Final Fantasy XVI PAX East 2024 Panel – 23 March 2024 – The Rising Tide DLC

The Rising Tide is the second DLC following Final Fantasy XVI’s first DLC Echoes of the Fallen which was a shorter, yet satisfying dungeon that pitted Clive and company against the Fallen and its ultimate weapon, Omega. The Rising Tide promises an experience of more than 10 hours of additional content focused on the lost Eikon and its Dominant, Leviathan, along with another epic Eikon battle and many more boss battles.

The Rising Tide DLC takes place in Mysidia a hidden land under a blue sky. The DLC will introduce an incredible new explorable region along with a bunch of vistas and extravagant set pieces to serve as a swan song to this amazing game. The region seems to evoke a South American feel with Aztec-like structures and jungles environments.

There will be a new companion Shura who will join Clive and Jill during this adventure. And apparently there will be more of Jill’s narrative in this DLC.

The DLC will also grant Clive a new set of Eikon Abilities from the water serpent Leviathan which seem to provide a host of ranged attacks, including an all-new Eikonic Feat – Serpent’s Cry which allows Clive to summon a sea-spitting serpent capable of dealing precision strikes to enemies from a distance.

Plus there will be encounters with Final Fantasy XVI’s tonberries which seems to be a unique take on the iconic fiend.

Along with the DLC, there will be changes to the base game such as increased level caps of level 60 for the base modes and 110 for Final Fantasy Mode. There will also be quality of life changes to allow for easier ways to complete quests by teleporting to the quest-giver on completion of the tasks and having more customisation with abilities and skills, plus an extra end-game challenge mode with the introduction of the Kairos Gate where people can compete for high scores. The Kairos Gate will consist of 24 stages with the ability to purchase power ups and if a player manages to achieve S rank on each of the stages, a boss fight will be unlocked.

There is also a potential for story changes to the game with a four winged Clive appearing at the end of the trailer. And with Ultima having voice lines in the trailer, there is speculation that the DLC will introduce an alternative ending since Clive now fully possesses all the Eikons including Leviathan.

The release date for The Rising Tide DLC is 18 April 2024.

The trailer for The Rising Tide DLC is below:

You can watch the entirety of the panel discussion with Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P), Takeo Kujiraoka (director for the DLC) and Michael-Christopher Koji Fox below:

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