Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide Review – Save The Last Splash

It’s been three-and-a-half years since Square Enix unveiled Final Fantasy 16, and while the epic sixteenth mainline entry in one of gaming’s most beloved series launched nearly a year ago, its saga has stretched on until now. With The Rising Tide, FF16’s second DLC, protagonist Clive Rosfield’s adventures come to a close. Set just a bit prior to the action-RPG’s final chapter, it serves as a fitting send-off filled with all the greatness of the main game… and its various shortcomings.

Set in a hidden land called Mysidia – a nice reference to a pair of towns from a couple of Final Fantasy’s earliest entries – the core tale lasts about four to five hours. That might not sound like a ton of time, but unlike FF16’s first DLC, Echoes of the Fallen, The Rising Tide is stuffed with story. A solid number of cutscenes pepper your journey across this gorgeous new region, telling an emotionally-charged narrative with an excellent new central character named Shula. It’s also a fresh feast for fans of this game’s extensive lore. Mysidia’s worldbuilding is top-notch stuff that slots right in with base-game realms like the Holy Empire of Sanbreque and the Dhalmekian Republic.

Related

Tales Of Kenzera: Zau Review – The Joy Within Pain

Tales of Kenzera: Zau’s loving exploration of grief and death is complimented by satisfying platforming, crunchy combat, and easygoing exploration.

If Echoes of the Fallen is designed to test your expertise with Clive’s original arsenal in a dungeon-like scenario, The Rising Tide is about giving that arsenal a couple of major additions. The first, of course, is the Eikon of Water, Leviathan. This mythical creature was notably missing from Final Fantasy 16 until now, and the promise of harnessing its might is arguably The Rising Tide’s biggest selling point. But while I’ve had a decent bit of fun with Leviathan’s uniquely long-range combat mechanics, it’s the second set of powers this DLC provides that really blew me away. I’ll refrain from identifying whose powers those are, in case you intend to go in blind; but the return of a classic Final Fantasy magic spell had me nerding out hard.

As Mysidia is a full-fledged region, it’s got several side quests on top of the core story. They’re better than the bulk of the original FF16’s, but that really isn’t saying much. One of the most consistent critiques of Final Fantasy 16 is that its side quests mostly feel like tertiary-tier content in an MMO – which is disappointing, albeit fitting, given the developers for this entry are primarily known for their work on Final Fantasy 14. There are signs here of lessons learned; one particular side quest took me a good chunk of time, and I had a blast with it. Overall, though? I don’t know. It’s not this team’s forte.

The Rising Tide may succumb in part to Final Fantasy 16’s weaker elements, but it also revels in most of its strongest. The boss fights are spectacular setpieces, and if you were worried that the devs were exaggerating the increase in difficulty here relative to the base game’s, well, stop worrying. To carry forward the MMO-speak, there’s a “DPS check” here that will downright force you to master the fine art of dealing as much damage as possible in a small window of opportunity or die trying. A friend of mine describes it as the kind of experience one typically only gets in FF14’s raids; it’s a delicately-timed dance, this boss fight, and you’ve got to learn the steps. There’s no other way to win.

Kairos Gate, a new roguelike multi-stage battle mode with amazing classic FF embellishments in its charming-as-heck menus, is similarly enthralling. It’s especially challenging on the game’s harder setting, the unlockable Final Fantasy mode. This endgame-tier gauntlet is the perfect place to give those aforementioned new abilities a spin. You’ll steadily earn Kairos-specific stat increases for Clive, allowing you to get further and further across several attempts. There’s a nifty final boss at the end of the road if you ace every stage.

Other developer promises lead to somewhat more mixed results. For instance, Jill Warrick, one of my favorite characters in Final Fantasy 16, has some inherent ties to Mysidia as The Rising Tide’s central location is connected to her homeland, the defeated Northern Territories. At PAX East, the developers specifically mentioned Jill’s link, saying that Jill’s fans should expect some more story for her. Well, it’s true – but fairly superficial. I’m glad she tags along, to be sure. But her actual role is disappointingly tangential. Given FF16’s tendency to sideline the poor gal far more than the richness of her personality deserved, it’s bum news to see this chance to course-correct only partly seized.

There had also been mention of an “epilogue quest” that would unlock once players complete both DLCs, something which would provide some further sense of hope in light of Final Fantasy 16’s divisively bittersweet ending. We knew this epilogue would not be set after the main scenario, and those among us who’d been craving an expanded version of that ending were told rather flat-out that it wasn’t going to happen.

Fair enough! The point is, don’t expect this thing to do as much for you as you might be anticipating. It’s a neat little thing, but it involves the DLCs’ characters far more so than anyone in the game’s core crew, and it’s more for Mysidia than the continent of Valisthea at-large. In short, it’s not what I wanted.

So, The Rising Tide is ultimately a mixed bag. Mysidia is beautiful, but you can feel the DLC’s budgetary constraints sometimes when some of the more important cutscenes are undercut by less involved animations than they’d have gotten in the main game. The boss fights are absurdly good, Shula’s a hoot, and there’s plenty else in there that’s worth your time. But the side quests are (mostly) still kind of whatever, and you’ll have seen everything there is to see in the setting’s village in, like, four minutes. Jill’s chance to shine is a partly-cloudy endeavor. That epilogue quest is merely serviceable. But the worldbuilding is rich, some of the new powers in Clive’s flashy array of murder tools are sublime, and Kairos Gate is a blast.

Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide

Pros

• Excellent boss fights to rival the main game’s best
• Kairos Gate is a great place to test out these new abilities
• More delicious FF16 worldbuilding

Cons

• Side quests still won’t wow you
• Jill is, once again, rather sidelined

Score: 3.5/5.

Next

Sand Land Review: Well, So It Goes!

You’re better off just watching the anime.