Prior to the release of Final Fantasy 16, the game's producer and Final Fantasy 14 mastermind Naoki Yoshida (aka Yoshi P) was very clear regarding the team's long-term goals for the title. While there were no planned Day-1 patches or major story DLC expansions, Creative Business Unit 3 did hope to continue to support the title and see it have a long tail in terms of sales through word of mouth and regular free updates. Now that the game has been out for over two weeks and plenty of fans have beaten the title, there's never been a better time than now to extend Final Fantasy 16's shelf-life through additional DLC Hunts.
The Hunts side quest chain in Final Fantasy 16 is unlocked following completion of "The Gathering Storm" main story mission, at which point players can access the Hunt Board in the Hideaway. The Final Fantasy series' recurring Moogles make a return in Final Fantasy 16 with Nektar the Moogle being the player's Hunt Board liaison. Completing these Hunts rewards Clive with some of the most valuable crafting materials and experience or Gil rewards in the game, and many of them feature classic monsters from Final Fantasy.
More Classic Series Monsters Could Return in New Final Fantasy 16 Hunts
Once unlocked, Final Fantasy 16 currently provides players with more than 30 hunts to test their mettle throughout the world of Valisthea. Many of these Hunts feature redesigned versions of classic Final Fantasy creatures done in Final Fantasy 16's impressive style and visual fidelity, but there are still some fan favorites that are missing from the Hunt side quests. Adding additional Hunts as free DLC would be a perfect excuse for the talented team at Creative Business Unit 3 to flex its skill in re-imagining even more classic foes.
In addition to the iconic Ahriman and Bomb enemies, one of the pinnacle Hunts in the game is a King Behemoth—often one of the penultimate random encounters in the final dungeon of a Final Fantasy game. In terms of other creatures that could be added as DLC Hunts intended to truly test players' skill, perhaps no other monster from the Final Fantasy canon is a better fit than the deceptively adorable Tonberry, whose cuteness is only outpaced by its lethality. With more than 35 years of creative and iconic monster designs to draw from, there's almost no limit to imagining what some of these additional Hunts might potentially include.
Adding Some Free DLC Could Assuage Final Fantasy 16's Dip in Sales
Perhaps owing to its position as a PS5 exclusive in a time when many fans are still either unable or uninterested in upgrading to a next-gen console, Final Fantasy 16's second-week sales have taken a sharp nosedive following a very strong and respectable first week. Despite moving more than three million physical units in its first week (with digital sales figures still being tabulated), Final Fantasy 16 has seen a 90 percent drop in sales in its second week.
Interestingly, Square Enix doesn't seem to be alarmed by this, instead noting that it had anticipated needing to support the title and encourage long-tail sales via other avenues. One of the most surefire ways to draw in new players or encourage lapsed players to return (and keep their physical copies) is through the implementation of free DLC.
While some might decry the new combat system while simultaneously lamenting the loss of the series' trademark turn-based combat, others are finding that Ryota Suzuki's combat system in Final Fantasy 16 is highly enjoyable and incentivizes fans to keep playing who might have otherwise seen their engagement fall off. With Hunts being the game's best combat encounters by a large margin, it's hard to imagine a better type of DLC for CBU3 to regularly roll out.
Final Fantasy 16 is available now for PS5.
