Final Fantasy 7 Rebirthdoesn’t seem to begetting an expansionin the vein ofFF7 Remake: Episode InterMISSION, and as disappointing as that might be, I don’t think it’s theFinal Fantasygame that truly needs DLC.A well-made expansion forFF7 Rebirthcould certainly be a valuable addition,and I would welcome one just as much as any other fan would. Although a lengthy trilogy provides more than enough room to handle a thorough retelling ofFF7without the need for any DLC,InterMISSIONproved that further additional material could still be interesting.
Take awayInterMISSION, though, andyou still have an experience that feels reasonably complete. The DLC served to introduce some character adjustments to Yuffie and provide an easy way to get a handle on her surprisingly complex toolkit, butRebirthis capable of handling those challenges on its own, even if it does so with less aplomb. The same can’t be said for another modernFinal Fantasygame, and years after the cancelation of planned DLC, the lack of a completeFinal Fantasy 15experience is still a sore spot for me.
Final Fantasy 15 Has Never Been Complete
A Cool Game That Doesn’t Fullfill Its Potential
I didn’t playFinal Fantasy 15right when it released— I didn’t even have a compatible system at the time — so by the time I got around to it, I was already aware ofFF15’sdivisive statuswithin the series as a whole. I was still optimistic, however. The road trip concept and action combat both held significant appeal for me, and I can enjoy a messy narrative as long as there’s plenty of interesting material to be found within.
FF7 Remake Part 3 Needs To Fix Rebirth’s Biggest Pacing Problem
Square Enix will have to curtail its tendencies of excess if Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3’s concluding story is going to stick the landing.
I came out the other end satisfied in some regards, but as much as I loved the game’s highlights,I can’t say thatFF15was an overall great experience. Certain aspects of the open-world game design felt bizarrely nonfunctional, and despite watching the tie-in film (or more accurately, the two-hour-long cutscene)Kingsglaive, the story seemed tonally confused and shockingly incomplete. Some of its biggest emotional gestures didn’t have enough material to ground them, and segments like the trip to Altissia had less significance in both narrative and gameplay than I would have liked.
I played the base game ofFinal Fantasy 15at the time, and I’ve heard that theRoyal Editionof the game attempts to address some of these problems. The addition of a more climactic dungeon probably wouldn’t make much of a difference for me, butI do plan on playing theRoyal Editionsomeday, primarily for the sake of the character episodes.DLC for Noctis’s companions Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis could be a valuable way to explore the character relationships that I actually cared about, but further plannedDLC episodes that never happenedmight still leave an unfillable hole.
When it comes toFF15, however, there’s no sequel to pick up the slack.
Beyond those three episodes and a separately releasedEpisode ArdynDLC,FF15was supposed to receive episodes for Aranea, Lunafreya, and Noctis, but all three were canceled after the departure of the game’s director and a shift into the production ofForspoken. The loss of the Lunafreya one feels like the biggest shame, as her light presence never manages to develop a fully-realized character. The stories for all three (along withEpisode Ardyn) were turned into the novelFinal Fantasy 15: The Dawn of the Future, a reasonable consolation prize that doesn’t fix the fact that the game feels incomplete.
FF7 Rebirth Shows What FF15 Could Have Been
An Incomplete Story That’s Still More Complete
I’m not arguing for anyFinal Fantasy 15DLC to be released in 2025, as that ship has long since sailed. In the light ofFF7 Rebirth’s success, however, I’ve been thinking aboutFF15more frequently. I have plenty of quibbles withRebirth, but even as the middle chapter of a story, it somehow manages to be a more complete experience thanFF15ever was, and it doesn’t have to lean on a film, book, or anime miniseries to achieve that.
The Next Final Fantasy Game Should Bring Back The Best Part Of FF13
Final Fantasy 13 might be a divisive game, but out of all of its ideas, there’s one part that definitely needs to return in the next Final Fantasy.
As much as I’d like to seeFF7 RebirthDLC focusing on the so-far-neglectedVincent Valentine and Cid Highwind,the final game in the trilogy should still be able to cover those bases, and the news that the game isn’t getting a story expansion didn’t much bother me. When it comes toFF15, however, there’s no sequel to pick up the slack, even though the equally controversialFinal Fantasy 13managed to get bothFF13-2andLightning Returnsas followups.
FF15was itself originally developed under the nameFinal Fantasy 13 Versusbefore undergoing significant shifts and becoming its own mainline entry.
Even if theRoyal Editionsignificantly improves the game for me, I’ll have to live with the fact thatan incredibly promising experience will remain awkward and incomplete. The canceled episodes probably also wouldn’t have been enough, and it’s entirely possible that reading the book will dissuade me from the notion that they had much to offer at all. It’s unlikely thatFF15would have ever been a masterpiece, even with an even longer development cycle, but that doesn’t make it any less of a shame.
FF15 Will Likely Never Get A Proper Second Chance
Square Enix Doesn’t Have An Incentive To Revisit FF15
AlthoughFF7is the onlyFinal Fantasygame to receive a massive remake project, Square Enix has done some tinkering with re-releases of olderFinal Fantasygames, andthere’s always some marginal chance that a remaster ofFF15in the far-flung future could feature a bit of additional developmentto patch over the most glaring gaps. It’s an anemic hope, however, and I don’t plan to delude myself by clinging to it with any conviction.
FF7 Remake Part 3 Isn’t The Final Fantasy Remake I Want The Most
I’m ready to see how Cloud’s story is resolved this time, but there’s a different game that I’d still be way more excited to dive into.
Final Fantasyhas always suffered from the same basic profit exchange that consistently drives companies' willingness to revisit works. Unmitigated successes likeFF7can receive endless add-ons and reworks despite not even slightly needing them, while experiences likeFF15that fall short of greatness rarely get an opportunity to go back to the drawing board. However nice a Vincent and Cid DLC forFF7 Rebirthmight have been, the character expansions I really want are still theFinal Fantasy 15ones that will almost certainly never see the light of day.
