Last Fantasy XVI, the most recent wholly new single-player installment in one among gaming’s most storied franchises, is nearing its first anniversary this June. After the shock launch of its Echoes of the Fallen DLC, which centered Clive and Co.’s efforts on fight in a single dungeon, Sq. Enix is readying its closing introduced batch of FFXVI content material with The Rising Tide DLC. Introduced at The Recreation Awards again in December alongside the reveal and shadow drop of Echoes of the Fallen, The Rising Tide options Leviathan, the water Eikon mysteriously absent from the primary recreation’s occasions.
Whereas that reveal trailer guarantees some watery Eikonic motion within the DLC, which takes place earlier than the finale of FFXVI, little else is thought about it. However Recreation Informer spoke to FFXVI producer Naoki Yoshida and DLC director Takeo Kujiraoka to study extra. The very first thing I requested the duo concerning the DLC is why Leviathan was overlooked of the sport. It seems Sq. Enix was enjoying sensible and leaving one thing on the desk for the workforce to look at with potential DLC.
“By way of making the choice of making and promoting a DLC, we needed to wait till the sport was really launched,” Yoshida tells me by a translator, explaining Sq. Enix wished to see if demand for extra FFXVI was there. “That being stated, we really did consider a attainable route, a attainable story, that we may do if we had been to do one.”
That’s why, within the base recreation, the path to the tower the place Echoes of the Fallen takes place was current from the leap. Followers have speculated {that a} mysterious head-shaped crystal caught into the facet of a continent in FFXVI is perhaps Leviathan or at the least associated to the god – that continues to be unclear, but when so, it reveals one other instance of Sq. Enix creating doorways for it to open with DLC corresponding to The Rising Tide.
With it going down earlier than the sport’s finale, I used to be curious if Clive acquiring Leviathan powers would have an effect on the ending. Yoshida says it gained’t and that the ending will stay as is. Nonetheless, “You’ll get a deeper understanding of how the world of Valisthea is and the way the characters are in Last Fantasy XVI,” he provides, stopping quick to stop himself from spoiling an excessive amount of.
Anybody who’s performed FFXVI is aware of the Eikon fights are the spotlight of the expertise, which implies Clive’s forthcoming bout with Leviathan carries some lofty expectations. Kujiraoaka, who led design on the Eikon battles within the base recreation, says he understands that however approached Leviathan like another: “[ensuring] that we had been shifting these Eikons in the way in which that gamers envision and picture.”
“By way of what gamers can count on for this battle, whenever you look again at previous Last Fantasy titles, there really aren’t many instances the place you see Leviathan shifting round loopy and in a real-time motion battle system,” Kujiraoaka says.
With the Phoenix Eikon battle harking back to third-person on-rail shooters and the Ifrit battle in spired by skilled wrestling, I puzzled how Kujiraoaka would describe Leviathan’s inspiration. He performs coy, explaining there isn’t one phrase or style to explain it. “One factor I can say is that there’s going to be numerous water concerned – visually, graphically, there’s going to be numerous assaults comprised of Levithan and that comes with numerous water. It’s going to look actually completely different from previous Eikon battles, and that’s one factor that gamers can look ahead to.”
In contrast to Echoes of the Fallen, which runs about three hours, this Leviathan DLC options round 10 hours of content material, and I can’t wait. The Rising Tide DLC for FFXVI has no launch date however is due out this spring.
This text initially appeared in Subject 364 of Recreation Informer.
