In Soul Academy, the Archipelago was considered a type of side content.

Each of the fourteen islands hosted a dungeon, and although these dungeons weren’t tied to the main story, they boasted impressive quality. Players who finished the main dungeons often sought out the Archipelago’s dungeons to keep the adventure going.

These dungeons were so well-regarded that some players wished the developers had saved them as DLC and expanded on their scale. I used to joke about that too, saying if the main story was this good, any DLC would have to be even better. But it wasn’t long before …