some DLC is only obtained directly from the game itself and not the PSN store: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/92 … p/77883327
