For all of its naysayers and critics, Final Fantasy 16, Square Enix’s latest mainline entry to its best-selling franchise, enjoyed a finite narrative arc upon its release. However, due to its success, it appears that the game’s story hasn’t come to an end yet. What initially seemed like a firm full-stop so that Creative Business Unit III can move on to its next project may, as a matter of fact, have turned into a slight stopgap, allowing Naoki Yoshida and the rest of the development team to circle back and check if they left some narrative stones left unturned.
Despite initially intending to tell a “full complete story” without the need for DLC, the team at Square Enix is well aware of the audience’s desire to see more of the game, yearning for more adventures in the magnificent world of Valisthea.
During an interview, Yoshida candidly shared that the development team was heartened by the feedback received from its players and it’s now exploring possibilities for expansion. “We’re taking that and then thinking about our options moving forward,” he hinted.
Yoshi-P says they are thinking about their options moving forward regarding FF16 DLC and will hopefully have something to give us in the near future! 🔥 #FF16 pic.twitter.com/3E4Fm8GItK
— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) July 12, 2023
This wouldn’t be the first time that Yoshida has had to take back what he said about FF16. Initially, Yoshida promised that FF16 would release without a Day One patch, only to release a minor update to fix relatively small issues before the game went public.
For the most part, the team behind FF16 has deserved the benefit of the doubt. So, while Yoshida is backtracking from his previous no-DLC policy for FF16, you don’t hear anyone complaining about it.
As for when this Final Fantasy 16 DLC could come out, don’t expect it to be available anytime soon. If there’s one thing that Yoshida and the game’s director, Hiroshi Takai, proved during the game’s development, they’re not in any hurry to prove anything. So, unless this was a pre-meditated tease, Yoshida and Takai will have to go back to the drawing board and check out where else they can take the game. However, this hasn’t stopped fans from speculating and pointing out certain things that the developers might have purposely left in the game in case they wanted to revisit it in the future.
For example, there’s this particular door right before the Phoenix Gate in the Blighted Area in FF16 that looks like it was made by the Fallen. It’s believed that this is the door that players come out of after cleaning the Phoenix Trial, but what if it wasn’t?
Mind you, this is just the start. The most convincing potential DLC storyline revolves around the fate of Leviathan. In the Final Fantasy franchise, Leviathan is one of the series’ more prominent summons, having appeared and/or played a role in the events of each mainline entry since it was introduced as a monster that swallows the entire party in Final Fantasy 2. In FF16, this elusive Eikon disappeared without a trace, rightfully being labeled as “The Lost”, leaving its story riddled with intriguing questions begging for an answer.
Eikon’s Dominant could still be alive but missing or stashed away somewhere around the world for some reason. The DLC for FF16 could then explore Leviathan’s whereabouts in a potential DLC, with Clive, the protagonist of the original game, still spearheading a side story that could be inserted in the middle of the game.
Of course, the alternative is for the DLC to explore Clive’s past, exploring his captivity and his training with the Empire. Not to mention, FF16 is replete with interesting characters, with the fan-favorite side character and the Dominant of Ramuh, Cidolfus Telamon.
Whether these speculations will be validated remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the call for more FF16 is hard to ignore.
The only question now is, which comes out first, the FF16 DLC or the PC port for the game?
