Echoes in our wake

As talked about above, Echoes of the Fallen is strictly endgame content material. It’s straight up inaccessible till you’ve each reached the ultimate story quest within the sport and have accomplished a handful of endgame missions. With these necessities out of the way in which, Clive will obtain a tip from Charon about some bizarre new crystals circulating round Valisthea. And for those who’ve performed sufficient Closing Fantasy XVI to enter this DLC, then that shock crystals are type of a trigger for concern for Mr. Rosfield. Naturally, he gathers his finest buddies collectively to analyze.

After chasing down some unscrupulous retailers peddling the ill-gotten wares, Clive finds himself in an historic Fallen facility crammed with robotic baddies. Once more, it’s the standard Closing Fantasy beat, so there’s no less than one godly robotic monster lurking about.

From a narrative perspective, Echoes of the Fallen is okay. In case you deal with it like an endgame dungeon you’d discover in different RPGs, it’s about what you’d anticipate. The speedy plot doesn’t additional the core story, but it surely affords some neat lore for superfans to take pleasure in. The questline additionally options good cutscenes and voicework as effectively, so these hoping for extra time with Clive and buddies will get what they need. Simply don’t anticipate a story that essentially mirrors the standard of the primary story.

Granted, the plot largely exists to arrange some epic set items, which Echoes of the Fallen does ship.

Echoes of the Fallen loosely falls into two phases. The primary is what I’d name an establishing part, taking you to a couple areas the place you’ll discuss with some individuals and combat some baddies. That is typical Closing Fantasy XVI side-questing, all instructed. In case you can entry Echoes of the Fallen, you understand how you are feeling about this quest construction.

The second part is the true meat and potatoes of the DLC. The brand new dungeon, The Sagespire, follows the standard dungeon construction you’d come to anticipate by this level. The principle variations are its distinctive visuals and its comparatively greater depth in comparison with different dungeons. Fortuitously, you’ll discover quite a lot of helpful tools right here to offset this. Taking part in on my regular file (that’s to say, not Closing Fantasy mode), I wound up filling 4 of my six tools slots with stuff discovered within the dungeon.

Whereas the brand new toys had been enjoyable to search out, it’s the brand new boss battles that gripped me. I wouldn’t fairly say that the fights had been outright onerous, however they definitely made me work more durable than I sometimes did all through the primary sport. You’ll discover a good mixture of previous and new mechanics at play right here, which regularly present some enjoyable and frantic bouts of precision dodging and counterattacking on the proper second. It’s troublesome to actually clarify boss encounters like this, however for those who’ve appreciated how Closing Fantasy XVI usually handles its more durable fights, you need to like what Echoes of the Fallen places on the desk.

All instructed, the ultimate boss of The Sagespire is completely the spotlight of the complete DLC. It’s a busy, hectic, multi-phase boss battle that isn’t afraid to throw the kitchen sink at you. Count on plenty of motion, plenty of lasers, and even some bullet-hell fashion moments only for good measure. All of that is accompanied by a monitor that Masayoshi Soken went completely off-the-wall on. Closing Fantasy XIV followers are going to have big smiles on their faces, that’s all I’ll say.

That mentioned, after that, the DLC simply type of ends. The speedy plot threads are put to relaxation, and it’s mainly throughout in 4 hours at most. You may, in idea, squeeze a little bit extra life out of the DLC for those who play it in your first playthrough and on the New Recreation + unique Closing Fantasy mode. Moreover, for those who’re actually hardcore, you possibly can intention for a leaderboard excessive rating in Arcade Mode. However for those who had been anticipating a brand new marketing campaign, Echoes of the Fallen actually ain’t it.

Echoes of the Fallen runs for $9.99 by itself, or for $24.99 as a part of the enlargement go. Whether or not it’s well worth the money or not is as much as you. There’s no proper or unsuitable reply right here, however I do suppose the brevity of the package deal is price mentioning. I had fun with it, however I wouldn’t need anybody to enter this pack pondering it’d provide greater than it does.