A new trailer for Final Fantasy 16's The Rising Tide DLC finally gives us a release date

A recent trailer for Final Fantasy 16 - The Rising Tide offers our first peek at the second major downloadable content (DLC) expansion for the action role-playing game (RPG) and confirms that it will be released later this year.

Available either as a separate purchase or as part of the Final Fantasy 16 Expansion Pass, The Rising Tide sees protagonist Clive Rosfield travel to the new region of Mysidia at the behest of a mysterious letter. Here, he must undertake a series of all-new story quests to rescue the Dominant of Leviathan the Lost - the powerful beast, or Eikon, of water.

The DLC also includes plenty of new side quests, battles, accessories, and weapons, alongside an increased overall level cap. In addition to confirming that the expansion will be released on April 18, 2024, the trailer offers about two minutes of footage with some glimpses of the upcoming environment and a few enemy encounters. You can watch the full trailer for yourself below:

Players who purchase The Rising Tide expansion in a standalone capacity or buy the Expansion Pass will also receive some bonus items to use in the main game. This includes a reimagined ‘Curtana’ weapon inspired by Final Fantasy 14 and two special orchestrion rolls to customize the background music in your hideaway. 

Up to date

A free update is arriving the same day as The Rising Tide, bringing the game to version 1.30. This update will focus on adding some small quality-of-life improvements, such as the ability to use a new ‘Quick Complete’ function to quickly turn in a completed quest when you return to its quest giver. 

Certain quests will also feature updated icons and there will be a new Skill Set feature that allows you to save up to five skill sets. On top of this, some abilities and accessories will be ‘adjusted for easier use’ and additional collectible orchestrion rolls will be added. The game’s photo mode will benefit from some new features, while a new custom controller setting will finally allow players to freely customize the button layout - which is likely to be a huge improvement from an accessibility standpoint.

We awarded Final Fantasy 16 a glowing five stars in our Final Fantasy 16 review when it launched for PlayStation 5 in July last year, praising its exceptional story and thrilling battles. If you’ve been holding off for the perfect time to dive into one of the best PS5 exclusives, then it looks like these small improvements could be worth the wait.

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