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Downloadable content for video games is something of a double edged sword in my view. On the one hand, you're getting items, weapons, dungeons, and/or quests that can add new depth to a game's playthrough and give you more inside the game's world to enjoy. On the other hand, it's an easy way for a game developers to milk more money from gamers for miniscule additions to the game that have no impact on gameplay or the story (like outfits or hairdos), some of which ought to have been offered for free. It can even be an excuse to withhold content that should have been available with the game when it was first released. You probably have to go with a case to case basis depending on the game. And despite the fact the downloadable content for RPGs still seems to be getting off its training wheels, I can't help but be excited at the possibilities.
The best advantage to downlable content I can think of off the top of my head, is that the need for having to buy physical expansion packs will no longer be necessary. It's nice that companies still offer the option to buy an expansion in the store and install it yourself, but it's so much more convenient if you can just download it and not have another three game discs to worry about. The Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion was a good example of this. If Persona 3 had been a 360 or PS3 game, this would have been an excellent way to obtain new costumes, personas, and the side story in Persona 3: FES, rather than having to buy it and the original game all over again.
Western RPGs seem to be embracing it more quickly, offering expansion downloads; new weapons, armor, monsters, etc. Again there were some good (and not so good) examples of this in Oblivion. Bethesda cheesed off plenty of gamers with their horse armor offering, but did better later with the new quests they put up for download. We haven't gotten much yet with JRPGs yet. Lost Odyssey was one of the first, offering what I feel are rather meager downloads (albeit reasonabley priced). The new dungeon pack is a good push forward, so these offerings were by no means a bad start. All in all, I'd like to see more downloadable content in this vein, but maybe packaged and priced a little better. Offer a single item, weapon, or quest downloads at good prices, but make the package downloads actually seem worthy of the name "package".
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