Final Fantasy 16's DLC was never a sure thing. Despite the hype that comes with a new entry in the almost 37-year-old series, developer Square Enix wanted to see how fans would take to the limited-time PS5 exclusive. More hack-and-slash than turned-based, the RPG represents a major gameplay departure from the tried-and-tested formula. And yet, the medieval trappings of the story couldn't be more in tune with the earlier entries in the series.
With one DLC down and another to come, Square Enix is clearly happy with what it's seen. Echoes of the Fallen is a breezy three-hour jaunt through what essentially introduces the game's super dungeon – a series tradition that homes a boss so difficult it's typically made optional. This year, The Rising Tide goes one step further. This missing Eikon Leviathan takes center stage in an update that Square Enix promises is bigger than what's come before. To learn more, we speak to Final Fantasy 16 DLC director Takeo Kujiraoka about how Echoes of the Fallen came to be, where The Rising Tide is going, and, naturally, Tonberries.
Hard fought
Takeo Kujiraoka is a veteran Square Enix employee who works within Creative Business Unit III. His notable works include the Final Fantasy 13 series, Dissidia Final Fantasy series, and Kingdom Hearts 2. More recently, Kujiraoka worked on Final Fantasy 16 as a lead combat designer and is the director for the DLC.
GamesRadar+: Given that Naoki Yoshida said last year that there were no FF16 DLC plans, how long have you had to work on Echoes of the Fallen?
Kujiraoka: I can't give an exact period of time, but we started planning and preparing for the DLC shortly before the release of the main game. From the very beginning of Final Fantasy 16's development, our policy and approach was to work without the assumption that there would be DLC.
Still, we did leave some loose ends that would allow us to implement DLC and leave us room to expand the world of Valisthea, so we could release DLC smoothly if there was demand from players.
The final decision on whether or not we would be making DLC depended on the initial response to the game itself, but the feedback we were receiving seemed to signal that it should be fine. And so, Naoki Yoshida gave us the official go-ahead to start working on the DLC.
What do you feel the DLC adds to the game – is there something you were excited to explore here that you didn't get a chance to do in Final Fantasy 16 proper? I'm very excited to see a Tonberry in Rising Tide.
The overarching concept of both DLC is to give the main story greater breadth, whilst making sure it still remains Clive's story. The DLC touches on the Fallen and the Eikon Leviathan, neither of which were explored in depth in the main game – so we hope those who have already played FF16 will enjoy these two stories that further flesh out Clive's journey and the world of Valisthea.
Additionally, since the DLC storylines appear as quests in the latter part of the game, they give players more content and challenges to tackle with a more powerful, mature Clive. In this way, I think they will add to the overall player experience of FF16.
You'll also want to see how Final Fantasy mainstays like Omega, Tonberries, and Leviathan are translated into FF16's combat! (The Tonberry might be a little creepier than previous iterations.)
In The Rising Tide, Clive will become even more versatile in battle thanks to the new Eikon, Leviathan. I imagine some players will come up with new strategies for Arcade Mode, so I really hope anyone who enjoys the combat will explore these new possibilities.
This isn't necessarily something I explored for the DLC, but I was always extremely conscious of creating DLC with elements that would fit seamlessly into the main game. There are still people out there who have yet to play FF16 and will be picking it up for the first time with the PC version, for example. We've made sure the DLC fits into the main game in a way that means newcomers can have a single, cohesive experience. There were a lot of new challenges that we gave ourselves, including from a technical perspective – so I hope lots of players will enjoy the DLC.
How have player reactions to the base game shaped your work on the DLC, if at all?
Keeping an eye on the reaction to the main game, one of the things we intentionally changed was the strength of the enemies.
For the main game, every aspect was tuned so that as many players as possible could reach the ending – so the enemy strength was set a little low. I think this was the right choice. But looking at feedback and streams from those who often play action games, I could sense that they felt like something was lacking.
Both pieces of DLC are playable just before the last boss, when players will have had plenty of time to get used to the game, and FF16 provides plenty of support for players who might struggle with action games – first and foremost with its accessories. And so, I decided to boost the overall strength of the enemies in the DLC.
It seems as though the reaction to this aspect of the first DLC has been broadly positive, which is a relief. We'll continue fine-tuning the second DLC to allow you to enjoy FF16's combat in even greater depth – so I hope you'll look forward to it!
Echoes of the Fallen roughly takes three hours to clear, can you shed some light on the creative choice to give players something leaner to play through?
Making DLC with a fair amount of content inevitably means you end up making players wait around a year or so. We didn't want to do that, so we thought about what we could do to deliver the DLC while the game would still be fresh in the minds of the players who bought it on the day of release.
As a result, we decided to split the DLC into two separate pieces and aim to have the first available within six months from the release of the main game. After having established this overall direction, we began to consider the specific content. Since six months is a short amount of time and puts a limit on the amount of things you can develop, we focused on making a new story and a solid boss battle. The outcome was Echoes of the Fallen.
The second piece of DLC, The Rising Tide, will have a longer development period. In return, it will deliver a new field area, sidequests, a new Eikon, and much more. I hope you'll look forward to getting your hands on this second piece of DLC as well!
"Making DLC with a fair amount of content inevitably means you end up making players wait around a year or so. We didn't want to do that".
I was surprised but excited to see magitek in the Echoes of the Fallen trailer given how the base game largely stays away from the machinery elements of the series. What inspired the team to bring it back for the DLC?
When we were looking into what content we wanted to include in the DLC, it was important for us to consider how much we could differentiate the DLC from the main game and create something with its own distinct appeal.
Echoes of the Fallen focuses on the Fallen: a futuristic civilization that developed technology known as magitek. When you think about it like that, it was a natural choice for us to use mecha and sci-fi elements to bring the magitek to life, which had only been mentioned in the game's lore.
This theme was a particularly good fit for the boss, Omega. I think the team's love of mecha and sci-fi comes through quite strong in all aspects of the DLC: its character design, environments, action, and sound.
There's a wonderful juxtaposition between the world of FF16 as shown in the main game and the aesthetic style of the magitek, and this interplay of magic and machinery is part of what makes the Final Fantasy series as a whole so compelling. So, I'm really pleased to have been able to bring that particular aspect to the forefront in this DLC.
Does Echoes of the Fallen have any link to the Rising Tide?
I can't speak in any detail about The Rising Tide at the moment, but what I can say is that they aren't completely disconnected from one another. I hope players will enjoy Echoes of the Fallen first and keep an eye out for further information on The Rising Tide!
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