Final Fantasy XV DLC Will Tailor Gameplay to Each Character

Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto will each control differently.

By Andrew Goldfarb

Following up on the news that Final Fantasy XV’s DLC will allow you to play as other party members, Square Enix has confirmed that Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto will each play differently than main character Noctis in their respective DLC episodes.

Speaking to IGN at Gamescom, Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata explained that each of the episodes featuring a different party member will offer gameplay tailored to that character’s strengths and weaknesses.

“For example, with Gladio, we really want to push the action element and have a much higher level of action gameplay for his episode,” Tabata told IGN. “Final Fantasy, the way the game is structured, is about the idea of characters and levels, and as you level up your characters, you get stronger. That’s the logic by how you defeat harder enemies, by leveling up to a higher level than them."

"In an action game, you don’t have that," he continued. "It’s about how technically you play the game. All we need to do with the Gladio episode is have it close to that kind of gameplay. The idea behind that is not to make it a harder or more complex action game. It’s to give people the opportunity to enjoy controlling the character of Gladio in a more action format.”

Similarly, the Prompto and Ignis episodes will tweak gameplay to suit their specific talents.

“For Prompto, we’re going to focus on how he uses his gun and that kind of element of the gameplay, and have the systems slightly customized to work with that,” Tabata said. “And for Ignis, it’s going to focus on his tactical abilities and focus on a more tactical kind of gameplay.”

Even with this idea in mind, Tabata was quick to point out that this DLC is only in the planning stages, and full development on these additional episodes hasn’t begun.

“We’re obviously still concentrating on getting the main game out there,” he said.

Following a recent delay, Final Fantasy XV will launch worldwide on November 29, followed by a Season Pass including the character episodes as well as an Expansion Pack, Booster Pack, and Holiday Pack. For more on Final Fantasy XV, visit our Final Fantasy XV Features Hub and read our impressions of the first four hours of the game.

Andrew is IGN’s executive editor of news and would probably have gameplay elements similar to Nintendogs if he were a playable character. You can find him rambling about EarthBound and cute animals on Twitter.

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