Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide releases April 18, 2024

[duckroll]

Finally beat Leviathan and that was a good and bad fight at the same time. The general design and patterns of the phases are rather good, but I think the decision to make the player just get right into it and actually have the only HARD Eikon fight ever is a poor decision. If they wanted to design a fight this way, it would have helped to have a mid-boss before Leviathan which is easier but trains the player to remember all the nuances of Ifrit's attacks first. Otherwise it's just frustrating to be thrown into a battle where you can die over and over just because you aren't familiar with the moveset of a thing that you basically use less than 6 times in the game and usually 5-10 hours apart.

Oh and the shield portion of Leviathan? Very poorly tuned. I did a bunch of calculations each time I failed it, and it's clear that the sort of tuning they had for it is not quite right. There's a fine balance between tough and frustrating and this one falls within frustrating and annoying for sure. It's not even particularly hard in a fun way unlike the final phase, which I looooooved. The shield part is just repetitive and depends entirely on the player not getting delayed or interrupted one or two times. Way too tight, not fun.

The final phase though? By that time Ifrit should be so familiar, ever movement, every combo, every counter, so many patterns to practice on and so so so satisfying.

I'm really surprised that there are a bunch more quests linked to what seem like hunts post-story in the DLC too. And also more advanced stuff to craft. I doubt I actually need any of this to finish the game at this point, but it feels fun.

 

[Toth]

The hunts and quests were really good this expansion too, aside from that really brief flower quest, which is lore heavy at least.

 

[duckroll]

Cleared up all the remaining hunts and quests in Rising Tide. It was a superb finish and I was really surprised how both DLCs tied together at the end. Strong effort. Overall at 25 bucks for the season pass the content is pretty good as it contains a substantial amount of solid combat and environments that really elevate the game experience. Leviathan is a fun Eikon that plays pretty different and has a neat ability set. Haven't even touched Kairos Gate yet.

Interestingly enough, I feel that while it still largely falls flat (hard to change substantially this late in the game with just a DLC), there's conscious effort put into trying to improve the crafting and itemization system. Riding Tide doesn't really do a ton with it but if they were to expand on this with a sequel or another FFXVI style game, it's a good starting point to actually have items to hunt for in the environment, being able to craft accessories, and linking crafting materials to combat challenges like Kairos Gate.

 

[Izanagi89]

Cleared up all the remaining hunts and quests in Rising Tide. It was a superb finish and I was really surprised how both DLCs tied together at the end. Strong effort. Overall at 25 bucks for the season pass the content is pretty good as it contains a substantial amount of solid combat and environments that really elevate the game experience. Leviathan is a fun Eikon that plays pretty different and has a neat ability set. Haven't even touched Kairos Gate yet.

Interestingly enough, I feel that while it still largely falls flat (hard to change substantially this late in the game with just a DLC), there's conscious effort put into trying to improve the crafting and itemization system. Riding Tide doesn't really do a ton with it but if they were to expand on this with a sequel or another FFXVI style game, it's a good starting point to actually have items to hunt for in the environment, being able to craft accessories, and linking crafting materials to combat challenges like Kairos Gate.

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Having to hunt for mats is such a small thing but it would've gone a long way in adding some much needed interactivity with the world. Every town and merchant could've sold blueprints too. It at least makes you feel like you worked for the gear. But I agree both DLCs shows an effort to expand on mechanics and design. Hope they're making a new game 🙏

Anyway glad you enjoyed the dlc. I thought they were just the perfect way to end of this game and I'll honestly miss Clive and crew. Enjoy the final set of abilities 😁

 

[Mau]

Finally got around to playing this and DAMN I forgot how gorgeous FFXVI is. Sometimes it feels like a Rembrandt painting

 

[Spehornoob]

Having to hunt for mats is such a small thing but it would've gone a long way in adding some much needed interactivity with the world. Every town and merchant could've sold blueprints too. It at least makes you feel like you worked for the gear. But I agree both DLCs shows an effort to expand on mechanics and design. Hope they're making a new game 🙏

Anyway glad you enjoyed the dlc. I thought they were just the perfect way to end of this game and I'll honestly miss Clive and crew. Enjoy the final set of abilities 😁

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I haven't played the DLC yet, but I recently have been mussing ariund in the Kingdom Hearts games, and (thus may be controversial) I think maybe CBU3 should look at them for some inspiration for crafting if they want to iterate on it.

Meaningful recipes with smaller amounts of rare materials. Crafting in Kingdom Hearts is about enemy drops, some treasure chests, and knowing where rare enemies spawn. It gives the game world texture and gives the player something to earn. (Some times it's a bit much on the grind buy hey).

Its not perfect, but searching for five rarer crafting mats is more satisfying then getting 1000s of common mats throughout the game. It gives the player a feeling of learning about and ultimately "mastering" the world, in a way.

 

[duckroll]

I think you will be pleased with some of the crafting in the DLC. It's not a lot unfortunately and it is rather too little too late, but it shows awareness on what was lacking.