There are a lot of ideas out there for Final Fantasy 16 DLC, but the best one would play like another game altogether. FF16 presents a truly rich and exciting world, with a memorable and impactful cast of characters and locations, each of which could easily inspire their own DLC. While dialogue hints suggest it may have to do with Jill, Cid, the unseen Eikon Leviathan, or the unopenable door that lurks in The Dim, what may be coming (or should be coming) could look and play entirely different from the base game.
It wouldn't be the worst thing to change the gameplay up. Perhaps the biggest gripe with FF16 is that the grand majority of its side quests are repetitive, and don't really matter. As it stands, there's almost nothing to do in FF16 other than fight monsters and watch the story unfold. Although developers have said they don't want to detract from FF16's grim tone with cheery minigames like Chocobo racing or Triple Triad, that's never been a problem in the series before. Any kind of DLC would do well to introduce some more varied and unique side activities, but FF16 has already laid the groundwork for one potential expansion in particular.
The Perfect FF16 DLC Would Be A Strategy Game
The ideal DLC for FF16 wouldn't be more action-oriented, story focused RPG gameplay - it'd be a strategy game set during the War of the Eikons. Valisthea is such a richly detailed world rocked by near-constant international conflict; the backdrop for a strategy game is already there. It might not work best as a 4X game, since exploration is limited due to the small map size of the twin continents of Valisthea relative to something like Sid Meier's Civilization. There's also not a lot of diplomacy going on in Valisthea. However, it would slot perfectly into the real-time strategy formula pioneered by games like Warcraft, Starcraft, and Command & Conquer.
Players would be able to move their little units all around the Twins, constructing things like crystal repositories or ironworks to raise and supply their armies. Each different FF16 kingdom would work similarly to the different alien races in Starcraft, with unique units, structures, and strategies. Sanbreque would have its dragoons, focused on speed and maneuverability; the Iron Kingdom would have its Bearer armies, who find strength in numbers; and Rosaria would have its Shields, defensive powerhouses with healing abilities boosted by the Phoenix.
Dominants, of course, would function as endgame summons in an FF16 RTS; once players have built one of the most demanding structures, they could summon Jill, Cid, Benedikta, Hugo, or Barnabas to raze the battlefield with Eikonic abilities. The growing Blight could factor in, shrinking the area in which resource gathering is possible as a game progresses. There could even be a degree of randomness to where it starts and how it spreads, which would make each playthrough unique.
Starcraft is an apt point of comparison, but an even closer one would be 1992's Dune 2: The Building of a Dynasty, originally released for MS-DOS, and its spiritual successor currently in early access, Dune: Spice Wars. The Dune setting and the FF16 setting share many similarities, in that they both feature a collection of diverse, distinctive noble houses and independent societies all vying for control of a relatively small area. Each faction has its own unique units based on their strengths and strategies of attacks. They're all fighting over similar, singular resources - Dune's spice, and FF16's crystals. This classic RTS game would be the perfect place for an FF16 RTS DLC to draw from.
FF7 & FF16 Lay The Groundwork For An RTS DLC
RTS gameplay may be new to FF16, but it's nothing new to the Final Fantasy series. The original FF7 began laying the groundwork with the Fort Condor minigame, which can be played in the location of the same name for item and Materia rewards. Fort Condor plays a little more like a tower defense game. The emphasis is more on unit placement and a Fire Emblem-esque strength and weakness triangle than on resource gathering and strategic engagement, but the DNA is there. FF7 Remake Intergrade brought back Fort Condor in Yuffie's post-game epilogue, although this time, it's framed as an in-universe board game.
FF16's State of the Realm is also an excellent source of inspiration for a future RTS spin-off or DLC. This in-game lore feature, which can be accessed from the Hideaway after the game's final time skip, shows up-to-date army movements around a scale map of Valisthea. Scrolling over different icons and arrows provides explanations of what those troops are doing and why, and scrubbing a timeline can also shed light on how battle strategies have changed over the years.
The State of the Realm could directly influence the way an FF16 RTS game is presented graphically; its visuals could directly draw from the State of the Realm's symbols to create a sense of familiarity and near-immediate understanding. A similar system could also be a useful tool for the FF16 RTS player to consult repeatedly over the course of a game, keeping abreast of the most recent developments and adjusting their strategy accordingly.
FF16's Plot & Setting Pose A Slight Problem
However, the setting and plot - particularly the ending - of FF16 pose a slight problem for any attempt to turn it into an RTS game. FF16 ends with the War of the Eikons finished, the crystals destroyed, all magic and all Eikons gone. It's not a particularly exciting setting for any kind of game - especially not an RTS, which relies on ongoing war to justify its gameplay. So any kind of FF16 RTS would have to be set prior to the ending of the game. An RTS game would never work during the plot of FF16 - whatever happened during it, unless it followed a very specific course of events, would conflict with the canon version of Valisthea's history.
So an FF16 RTS could go one of two ways: either present itself as a game-within-a-game like FF7 Remake Intergrade's Fort Condor, or set itself within a prequel DLC. The latter would mean sacrificing an established canon for part of the world's history, but it would make the most sense. Besides the freedom it would provide, it would also be set during the most interesting part of FF16's history: the time in which magic still exists, which players know the least about. A prequel DLC could give more context to the background of any member of FF16's incredible cast, and incorporate an open-ended RTS minigame. Plus, Clive's home of Rosaria would only be playable in a prequel.
It's a cool idea, but that's all it is for now - an idea. Future FF16 DLC may or may not choose to incorporate an RTS minigame in DLC, or create it as a separate spinoff, but it'd be complicated to execute. However, with a little care and attention to detail, both with regard to the in-game lore and the RTS games that have come before, a Final Fantasy 16 RTS could become a reality.