Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide DLC Is Designed to Be More Challenging

The Rising Tide, the second and final expansion for Final Fantasy 16, is set to feature some of the game’s most challenging combat scenarios. That’s according to DLC director (and a lead combat designer for the base game) Takeo Kujiraoka, who, in an interview with Push Square, told us that the addition of DLC has allowed the development team to push the title’s combat system.

“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,” Kujiraoka explains. Indeed, if you’re familiar and fairly skilled with action games, Final Fantasy 16 probably won’t prove to be a huge challenge on its default difficulty.

But Kujiraoka and his team were apparently well aware of this. He continues: “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.”

The director was also clued in on players who craved a sterner challenge: “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,” Kujiraoka reveals.

“I was relieved to see that this was well-received in Echoes of the Fallen,” he comments. Echoes of the Fallen is Final Fantasy 16’s first expansion, and it does demand more precise gameplay from players, especially with its utterly mad final boss.