It’s always a bit weird to go back to a game you completed for a story-centric DLC, especially if the base game had a pretty definitive ending. However, those who have just a little more in the tank can take advantage of this to give a higher rating to a game that they really liked. I often think of the Citadel DLC from Mbody Effect 3 as the best example-a strangely placed, but almost perfect broadcast. Final Fantasy XVI: the Rising Tide evokes similar feelings, as I was just glad to have an excuse to revisit this world and spend a little more time with characters I appreciated. Although for the most part The Rising Tide contains more Final Fantasy XVI content, it fills in some gaps and allows you to lead two new Eikons in a quest line that reaches similar heights to the original game.
The Rising Tide quest series is inserted into FFXVI just before the point of no return of the main game, which gives the impression of a spontaneous distraction at a critical point in the story. That is, it is necessary, since many events leading to the DLC provide the context for its history. As Clive, you and the crew are invited to visit a region called Mysidia – a quiet area in the north, covered by a veil of powerful magic, both to hide from the rest of the world and to preserve a facade of bright sapphire sky. It is a new territory for the game, which has its own interesting and remote society and allows you to explore a relatively small but lively region, and its stunning views will remind you how FFXVI uses its technical strengths to paint a great and seductive world.
Much of FFXVI was visually austere due to its eerie nature, so the tropical shade of Mysidia is a refreshing contrast. But this is not a holiday for Clive the rising Tide revolves around Leviathan’s story as Eikon, who, like every other Eikon, was led in bad faith. In the main storyline quests and side quests you will learn more about the people of Mysidia, their lifestyle and their special relationship with Leviathan. People are self-sufficient and treat magic quite differently from the rest of Valisthea, and their leader Shula embodies their philosophy by accompanying them through the DLC. She’s not exactly a standout figure by and large, but she’s a solid anchor for the rising tide and provides enough of an excuse to push Clive outside the box. It’s a twist on the typical ffxvi plot rhythm and presents itself as a pretty sweet story about breaking generational curses in a way that lends itself more to the softer side of FFXVI.
This is not to say that the rising tide will not become strong, because, like the base game, the mixture of intense boss actions, interwoven into impressive cinematic cuts, remains the basis here. Along with the new region, there is an additional dungeon and another larger-than-life Eikon action. While the dungeon itself is quite short, the boss action waiting at the end offers clever, inventive mechanics that even impressed the Final Fantasy XIV Savage raider in me. The core game of FFXVI has a lot of similarities with the MMORPG in terms of action mechanics, and this is also true here, but a couple of twists surprised me and made me smile when I managed to overcome them. And although I could see it from a distance of a mile, the preparation for another decisive action of Eikon and the hard action itself brought back the specific feeling of hype that FFXVI so well evoked. The telegraph of some mechanics in the action of EIkon is not always great, so there are some trials and errors when you hit your head against the wall to get through. However, it was as honouring as ever to figure out how to solve the mechanics while performing evil and heavy actions like Ifrit, and to achieve the best that the original game had to offer.
As a chapter dedicated to Leviathan, it is a highlight to be able to use the power of the iconic snake. Creative Business Unit III really said, “What if we gave Clive a gun?”and that’s basically what they did. Leviathan is a projectile-focused Eikon force that has its own mode that turns Clive’s arm into a strikegun that can blow up deadly pieces of water, and damn, it melts the enemies’ staggered counter. For cooldowns, you also get a quick-fire bubble blow and a wave-like ability that departs from the sides and collapses small enemies, making them easy targets for strikegun blows or other zone spells that you have lined up. There is a satisfying return to landing strikes and weaving in the middle of Leviathan’s moves, and it’s great to see that the action actioning brand FFXVI still had room for creative ideas.
In addition, you can also use Ultima as an Eikon force, which allows Clive to hover with wings that can also forcibly sweep masses of enemies. Most cooldown abilities with Ultima are heavy and dramatic demonstrations of power that are not exactly conducive to fast weaving in an action rotation-if you just want to disrespectfully hit enemies, Ultima is the Eikon for you. Ultima is unlocked by launching the new content called Kairos Gates, which is part of the DLC package. It’s a race-based action challenge where you build up Clive progressively with perks and upgrades to complete a really tough challenge of enemy hordes and remix bosses. Menus and sound effects in the middle of rounds are integrated into an old-school Final Fantasy presentation, which is a sweet twist, but these actions are far from sweet. If you wanted FFXVI to increase the difficulty level, this is a decent, albeit simple, way to get the most out of his action.
The Rising Tide includes a handful of side quests to complete Mysidia that offer honours or unlock features for the region. These range from talking to NPCs to retrieving items from the world to eliminating certain targets or a combination of these continuing things, which mainly follow the typical FFXVI quest design, which was not exactly his forte. It’s not surprising, but a lot of conversations in the DLC still have this weird, rigid conversational style about a cutscene that stood out like sore thumbs in the original game. It’s another one of those FFXIV isms that don’t quite hold up in a highly produced prestige-style game.
However, the DLC makes effective use of side quests in a few important ways. On the one hand, they are more action-oriented, so these are opportunities to hone these new abilitys in dealing with Eikon. But as soon as the main story of the DLC is completed, a new series of side quests will appear to let the overarching story breathe, and they are important for closing Shula and the people of Mysidia. I’m a little surpriseed that these will be marked as side quests, as they affect the contextualization of the rising tide. And although the honour for completing all this is not necessarily tangible, it is an emotional honour that instead brings the much-needed heatth to the dark world of FFXVI.