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.
To give an example, The Rising Tide touches upon the histories of two Mothercrystals that do not appear in the main game: Drake’s Horn and Drake’s Eye.
So, while conceptualising additional adventures was difficult, I think the end result is something that blends seamlessly with the story of the main game.
Final Fantasy 16's first DLC, Echoes of the Fallen, had a crazy final boss that really stood out, even amongst the game's many memorable boss encounters. What was the thinking behind having such a challenging fight?
Final Fantasy 16 is the first time the series has adopted this kind of action gameplay. So, to make sure that long-standing fans of the series would be able to reach the end of the game, we intentionally balanced the difficulty to be more moderate for the main game.
The combat team – myself included – were worried that it was a little too easy, but when we saw how players who weren’t too confident with action games were still having fun and completing the game, we felt like it was probably the right approach.
Having said that, we could also see feedback on livestreams and social media from players who wanted battles that they could really sink their teeth into. Since the underlying combat system in Final Fantasy 16 was created as a robust action game, we had the foundation in place to create high-difficulty battles – and there are new challenges you can only create at high difficulty.
I thought that these challenges would be accepted if they were in the DLC and decided to increase the baseline difficulty of the DLC’s combat.
I was relieved to see that this was well-received in Echoes of the Fallen. We’ve used the same baseline to balance The Rising Tide, so I hope players enjoy the combat in this chapter of DLC as well!
Can you tell us more about The Rising Tide? What are your goals for this second DLC?
Our concept for The Rising Tide was to approach it like an MMO expansion pack, and include all the elements that make up Final Fantasy 16.
There’s a new field area and village, new side quests, new equipment and abilities for Clive, fearsome bosses as well as an Eikon battle, and even endgame content that can be played after completing the DLC. There really is a lot of content packed in.
For those coming back to Final Fantasy 16 for the first time in a while, it will no doubt feel like Valisthea has grown along with Clive’s story. If you’re playing Final Fantasy 16 for the first time, the overall game experience will be richer and all the more satisfying to play.
The team poured all our efforts into creating something for the players who fell in love with the world and gameplay of Final Fantasy 16, so I really hope people will pick it up and give it a go.
Can you give us insight into how development of DLC actually unfolds? How closely does your team work with developers from the main game?
After the producer, Yoshida, gave us the go-ahead to create the DLC, I first worked on pinning down the exact content. It was at this point that we decided to develop the DLC as two separate pieces, so as not to keep players waiting too long after the release of the main game.
From there, a DLC development team was created – comprised mainly of team members who had already completed their work on the main game. That was when development on the DLC began in earnest.
All the while, we were getting more and more feedback from players. We proactively took on board anything we could incorporate and used it to inform the DLC and updates to the main game.
Most of the team working on the DLC had also worked on development of the main game, so we didn’t need to plan any kind of formal coordination between the teams working on the DLC and the main game. Rather, I would say that we were able to use our experience of working on the main game to develop the DLC at a breakneck pace.
I also had regular discussions with the producer, Yoshida, and the main director of the base game, Hiroshi Takai, to check that what we had was fitting as DLC for Final Fantasy 16.
In the end, we were able to implement even more than what I’d put into my original proposal – so I’m incredibly grateful to the development team.
In your own opinion, what do you think makes a great DLC? What does it need in order to elevate the whole game?
I believe that DLC should preserve and respect the concepts in the main game, at the same time as providing further gameplay and fun for players who enjoyed the game.
DLC obviously can’t pretend the main game never happened, and it can’t be something completely different – regardless of whether that “something different” might be good fun in its own right. On the other hand, it’s not a good idea for the experience of the main game to be incomplete unless you play the DLC.
These are all fairly common sense, but they’re the kinds of things I tried to keep in mind. And, of course, I think it’s really important to take note of player feedback. That’s one of the advantages you have when the DLC is created after the release of the main game.
This is less about what elevates the game per se, and is more about my own preferences, but I do sometimes wonder if changing a simple levelling or growth system in the base game to something more complex makes the experience more enjoyable.
And finally, do you have anything you'd like to say to our readers, and to fans of Final Fantasy 16?
The narrative of Final Fantasy 16 has reached an end with this DLC, The Rising Tide. The DLC development team was only able to make it this far because the fans let us know how much they’d enjoyed the main game. Thank you so much!
We have the release of the PC version ahead of us, and we plan to release a demo that will also act as a benchmark – so I hope that you’ll give it a go if you’ve yet to play Final Fantasy 16.
Over the course of Final Fantasy 16's development, we have had the opportunity to gain all kinds of experience. We’ll do our best to put that to good use in the development of future titles and create games that you’ll enjoy even more, so I hope you’ll continue to look out for and support the team.
Thank you.
Huge thanks to Kujiraoka-san for taking the time to answer our questions. Special thanks to Michael Bryant and the team at Square Enix for making this interview possible.
Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide is out for PS5 on the 18th April, but are you looking forward to this new adventure with Clive and the gang? Try not to soak the comments section below.
Comments 24
In other Final Fantasy game news, according to insiders FF Rebirth is facing even bigger sales troubles than previously reported.
If this is true, hopefully Square won't be forced to make some serious budget cuts on the next game.
FF16 made me want more Rated M FF games so I'm certainly down for another if Square Enix makes it happen again.
"Final Fantasy 16 is the first time the series has adopted this kind of action gameplay. So, to make sure that long-standing fans of the series would be able to reach the end of the game, we intentionally balanced the difficulty to be more moderate for the main game."
I think he kind of stated here the very reason so many of us have been critical of the idea of taking a new franchise action game and just declaring it "the new numbered FF game" in the RPG series.
RPG fans are disappointed that it's, well, not actually an RPG, it's just an action game in a completely different genre set in the world of FF, so there's no actual FF16 RPG game.
Meanwhile the combat team couldn't actually make the challenging action game they wanted to make because they had to keep it easy enough for RPG fans, which is to say, most of the people that would be buying a game called "FF 16", would be able to mash our way to victory.
So they compromised the action game so RPG players could play through it, because they had to pretend it's the new main FF game, and they had to remove the RPG elements so the action fans could enjoy their linearity without maths. Both camps get a compromised one size fits all game. It's the kind of decision making born in a boardroom.
Now, I happen to like the game, and the dumbing down of the action mechanics is probably a big part why, I can barely get through anything in SoP for example, I just die constantly. And in 16 I only get perfect dodges maybe 25% of the time at best, and mostly end up just mashing dodge to hit it occasionally because when I try to time it, I get it wrong more than not. But it's a great example here in how taking a series for one kind of player and trying to replace it with a game for another kind of player may end up with a really good game still, but it's a game that's not actually what it could have been if it was a stated action spinoff that was made perfect for action fans, or a true RPG for RPG fans.
And again, before the hate mail, I really like the game, but I like it as "Final Fantasy Stories: The Fire Within" not "Final Fantasy XVI, now with 90% less role playing!")
I'm very happy about that DLC but sad at the same time because of that
"The narrative of Final Fantasy 16 has reached an end with this DLC..."
Great interview, thanks! Can’t wait to fully wrap this journey up. I will be forever grateful for this black sheep of a Final Fantasy and they should be really proud of what they made.
@NEStalgia I agree it could've done with more RPG mechanics. Weapon choice was basically reduced to a linear progression of "this one does more damage than the last" and while there's technically elemental magic in the game, there's no reason to use one element over another, other than preferring the Eikon skill tied to it. I think there should be benefits to selecting a loadout fit for the current scenario and that's my main issue with the game mechanics.
As for difficulty, I think it would've been better if it was a bit harder, with the regular difficulty renamed to easy (while maybe tweaked in a few places that were not that easy) - so it still could be approachable for those who need it but not kinda disappointing for those who don't.
@NEStalgia As a slight counterpoint - with 16 numbered entries, I think there's room for one of the games to be an action game and not an RPG. Since Final Fantasy is an anthology series, I don't think there's any huge need for the games to be consistent from one entry to the next (unless you're staying within the same number, such as X or XIII). I would actually hope they branch out even further with genre experimentation. They may find the next big hook to get in a whole new swath of fans!
"DLC obviously can’t pretend the main game never happened, and it can’t be something completely different – regardless of whether that “something different” might be good fun in its own right. On the other hand, it’s not a good idea for the experience of the main game to be incomplete unless you play the DLC.
These are all fairly common sense, but they’re the kinds of things I tried to keep in mind. And, of course, I think it’s really important to take note of player feedback. That’s one of the advantages you have when the DLC is created after the release of the main game.
This is less about what elevates the game per se, and is more about my own preferences, but I do sometimes wonder if changing a simple levelling or growth system in the base game to something more complex makes the experience more enjoyable."
Makes you wonder why they don't think this mindset applies to a new game in the franchise...
@wildcat_kickz It's like Monster Hunter, the games are in their own seperate universe so yeah I think it's fine for them to not be consistent and especially when we have FF14 that is an MMO lol
@DaniPooo Because you can't play the DLC without playing the main game. You can; however, play Final Fantasy 16 without having played any previous entries and new players should feel very welcome to do so, especially since there's no narrative threads that link the games together.
If you have prerequisites to jump into a new entry, then you'll just have diminishing returns on your player base, as old players would fall off with each subsequent game and new players would feel prohibitively overwhelmed when jumping in.
This is a problem, broadly speaking; not just in this franchise or gaming as a whole. If you only appeal to a hardcore base, then you alienate everyone else and forego any opportunities to expand your pool. Since each "hardcore" fan has a different opinion of what makes their favorite games great, it's impossible to please them all. It's better business sense to seek new fans and not only try to appease those who are already here.
@NEStalgia sop?
@wildcat_kickz A counterpoint to your counterpoint. With 23 main games, I think there's room for one of the mainline Call of Duty games to be an card-based strategy game.
But that's not going to happen. Why? Because the mainline Call of Duty brand is a series if first person shooter games. That's what Call of Duty means, it tells the consumer you're buying a military themed first person shooter. Every game is different, and the different rotating themes they have between BLOPS, MW, etc keeps the theme changing and fresh for players. But it's not going to not be a military FPS.
Similarly FF is an RPG. It can play with the battle systems, the theme (fantasy, scifi, serious, comical, fantastical), it can be real-time and turn based. But the FF # brand tells players they're buying an RPG. Similarly the Uncharted brand tells players they're buying a linear action adventure. If it were suddenly a stats-heavy RPG it would be weird.
These brands have meaning. I think the story universe of FF is ripe for every genre to play in, but that's were segmenting the series names comes in. Which Square used to do just fine with this brand until now. What's really weird is they commissioned 2 spinoff action games, declared one to be a spinoff (SoP), and then numbered one a mainline. Why? They're similar.
I don't think anyone objects to a good action game set in an FF universe, but naming it as a successor of the RPG series is just bad naming.
In hindsight when things went off the rails was 13. They had the plans for Versus, the spinoff, and the FNC universe was to continue, and then when fans hated FNC, and Versus got lost in development hell, and 14 had to be salvaged and took their attention, they were left with no new numbered FF, just took the 13 spinoff and declared it the next mainline game, and it feels like they're playing catch-up from behind all the time since then.
I also believe if 14 weren't a runaway success, 15 would not have been a God of War type action game. Partly I think they don't want to cannibalize the $13/mo 14's customers.
@Pistolega Stranger of Paradise, the Team Ninja developed action spinoff/remake of FF1.
@wildcat_kickz For me personally I think that this franchise deserves innovation without sacrificing identity.
I do not think that you need to sacrifice identity and tradition in order to innovate and attract new players.
Many players make their choice to try a new game based on simple things such as graphics and trailers.
And if they hate RPG's then there's other games for them.
I don't think Nintendo would make a mainline Mario game that abandons it's platforming in favour of being a first person fireball shooter in order to bring in a new audience.
If they made such a game, it would be some sort of spin-off and that would be fine, since we still could expect the next mainline game to be a platformer.
@NEStalgia @DaniPooo I understand where you're coming from, though I don't agree that 16 is a such a genre-bending, tradition-breaking entry. I would argue that 16 is an RPG - a very casual, action-driven RPG with relatively minimal stat systems, but an RPG, nonetheless. Is it for everyone? No. But neither are any of the prior entries.
The entire series is rife with fans decrying changes made, whether it was 15's change to real-time combat, 7's change to 3D, 11's take on an MMO, etc.
I suppose the point I'm trying to make is: even if you're not a fan of how 16 took their shot, I wouldn't worry too much about it. There will no doubt be another entry for you in the future.
I still want to know where the dlc slots in.
@wildcat_kickz Well, I sure hope so. But I am not too sure..
It seems to me like they have been on a constant quest to pull away from the Final Fantasy formula since Final Fantasy X with each game being vastly different and not being able to find a solid new direction. And rather than trying to go back to the tried and true they just pull further away.
I hope there's people at Square Enix who want to try making a more traditional entry in the franchise at some point. But they direction the franchise has been taking since 10 sure makes it difficult to stay hopeful.
I can agree that XVI have some RPG elements, but the problem is that those RPG elements barely makes a difference in game.
It matters more that you have good dodging reflexes than utilising a good strategy.
And I didn't really find the equipment and skills to be all that impactful. It feels more like an afterthought than a vital part of the game to me.
Sure when you compare the best equipment to the worst there's a difference.
But I miss the rewarding feeling of obtaining new weapons and gear in a Final Fantasy game, and the satisfaction of being my stats increasing when levelling up. And immediately being able to see how much stronger my party is in the next battle.
I do not get that at all in Final Fantasy XVI.
@DaniPooo I think the reasoning is just financial returns. I just don't think traditional JRPGs bring in the revenue that would justify the production budget of a modern AAA game. I think they're seeing that right now with Rebirth (not a traditional JRPG, but you get my meaning).
That said, I would love for them to make a more traditional FF game in the AA space, so all the old-school fans could feel satiated. Maybe something akin to their HD-2D games, but an original FF story, rather than a remake of 1-6? Of course, if they made that game a numbered entry, that would cause a commotion, in and of itself.
@wildcat_kickz You know, I'd be perfectly happy if they cut down on the vision and cost of making the biggest spectacle with the best graphics, to make a lower budget traditional Final Fantasy that doubles down on Story, feeling and character.
But maybe that's just me..
Sure I could take a HD-2D game, but I think they could still make something great that is a few steps above that in terms of presentation without breaking the bank and still be appealing to younger players.
I think marketing is more important to bring in new players than the in game graphics.
But the gameplay is what retains them and makes them buy the next game.
Obviously XVI didn't do all that well in this regard, otherwise I think more people would have bought Rebirth.
However the old classics still have me buying Final Fantasy games in hope that they will hit gold again one day.
This team has so much passion for what they've created. FFXVI may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed it thoroughly and can't wait to see it take its rightful place in the Final Fantasy legacy in due time.
Having gone full action in 16 , i wouldn't mind if 17 took a different approach too , like maybe a baldurs gate or fire emblem/ FF tactics style.
I'm grateful for this amazing game, and I'm waiting for this DLC. After that, I will play in Final Fantasy Mode and wrap up this chapter of a beloved franchise.
I’m very excited to jump back into FF16. It was my favorite game of 2023, and I put it up with FF4 and FF6 as my favorites in the series. Clive is my favorite protagonist in all of Final Fantasy. I’m just about finished with FF7 Rebirth, so the DLC timing is perfect.
This game has surprised me so much. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I have. It’s become one of my favorite games of all time and my favorite game on PS5. Can’t wait for the DLC and hopefully we get more games like this in the future.
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