Even with endless debates, there is no denying the last few years have been really good to Final Fantasy fans. For a franchise that went astray and with yawning release gaps in the 2010’s, the quantity and quality of the recent output has seen Square Enix’s long-running franchise have one of the best runs, if not quite the same heights, of its venerable golden age of the 1990’s. In 2024 alone, within two months of the release of the highly anticipated and regarded Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, we now get the final DLC piece for 2023’s popular and contentious Final Fantasy XVI, with the next expansion for the ever-enduring Final Fantasy XIV following soon after.
As the final curtain call for Square Enix’s highly experimental, most recent numbered entry in their long-running franchise, does The Rising Tide pull all the stops and tie the bow on all the loose ends from Clive Rosfield’s journey through Valisthea?
Some spoilers to follow
Our Most Profane Fragment
Similar to the setup for last December’s Echoes of the Fallen, The Rising Tide is set right before Clive Rosfield’s fateful journey to Origin. Through a secret letter sent to the hideaway, Clive learns about the reemergence of Leviathan the Lost, the Eikon of Water who had disappeared over a century and lost to history. Clive journeys with Jill, Joshua, and Torgal to the hidden northern land of Mysidia (fans of Final Fantasy II and IV will appreciate the shoutout) to discover the fate of Leviathan’s dominant and the people of Mysidia, as well as finding out if Leviathan has any bearing on Ultima’s plans for humanity.
As one of the final loose ends from the main plot of Final Fantasy XVI, The Rising Tide does a fairly good job of incorporating Leviathan and his lore into the main narrative while also showing why the Eikon had no bearing on the initial way the tale unfolded. Through the game’s excessive penchant for backstory lore and detail, the town of Mysidia comes alive in a way many of the main game’s previous towns couldn’t, and some of the backstory ranges from thought provoking to tragically disturbing. And with Mysidia being the only place in the world not affected by Ultima’s purple-tinged Primogenesis, it’s definitely one of the prettiest places to hang out in the late game that’s not been dulled up by a perpetual fog.
However, if your hope for the inclusion of Leviathan into the narrative meant that it would have a bearing on how the game ultimately concluded, keep your expectations in check. As initially promoted, these DLC chapters are only meant to add extra footnotes to round out the story and some understanding of some of the few threads left hanging rather than change the ultimate outcome. If your hope with the promised “Epilogue Quest” after the conclusion of both DLC chapters was that they would clarify some of the main ending’s ambiguity, this epilogue serves more as a conclusion to the mini tale woven between both these DLC chapters and doubles down on the thematic hopes and dreams of the ending instead of clarifying the parts left open to interpretation. It firmly commits the main ending as a definitive closing of the book on this chapter in the long-running Final Fantasy saga, even with some elements added in that one would have thought could have changed certain outcomes if they had chosen to do so. If you liked the ambiguity and the head cannon you could form on the ending based on the details given to you, that remains firmly in place. If you want clarity, I can imagine you’ll feel disappointed.
Let the Sins of Man be Redeemed
Whereas Echoes of the Fallen condensed the Final Fantasy XVI experience to a single sidequest that lead to a meaty dungeon in the Sagespire, The Rising Tide definitely feels like a another main quest scenario from the main game in its flow and structure. From its wide linear biome to a town offering a few sidequests all as you progress towards a dungeon-like level that concludes with the Kaiju-style Eikon battle, The Rising Tide basically gives you a good 5 to 7 hours of the Final Fantasy XVI experience, with the highs and lows of said experience (fun combat and incredible spectacle broken up by slow buildup) combined with some improvements along the way.
Let’s start with some of those improvements. One of the most contentious elements from Final Fantasy XVI was the quality of its side content relative to the rest of the game, from both the pace of the sidequests and the nature of the rewards you could potentially get (with some side quests having a “+” mark that clearly signaled a game changing reward on completion). The Rising Tide definitely has addressed the rewards nature of side questing, as even the non-”+” quests can all grant you important material rewards that can help craft gear which can have more tangible improvements in the feel of combat than there was in the main game.
But, while rewards have improved, the actual activities and pace of the sidequests still are of the topsy-turvy nature. Some of the lore you gain from the people of Mysidia make this the better-written side content of the game, fleshing out this town more than previous ones. At the same time, some of the pacing of what you do in the sidequests remains slow and fetchy in nature, and the cadence of dialogue can sometimes be such that there is a chance you may start dozing off in parts. While the sidequests that lead to a fairly difficult side boss do help to make some of these sidequests stand out from the earlier ones in the game, unless you absolutely are onboard with the way Final Fantasy XVI meticulously delivers you its lore and world building, the sidequests remain a gameplay weakness even with the improvements on hand.
Speaking of difficulty, continuing the trend set by Echoes of the Fallen, CBU3 continues responding to the fan feedback which stated that the main game on its Normal difficulty just was too easy for a character action game. While I maintain the solution should have been to open up the hard mode/”Final Fantasy Mode” from the very beginning instead of after the completion of the journey, these two DLC’s have certainly upped the challenge factor in the normal playthrough, from the rank and file to the boss battles where your timing and combo mastery will actually be challenged to succeed (not to mention the skill required to beat this on the FF mode). If anything, CBU3 promised a hard battle against Leviathan, and they certainly lived up to the promise, with the battle requiring more restarts to succeed than almost anything from the real game (the DPS check halfway through the battle will certainly cause frustration for many).
A Bloody Palace
Even as the subject of much debate over how different it made this game compared to the rest of the series, the Final Fantasy XVI combat system remains a fairly solid representation of Devil May Cry combat in the Final Fantasy universe, and some of the additions with this DLC push it more in that direction to complete the assimilation. With the introduction of Leviathan’s Eikon combat kit, Clive now has access to a fairly reliable distant combat kit that works extremely well at weathering out an enemy’s stagger meter, pairing extremely well with other DPS-friendly kits like Titan’s and Odin’s. The speed at which you can lower those stagger meters is very satisfying, and the speed you gain with the kit’s double dodge is for sure going to keep this new set on people’s rotations with how much more nimble it makes parsing your way through the battlefield.
As fun as the new Leviathan kit is, I’d be remiss to mention the ways The Rising Tide coincided with the recent patch available to everyone that buffed some of the less-used Eikon abilities from Ramuh, Bahamut, and Shiva’s kit. Coupling the game’s lack of challenge with the Eikon’s intrinsic ability success requiring a lot of technicality, it made triggering said abilities not worth the hassle alongside more effective offerings. With careful tweaks in speed triggers, damage, and technique, some of these Eikon abilities have found new life on the new sandbox, especially paired with more trinkets that feel like they have meaningful effect other than just a tiny percentage damage boost that’s never felt worth the slot. The trinkets available to you from both this DLC and Echoes of the Fallen have finally given Final Fantasy XVI more of a semblance of build crafting than in the main game, enough so that just three gear slots now feel woefully low considering what these trinkets can do now.
The new and improved combat kits are certainly welcome, but it wouldn’t be as effective without a place to properly test their mettle. While the DLC areas do provide enough of a challenge to take advantage of the improvements to combat, they shine especially bright in the new “Kairos Gate” combat challenge. Similar in spirit to DMC’s “Bloody Palace” mode, Kairos Gate provides a semi-roguelike floor climb all focused on maximizing your combat skills. If you were already a fan of the game’s Arcade mode and trying to S-rank the different stages but would prefer something that puts the game’s combat front and center, Kairos Gate provides that gateway perfectly with its rogue-like upgrade path always allowing you different options to test your effectiveness as you descend through its 20 floors.
The Servant of God
Final Fantasy XVI was one of the biggest spectacle showcases of last year, and a year later that reputation still remains in place. The world of Valisthea remains one of sheer beauty even amongst some of its ugliness (particularly the Primogenesis purple filter), and the Mysidia biome allows the game to sidestep that purple filter in its endgame to provide the game’s most beautiful lush area. While tiny issues, such as some inconsistent face details in side characters, remain in place and the game’s performance mode continues its wobbly inconsistency outside the combat mode (though something happened with the resolution that has managed to make the game seem sharper in that mode now than it did a year before), Final Fantasy XVI still retains the franchise’s penchant for being a feast for the eyes, especially everything Leviathan related.
It was already noted last year, and it bears repeating: Masayoshi Soken remains one of Square Enix’s secret weapons when it comes to incredible soundtracks, and his strengths remain in place with The Rising Tide. While some of the battle and boss motifs from earlier in the game were reused in The Rising Tide, Soken took the opportunity to bring back the ending song from 2020’s “Awakening” reveal trailer to punctuate both the game’s quiet moments in Mysidia and the final boss battle against Leviathan. Considering the trailer’s song has been a highly sought after piece that didn’t show up in the main game and was never officially released, it is fitting it shows up here as one of the final additions of the game while it all comes full circle and we close this chapter of the Final Fantasy saga. The way it helps punctuate Leviathan’s final battle delivers the DLC’s euphoric memorable moment, a reminder that, despite the lows that may deflate it, when the highs of Final Fantasy XVI hit, they absolutely sing.
A Final Fantasy
At a time where many numbered entries have an extended shelf life with proper sequels, long support, and multiple DLC packs, it is bittersweet for The Rising Tide to serve as a definitive conclusion to this singular entry in the long-running franchise. For as much as it broke tradition, it certainly was a commendable effort for Square Enix to try something so entirely different from the norm for Final Fantasy, where their constant iterations have been the key to the franchise’s continuous existence. The Rising Tide serves a fitting end to Final Fantasy XVI, reminding me of the ways this entry rose above the challenge while also tripping in a few spots. With this much Final Fantasy we are being served nowadays compared to where we were a decade ago, this, alongside Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, serve as great reminders that great things still lie ahead like a bright red star.
