FF7 Rebirth sales in the US on PlayStation 5 are lower than those of Final Fantasy XVI in the same time period.
19.04.2024 - 05:33 / pushsquare.com / Naoki Yoshida
Final Fantasy 16 was one of our favourite games of 2023, and so we wanted to find out more about The Rising Tide — the title's second and final expansion — ahead of its release on the 18th April. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to land an interview with Takeo Kujiraoka — the veteran Square Enix dev who's actually the director of Final Fantasy 16's DLC, having previously been a lead combat designer for the base game.
We asked Kujiraoka-san about Final Fantasy 16's success, his team's approach to crafting expansions, and what, in his opinion, makes a memorable DLC adventure.
Push Square: To start with, what are your general thoughts on Final Fantasy 16, now that the game is approaching its first anniversary?
Takeo Kujiraoka, DLC Director: Final Fantasy 16 is unusual among recent mainline Final Fantasy games in that it has a grittier story set in a world that draws inspiration from medieval Europe, not to mention the fact that it’s the first fully-fledged action-RPG of the series. Both aspects were challenges that we undertook with the game.
In recent years, players of the Final Fantasy series have tended to skew towards a higher age range. However, this time there are survey results showing that more people in their teens and 20s played Final Fantasy 16. I think this shows that, to a certain extent, we’ve achieved one of our initial goals – to have players of all ages play the latest Final Fantasy game.
This doesn’t mean that all future Final Fantasy games will take a similar direction to Final Fantasy 16, but I do think it means that we’ve been able to bring new players on board and open new possibilities for the development teams that will work on future instalments in the series.
How did the development team come up with ideas for Final Fantasy 16's DLC? The base game already tells a complete story, so was it difficult to conceptualise additional adventures?
Our producer, Naoki Yoshida, was clear from early on in development that we should make a title that would have a self-contained story – and that he wanted us to focus all our energies into developing the main game. And that’s exactly how development went.
At the same time, we’d been asked to include some potential crumbs in terms of setting and lore that we could pick back up quickly if there was demand from players for DLC. So, the basic ideas and concepts existed before we ever began work on the DLC itself.
From there, we started work on world building and writing the plot in earnest. But you may have noticed that there are some points left undiscussed in the main story, right? The team working on the scenario for the DLC decided to give the tale of Valisthea even more depth by tying some of those bits and pieces to the stories in the DLC.
FF7 Rebirth sales in the US on PlayStation 5 are lower than those of Final Fantasy XVI in the same time period.
Square Enix has revised its approach to PC and console game development, and absorbed ¥22.1 billion (approx $140.9 million) in what it calls “content abandonment losses.”
Square Enix has prioritised fixing a Final Fantasy 16 bug that can prevent progress in New Game Plus mode.
As part of The Rising Tide DLC for , players finally have their chance to get a hold of The Warrior of Light's Curtana. The Curtana is one of the most well-known and iconic weapons in recent games. This includes being The Warrior of Light's Curtana in. After appearing in many games, it has finally been added to as part of the latest update for the game, which includes DLC.
Last week, Square Enix unveiled the official PC benchmark and accompanying trailer for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Dawntrail. The trailer gave fans glimpses of new in-game areas, enemies, and combat upgrades. While that all went over rather well, the game's decade-old character creation engine is drawing ire this time and the eyes of character models, in particular.
While Square Enix recently released the benchmark tool for the upcoming Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail, producer and director Naoki Yoshida has taken to a blog post on the game’s official website to reveal that the software will be getting a new version to improve what has been described by players as the “lifeless eyes” of characters.
's second DLC,, adds a whole new region to its map — but in terms of size, that could mean many different things. Although it has a pretty sizable world map, is not an open-world game. Each region varies in size, and is connected to the next one only in limited, specified areas, and players can't travel to most of them until they unlock new areas through the story. Despite this linearity, most map regions open up completely as soon as they're unlocked, providing plenty of opportunity for exploration.
Last week, Square Enix revealed the benchmark trailer for Final Fantasy 14’s upcoming expansion, Dawntrail. While Dawntrail’s showcase of new in-game areas, enemies, and combat garnered positive feedback online, the lifeless eyes of its character creator left a lot to be desired, fans said. In response to the negative feedback, Director Naoki Yoshida has promised a graphical update that will fix its character creator’s soulless eyes.
Hazelight Studios, Josef Fares' development team responsible for It Takes Two and A Way Out, is teasing its next project. As the studio turns 10 years old, it's promising a look back at its history, but promises we'll be seeing what comes next sometime later this year.
Final Fantasy 16‘s base adventure is already a long and winding tale full of intrigue, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more story to be told in its world. Like the Echoes of the Fallen DLC before it, The Rising Tide DLC serves as an additional journey for Clive and company to undertake, providing players the opportunity to discover various all-new enemies, locations, and characters. This fresh content even includes Leviathan as a new Eikon for Clive to encounter, making it a must-play for completionists hoping to experience everything in the game. If you’re wondering how to start The Rising Tide DLC, look no further — we’ll tell you how to do so below.
As the wait for the next expansion continues, Final Fantasy 14 confirmed that the Yo-Kai Watch collaboration event would return to the game for players to experience. The event will give Final Fantasy 14 players who missed out on previous Yo-Kai Watch events a chance to earn exclusive mounts, minions, and cosmetic weapons for their collections, alongside a new reward for this iteration.
A massive 2.8GB patch for Final Fantasy XVI is now available to download on PlayStation 5. This comes before the game’s next DLC, The Rising Tide, arrives on April 18.