Despite a lot of speculation, the reveal of some exciting Final Fantasy 16 DLC surprised plenty of us with the announcement of not one, but two new stories for Clive and his cohort to experience during The Game Awards 2023. However, one thing remained hidden from the trailers – the FF16 DLC gives you a familiar weapon to wield.
It’s been almost six months since the initial release of the latest Final Fantasy game, and it remains one of the best PS5 games ever released – it’s arguably one of the best games on any console right now. With the addition of two new DLCs, one of which shadow-dropped during The Game Awards and is available now, there’s no excuse not to jump back into Valisthea.
While the second DLC, titled The Rising Tide, won’t be released until Spring 2024, the debut expansion called Echoes of the Fallen can be bought right now on the PlayStation Store, or you can save some money by purchasing the expansion pass for both DLCs. However, what may not be so obvious is one of the bonuses for purchasing the DLC – Cloud’s Buster sword from the Final Fantasy 7 games.
For those unfamiliar with the FF7 games, the first version of it was released back in 1997, to critical acclaim. It’s still very popular to this day, with a Final Fantasy 7 Remake released in 2020 after years of anticipation. Now, this is probably confusing to those unfamiliar with the FF7 story, but there’s also the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth release date coming up, which is a sequel to the remake (which doesn’t follow all of the events of the original game). We know it’s pretty strange, and at this point, we don’t really want to question the weirdness.
Regardless of your experience with the Final Fantasy 7 subseries, the inclusion of Cloud’s iconic Buster sword, which is an overwhelmingly huge and seemingly heavy weapon, in Final Fantasy 16 is a surprising one. The trailer for the DLCs revealed at The Game Awards 2023 didn’t show Clive using the weapon, and while some mainline entries have offered the Buster sword, usually as DLC or as a reference, the last game to have it was Final Fantasy 13, if you don’t include FF7’s remakes.
For those of you just starting your journey in Valisthea, you can’t access the Echoes of the Fallen DLC until you reach the final mission in the Final Fantasy 16 main quests list, called ‘Back to Their Origin’. However, the Buster sword is available in the System section of the Main Menu after completing the ‘A Chance Encounter’ quest, which is fairly early in the game. It seems that the size of Cloud’s sword has been somewhat nerfed in Final Fantasy 16, likely to stick with the slightly more realistic look of the latest entry.
In-game, the Buster sword is nothing special. While it boasts 160 damage and 160 stagger, both of which will be strong in the early parts of the game, the weapon can’t be reinforced to make it stronger from what we’ve seen, and it gets outpowered by later game weapons. That being said, if you like the look of Cloud’s sword, you can go to the Arete Stone in the Final Fantasy 16 Hideaway and equip the appearance to any weapon, so you can have a stronger sword with the Buster look.
As for the Echoes of the Fallen DLC itself, the expansion will see you investigate some strange and dark crystals that are circulating on the black market. With Clive and his friends concerned that it might be a mysterious Mothercrystal that Valisthea never knew existed, you’ll have to go and find out the answers. Considering that the Final Fantasy 16 ending is fairly open and shut, both DLCs should take place prior to the finale. We already know that Echoes does, but Rising Tide could have some drastic changes to the story, with the FF16 Eikon of Water, Leviathan, finally being found again.
For now, if you’ve been needing a reason to pick up a copy of the latest game in the series, which we called the “best PS5 exclusive on the console so far” in our 10/10 Final Fantasy 16 review, the game can be bought at a discount in celebration of Echoes of the Fallen’s release, both physically and on the PlayStation store.
Otherwise, if you’re just excited to play through Final Fantasy 16 for the first time, or again if you’re like us, you can find our Final Fantasy 16 walkthrough which offers plenty of guides to help you in Valisthea. Alternatively, plenty of new PS5 games and new Xbox games were announced during The Game Awards, so you might want to pick up one of the best Xbox controllers or best PS5 controllers, as you’ll definitely need one in 2024.