Are the DLC characters OP?

[Luigi]

I like having them if they balanced, but if they just make the game easy are they worth getting?

[Sairek Ceareste]

I'll quote a similar question I gave to another thread:

You do not need the DLCs to get all of the achievements and the characters are comparable in strength to Ace and Nina, the game's base characters.

As far as how the DLC characters play; one leans completely in on the usage of powers. They start with a lesser power to begin with, and their weapon does low damage but restore energy on hits.

The other character leans all in on the usage of weapons, and can have multiple Ace and/or Nina weapons within their arsenal at once, but has very little capacity to use powers.

In short, they're not strictly "better", they both just lean all into the power damage/attack damage play style much more than Ace and Nina themselves do, changing up the gameplay.

[Cirom]

Both characters have downsides which make them slightly tougher to play as compared to Nina and Ace.

Hawk starts off somewhat weak (with a low-damage Primary and -5 starting Power Strength), but her unique Powers and ability to regenerate energy allow her to scale pretty quickly, so she can be quite the powerhouse in the endgame. Though her lack of decent Primary options does limit her effectiveness unless she can get a decent Power build going.

Draco has the opposite problem. He starts off pretty strong with his two weapons and native "double jump", but his Attack focus and unreliable access to Powers makes him struggle later on, when Powers start becoming more relevant. Plus, with a single Power slot, there's no way you're not using that on Flameshield or Force Nova... if they even appear in the first place.

I view the two characters more as sidegrades than anything. Nina is definitely the easiest to play, but the other characters are fun if you want something different.