Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth doesn’t seem to be getting an expansion in the vein of FF7 Remake: Episode InterMISSION, and as disappointing as that might be, I don’t think it’s the Final Fantasy game that truly needs DLC. A well-made expansion for FF7 Rebirth could certainly be a valuable addition, and I would welcome one just as much as any other fan would. Although a lengthy trilogy provides more than enough room to handle a thorough retelling of FF7 without the need for any DLC, InterMISSION proved that further additional material could still be interesting.

Take away InterMISSION, though, and you still have an experience that feels reasonably complete. The DLC served to introduce some character adjustments to Yuffie and provide an easy way to get a handle on her surprisingly complex toolkit, but Rebirth is capable of handling those challenges on its own, even if it does so with less aplomb. The same can’t be said for another modern Final Fantasy game, and years after the cancelation of planned DLC, the lack of a complete Final Fantasy 15 experience is still a sore spot for me.

Final Fantasy 15 Has Never Been Complete

A Cool Game That Doesn’t Fullfill Its Potential

I didn’t play Final Fantasy 15 right when it released — I didn’t even have a compatible system at the time — so by the time I got around to it, I was already aware of FF15’s divisive status within the series as a whole. I was still optimistic, however. The road trip concept and action combat both held significant appeal for me, and I can enjoy a messy narrative as long as there’s plenty of interesting material to be found within.

I came out the other end satisfied in some regards, but as much as I loved the game’s highlights, I can’t say that FF15 was an overall great experience. Certain aspects of the open-world game design felt bizarrely nonfunctional, and despite watching the tie-in film (or more accurately, the two-hour-long cutscene) Kingsglaive, the story seemed tonally confused and shockingly incomplete. Some of its biggest emotional gestures didn’t have enough material to ground them, and segments like the trip to Altissia had less significance in both narrative and gameplay than I would have liked.

I played the base game of Final Fantasy 15 at the time, and I’ve heard that the Royal Edition of the game attempts to address some of these problems. The addition of a more climactic dungeon probably wouldn’t make much of a difference for me, but I do plan on playing the Royal Edition someday, primarily for the sake of the character episodes. DLC for Noctis’s companions Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis could be a valuable way to explore the character relationships that I actually cared about, but further planned DLC episodes that never happened might still leave an unfillable hole.

When it comes to FF15, however, there’s no sequel to pick up the slack.

Beyond those three episodes and a separately released Episode Ardyn DLC, FF15 was supposed to receive episodes for Aranea, Lunafreya, and Noctis, but all three were canceled after the departure of the game’s director and a shift into the production of Forspoken. The loss of the Lunafreya one feels like the biggest shame, as her light presence never manages to develop a fully-realized character. The stories for all three (along with Episode Ardyn) were turned into the novel Final Fantasy 15: The Dawn of the Future, a reasonable consolation prize that doesn’t fix the fact that the game feels incomplete.

FF7 Rebirth Shows What FF15 Could Have Been

An Incomplete Story That’s Still More Complete

I’m not arguing for any Final Fantasy 15 DLC to be released in 2025, as that ship has long since sailed. In the light of FF7 Rebirth‘s success, however, I’ve been thinking about FF15 more frequently. I have plenty of quibbles with Rebirth, but even as the middle chapter of a story, it somehow manages to be a more complete experience than FF15 ever was, and it doesn’t have to lean on a film, book, or anime miniseries to achieve that.

As much as I’d like to see FF7 Rebirth DLC focusing on the so-far-neglected Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind, the final game in the trilogy should still be able to cover those bases, and the news that the game isn’t getting a story expansion didn’t much bother me. When it comes to FF15, however, there’s no sequel to pick up the slack, even though the equally controversial Final Fantasy 13 managed to get both FF13-2 and Lightning Returns as followups.

FF15 was itself originally developed under the name Final Fantasy 13 Versus before undergoing significant shifts and becoming its own mainline entry.

Even if the Royal Edition significantly improves the game for me, I’ll have to live with the fact that an incredibly promising experience will remain awkward and incomplete. The canceled episodes probably also wouldn’t have been enough, and it’s entirely possible that reading the book will dissuade me from the notion that they had much to offer at all. It’s unlikely that FF15 would have ever been a masterpiece, even with an even longer development cycle, but that doesn’t make it any less of a shame.

FF15 Will Likely Never Get A Proper Second Chance

Square Enix Doesn’t Have An Incentive To Revisit FF15

Although FF7 is the only Final Fantasy game to receive a massive remake project, Square Enix has done some tinkering with re-releases of older Final Fantasy games, and there’s always some marginal chance that a remaster of FF15 in the far-flung future could feature a bit of additional development to patch over the most glaring gaps. It’s an anemic hope, however, and I don’t plan to delude myself by clinging to it with any conviction.

Final Fantasy has always suffered from the same basic profit exchange that consistently drives companies’ willingness to revisit works. Unmitigated successes like FF7 can receive endless add-ons and reworks despite not even slightly needing them, while experiences like FF15 that fall short of greatness rarely get an opportunity to go back to the drawing board. However nice a Vincent and Cid DLC for FF7 Rebirth might have been, the character expansions I really want are still the Final Fantasy 15 ones that will almost certainly never see the light of day.