Final Fantasy 15's first story DLC will bring back a classic FF villain, feature all new areas
A series staple to make a return in DLC.
The fact that Final Fantasy 15 will have a slew of downloadable content isn't news, but some additional information on the DLC that'll be added to the game has emerged via an unlikely source.
Back in late October we spoke to FF15 DLC producer Haruyoshi Sawatari. At the time Sawatari couldn't say much, but the interview was part of the announcement that the game's season pass, available now, would be made up of four major pieces of content: a story expansion for each of the main party in the game beyond protagonist Noctis and an online multiplayer expansion at the end that'll unite players together in FF15's world.
Since then it's been an interesting trickle of news: additional playable characters beyond the core four were teased, a road-map for updates both free and paid was published and even a jokey boss battle against Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda built for a Japanese live stream was confirmed to be on the cards for a piece of DLC.
In short, it's been busy - surprising, considering how short a period the game has been out for. Some fans have expressed frustration with the fact that some of the free patches will include content to amend FF15's strangely anemic storytelling, but I personally am much more curious about the content of the substantial content drops to the game in the paid DLC.
In a special edition book that was handed out to fans, youtube influencers and the like, a spread of pages on the DLC features further comments from Sawatari beyond what he was able to tell us in our interview - including that the first DLC pack, Episode Gladiolus, will see strong-man party member Gladio face off against a version of classic FF antagonist Gilgamesh.
"The player confronts an enemy called Gilgamesh, who can only be seen in Episode Gladio," Sawatari says of the first season pass episode. In the main game there's a conspicuous gap where Gladio drops out of the player party to take care of some personal business. He returns with a scar. Hmm.
Anyway, this Gilgamesh news is likely to please fans. He's taken many forms, but Gilgamesh is an inept sword-collecting thief that first appeared as a major enemy in FF5 but also shows up in various forms in FF8, FF9, FF11, FF12, FF14 and a slew of re-releases and spin-offs such as Dissidia, FF13-2, Type-0 FF4 & FF6 Advance and others. He has a pretty bad-ass theme tune associated with him. Basically: he's as much a FF tradition as Moogles, in a sense.
One wonders what form he'll take in FF15 - his most iconic look is based off FF5, but in games like FF9 and FF11 he's taken on a very different form. He's more often than not got more than two arms, though.
Also noted in the book's pages by Sawatari is that DLC will indeed feature new areas beyond FF15's open world area of Lucis. "In Episode Gladio, you're able to go into areas that cannot be entered in the main game," he notes.
He goes on to describe the content in the works as designed to "bring the FF15 world closer to the player, in greater depth." The world of FF15 is one of the more exciting parts of the game, so I'm hopeful about seeing it expanded.
"We're also planning on content that will truly blow your mind," Sawatari concludes in his little mini-interview in the promotional book. That parts of FF15 felt incomplete is a little frustrating, but as we said in our review we left the experience eager to see more. So... call us cautiously optimistic.
FF15's Season Pass is available now for PS4 and Xbox One - it'll get you the three character episodes, the multiplayer expansions and a few extra bits of small item DLC and the like. None of the content is out yet, however.