Square Enix has had a busy weekend at this year’s PAX East.  On Friday, the game developer held a panel for the Final Fantasy XII remaster, titled The Zodiac Age, which is arriving this summer on July 11.  Saturday’s panel featured Final Fantasy XIV producer Naoki Yoshida holding a Q&A session for the game’s upcoming Stormblood expansion.  Sunday’s panel, however, was arguably the most exciting.  In it, Square Enix treated its viewers to a brand new gameplay video for Final Fantasy XV‘s first story expansion DLC, Episode Gladiolus.  We already knew that Gladio left his friends behind in order to become stronger, with the help of the Crownsguard Commander, Cor Leonis.  This video offers up a satisfying answer to the ‘how’ of it, along with a taste of the unique gameplay featured in the DLC.

The first noticeable difference in the gameplay between Episode Gladiolus and the rest of FFXV is how slow Gladio is compared to Noctis.  As a greatsword user, Gladio is naturally a bit slower, and his attacks seem to be a bit more meaningful and pronounced as a result.  Noctis’ warp strike abilities have also been replaced with a “Rage” meter, which builds up every time Gladio takes damage and allows him to increase his damage output as a result, not unlike a ‘Berserker’ class. Gladio also has access to the same techniques that he utilizes when he is with the rest of the party, via an ability meter that fills up over time.

  “So the blademaster…is a master of blades!  What, were you expecting something profound?” -Gladiolus

The music that plays during battles also seems to be a bit more ‘metal’ in comparison to the music found in the rest of the game.  That said, it shouldn’t be a stretch to imagine that each story dlc to come will feature music more in keeping with the personality of the character you are controlling.  Chocobo music for Prompto, perhaps?

The upcoming Episode Gladiolus DLC is arriving on March 28.  There is currently no word on when we can expect Episode Prompto and Episode Ignis.  For those of you that have been waiting for FFXV’s chapter 13 story updates, it will be arriving via a patch alongside the release of Episode Gladiolus.

So, what did you think about the gameplay video?  What are your thoughts on how Square Enix has chosen to portray the ‘Blademaster’ in FFXV?  Let us know in the comments section below, or come start a conversation with us about it over on Disqus!  As always, stay tuned to DFTG for all the latest Final Fantasy news, and follow us on Twitter for our 24/7 news feed!