+ art by mikorinye site supporters + skelecopter + smudgebap + dead_heather other writing + game impressions/reviews + video game TV/movies + opinion pieces + the webmasters diary page support me! + + + help me get things to cover + comission a picmix! + my playasia affiliate link! + sign my guestbook! song used + Final fantasy XVI OST: o call back yesterday Layout Credits Layout by: Lovely Designs Brushes: [1] [2] Image: Hyung Taekim

Final fantasy XVI DLC: echoes of the fallen and the rising tide. the FF16 DLC was released long after the game was, shockingly long after, to the point i saw a lot of people unsure if it would even get it since the game didn’t launch with a season pass. it's weird to see a game without that these days but i appreciate that they didn't throw one in there. one did eventually come out with two expansions in it: the short and combat focused echoes of the fallen and the longer and more expansive rising tide, the latter giving you a window into what happened with "leviathan the lost", an eikon that's talked about in the main-game like twice and really weirdly glossed over. like, he's so glossed over that it feels like they didn’t want to fully commit to it in the game, and therefore only half-planned for it to be a part of DLC. it's something that i think people who might have finished the game would have outright missed in some cases. it's a strange choice but what they do with him is interesting enough that i am not going to complain with their decision. to access these DLC's, you'll need to more or less finish the game. you have to be at the point of no return and have a save file either from there or one post-game from after the final boss. you'll still not have access to the DLC, but you will have access to the side-quests you have to finish to get to it. these are your companion quests for jill and Joshua who will then join you as permanent party members and give you access to the Charon conversation and letter for the two DLC's respectively. it's a lot of work to put in but since both are endgame level content, it does make sense. it was weird to have put so much time into the post-game for me, though, and to still not have seen either. one thing i would recommend is doing this in reverse-release order. complete rising tide first and then go for echoes of the fallen. rising tide gives you two new eikon sets and some really fun accessories that change up how a few eikons (mainly ramuh and titan) play. one of those two sets is given to you only after you finish rising tide, giving you really only a few side-quests and a minigame to use it in, so I'd say go and get that then beat echoes of the fallen. it just means you'll actually get some use out of it. echoes of the fallen was the first released, and it's for sure the lesser of the two DLC's. it's a short combat gauntlet dungeon set in a huge tower full of fallen tech. for what it's worth, it is a really good dungeon, one of the game’s best, even. it's pretty and has some of the game’s best skyboxes. you can get some real screenshot-worthy sights here, and it even goes in a super cool direction near the end with some horror elements, like some saya no uta looking rooms and monster designs. the bosses therein are also some of the game’s best bar none, especially the jetpack robot thingy and the final boss fight, omega. much of this is just lead-up to the omega fight. it's the main thing teased in the intro cutscene, and it lives up to the hype big-time as the game’s best boss fight. the only one that really even comes close to it is the end fight in rising tide, but even that I don't think reaches the high of omega. it's got the game’s best boss song (a really good drum and bass track that instantly went into all of my playlists) and a move-set that'll challenge you even on easy but in a way that made it still fun to fight. it never feels overpowered or unfair, plus it has a final stretch that was maybe even the game’s best singular moment: a final rush to take out omega before it nukes everything as your battlefield slowly shrinks from under you. it's amazing. there's a story, and its nice enough. it gives you a lot of lore on the fallen and omega, and there's a few new characters that are really fun, but it's very much just a side quest tier story. while rising tide has it beaten, it works for what it is, and it was cool to have the stuff with the fallen and their man-made mother crystal wrapped up. that's about it, really. it’s a nice looking dungeon with great music and some great fights. you also get a new weapon, omega weapon, that was for sure the best in the game. it's short and simple and it’s easily clearable in an afternoon, which fits me nicely. whether or not it's worth the asking price will depend on if you mind paying $10 for 2-3 hours of stuff, even if that stuff is *really* good. rising tide, however, is a lot more than this. it's a whole new island to explore with its own zones, dungeons, eikons and a whole new town. it has many cut-scenes and a new party member and even whole side-quests. if you have to play one expansion, it's better to be this one. the game gives you a breath of fresh air right off the bat with the first zone of the new continent, a sunny tropical jungle with amazing ocean views and the bluest rivers in the game. it's breathtaking, and it just gets even cooler the further in you get, with cool ruins and some shipwrecked boats stuck in the middle of the forest. it's very reminiscent of uncharted 1, and i loved every moment i spent in this zone. it's by far the game’s best, and the music here helps with that. the town you get is nice and cozy, with its own bespoke theme song, and it's got some nice rivers and ponds to stare at. you even have a few dungeons, like a huge crater full of water suspended in time or, and this is my favourite bit of the expansion, a temple suspended in time at the moment of its destruction. there are some real sights to see here, plus it has another of the game’s best bosses at the end with the timekeeper: a swordsman that shifts between different weapons mid-combo. fighting him was one of the game’s highlights overall. there's also a new eikon fight shortly thereafter. leviathan acts as the game’s final test of your skills with that combat system because he is *rough* to fight, including a final attack that took me dozens of tries to get through. he's probably the games hardest test overall bar the extra difficulty stuff, but the fight is one hell of a spectacle. don't think they skimped out just because this is DLC. it's just as impressive as anything in the main campaign. he even gets his own boss theme. the music is one of the highlights of both expansions, again by Masayoshi soken: the omega theme "eikonoklasm"; the spire theme "the worm mounts"; "the ceaseless rill"; "safe haven",which is the new town theme; "writ in water", which is one of the new overworld themes in rising tide; as well as "o call back yesterday", which is the new dungeon theme, here. it sounds very much like a mix of parasite eve and FF13, musically. "never to break", "a most profaned fragment", "high tide", "immersion" and "cascade" are also huge highlights. it's a killer tracklist and one that can rival the main campaigns effortlessly. the story for rising tide is solid , a lot better than echoes, at least. you get two major characters with walias, who is more a presence rather than a character, but the twist about the eikon being a baby was really cool, and i think they handled it really well. the major character who does more is shula, who is rad. she's like the super serious group mom and has great chemistry with the gang. she's probably overall the game’s best-handled woman, and i wish we got more of her. she could have really helped in the base-game. however, it is worth mentioning that this dlc also gives jill more to do. it ties into her stuff super well, and she gets a few amazing moments near the end, joshua is here, too, but he really doesn't end up doing much of anything, sadly. i liked the lore of the island, too; how it tied into things like shiva and the overarching themes like bigotry. plus, the history of the tribe with the attempted genocide is just super interesting to hear about, and it fits in super well with the rest of the game. the bits they have with the main boss of the expansion are also cool. i think how they shoehorned ultima into it was a little lame, good though the resulting boss fight is. rising tide also adds a ton more to the combat, between two new eikons and a few new accessories that change things like making ramuh's shotlock slow down time and break combat flow less or making it so that titan can parry from behind, it's really useful stuff. the eikons are what really change up combat. both basically give you new weapons and tons of new abilities, and they make the combat feel so fresh that it actually redeemed for me how stale the base-game had made it feel. leviathan is the first and my favourite of the two. it gives you a gun in the form of a huge flesh arm that shoots water. you have ammo that you replenish with a QTE and it's killer for taking out faraway targets and shredding stagger bars. it has a charge shot for AOE damage, and one of the cooldowns even gives you an aiming mode and a machine gun, it's really rad! i stuck with this for the entirety of both DLC's, especially since it’s big screenclearer was one of the games best abilities, and it charged your limit break like nothing else. it's other abilities weren't bad either, like the really nier'y ground clear ability that has you criss-crossing shots that bring enemies together or a charge shot thingy you can put out and trigger later. once you beat the DLC, you also get access to ultima, the game’s best eikon. he gives you a flight ability called ascension, this raises you from the ground and gives you these huge sweeping sword strikes. they do less damage, but they have such a range that the game effectively becomes a musou game. it's crazy good, though not good for bosses, that's where his abilities come in instead. these range from a sweeping arching ranged attack that shoots out like he's playing rainbow islands, several AOE's including his best AOE that pulls in all enemies and gives them a soul nuke (plus another worse one with swords that shoot up) and an attack that has Clive basically becoming an orbital laser. all of these are effectively broken, but since he's an unlockable, fo-fun moveset, it's allowed. it helped me in the post-game stuff for sure. there are sidequests here, too: some basic fetch quests, a few very cool extra fights like one against a tonberry king (i really hate the tonberry designs in this, they're gross and sweaty) or another involving going hunting for an optional boss, a quest that involved the return of the legendary LOCO WEED from final fantasy 7. those are mainly the highlights beyond the final quest that tops off the sidequests, which is a really cute little epilogue that brings back the cast of echoes of the fallen and ties together both DLC's very well. there's also some for unlocking things like your chocobo for the island and for some reason a quest needed for you to unlock the store and blacksmith here, which was a little weird, but you do get some exclusive items through both, like new songs and a few new accessories focused around leviathan. it has a lot more to do overall, but a few extra hunts would have been nice. after you finish rising tide, you get the last chunk of content added in this, the Kairos gate. this is a boss-rushy rogue-likey mode where you go through 20 waves of enemies from both the base-game and the DLC chapters for rewards, and a few (reskinned, blegh) bosses if you do it on final fantasy mode. it's fun. the fact it boots you back to the start if you die makes it a real rush. it might sound unfair, but the game does give you enough to help with the level-up systems, where you can up stats and give yourself specific temporary buffs with currency earned by doing better in rounds. it's not an easy mode by any means and it will take you a few tries at the bare minimum, but it is certainly doable and i think worth a try if you like the combat. it's a chance to really get some use out of ultima at the very least (do know it will bump you up from story to action if you try it, though). the DLC is on the easier side beyond that final boss and also pretty short. it'll run you a good 5-7 hours or so, which i think is a great length for what it is. it never outstays its welcome and unlike the main game, it doesn't feel like it has much padding to it, which is a blessing. it's sadly download-only. there hasn't been a complete edition disc released for it yet, which is a shame, but maybe it will eventually get one. that's about it for the game. they did some updates just before these to add things like the fast warp to side-quests and rebindable controls, the latter of which were a real lifesaver, let me tell you, but that's really it for the world of 16 outside of a 14 crossover, some music in theatrhythm and Clive in tekken. i would like to see something else done with the cast of this game like maybe adding the main trio to the next dissidia or something. however, another game in this world admittedly doesn't seem all that appealing to me, so I'm happy with things ending here. they went out on a good note. the DLC will run you about 20 for the season pass, which is a lot, but while both chunks of game are short, they're undeniably high-quality, so i think they are worth it, especially if you enjoy the combat or the extra lore, because it has a ton of both.