Do You Have To Beat FF16's Main Story To Unlock Rising Tide DLC?

Summary The Rising Tide DLC for FF16 delves deep into the lore and story, focusing on the mysteries of Leviathan.

The expansion is not accessible until very late in Final Fantasy 16's story, just before the final main quest.

The DLC unlocks after key quests, and focuses on Clive, Jill, and Joshua just before the game's finale.

With the release of Final Fantasy 16's second DLC expansion, The Rising Tide, the game received all of its planned content - but newer players may not get to experience the DLC until significantly later portions of the game. As a more story-oriented package than FF16's previous Echoes of The Fallen DLC, The Rising Tide focuses heavily on under-explored aspects of the original game's story and lore, centering primarily around the mysteries of Leviathan, the only Eikon to be mentioned, but not seen, during the base game's main story.

As a more story-focused DLC, The Rising Tide expands greatly on FF16's lore and world, providing explanations for one of the base game's biggest hanging plot points - the Eikon Leviathan, who only receives small mentions and brief cameos in the main story despite ostensibly being a major power in the world like the other Eikons. To that end, The Rising Tide wraps up many of the game's remaining loose ends, providing additional explanations and backstory. While it might not have an effect on some of FF16's major deaths, it does meaningfully add to the game's world.

Related A "Modern Masterpiece": Final Fantasy 16 Review Final Fantasy 16 is a fully realized masterwork of its genre, an effortlessly stylish and vibrant world coupled with determined innovation.

When The Rising Tide Unlocks In FF16

The DLC Content Becomes Available Late In The Game's Story

Close

However, The Rising Tide isn't available right from the start of the game - to make sense with FF16's story, the events of The Rising Tide can only happen after most of the main plot has already been established. As a result, players will only be able to access the DLC content of The Rising Tide after completing the quests "Where There's a Will" and "Priceless" and unlocking Origin as a travel point on the map. Notably, these are the same unlock conditions as Echoes of The Fallen, meaning that fresh playthroughs of the game will unlock both DLCs at once.

"Where There's a Will" and "Priceless" are the two parts of a small side quest chain that can be started during the main quest "Back to Their Origin." This places both DLCs very close to the end of the game, as "Back to Their Origin" is the second-to-last main quest in the game, with the final boss coming shortly after.

So, while players don't need to have completely beaten the game to access The Rising Tide, it only unlocks very close to the end of the game, practically right before the string of final boss fights that lead into the ending. This makes sense plot-wise, as many of The Rising Tide's story reveals would otherwise spoil some of the mysteries of the main game, but it does mean that new players, or players who recently started a new game plus playthrough, won't be able to access the DLC until they get through the vast majority of FF16's lengthy main story.

Related FF16 The Rising Tide DLC: Release Date, Price, & Everything Included FF16’s second DLC, The Rising Tide, is on the way. Here’s everything to know about when it comes out, how much it costs, and what it includes.

Why FF16's DLC Is Unlocked So Late

It does make ultimately sense for The Rising Tide to take place very close to the end of the game, after most of the major plot developments have already happened and characters are in their more stable endgame states. Characters that are involved in the plot of The Rising Tide, like Jill and Joshua, go through major changes throughout the main story, and having to account for players being able to access The Rising Tide earlier in the game would go against FF16's mostly straightforward method of storytelling.

In particular, The Rising Tide expands heavily on Jill's backstory, taking place in her former home, the northern lands of Mysidia, and giving her more of a focus than she receives for most of the base game's main story. Because Jill is a central character in The Rising Tide, the DLC's story can only really take place after most of the events of the game have already happened, including her loss of the Eikon Shiva by giving its power to Clive.

Along with the game's first DLC, Echoes of the Fallen, The Rising Tide is placed very late in FF16's main story, practically at the latest possible point before the end of the game. While players don't need to have beaten the game to access either DLC, fans of the game are likely to have beaten it at least once by the time of the DLC's release, or to have even started a new playthrough on new game plus. For any player just starting Final Fantasy 16, its two DLCs won't be accessible until most of the game is already finished.