I bought and started this DLC right when it dropped since I was so damn hungry for XVI content back then. Played it for about 2 hours, had a blast re-learning all the gameplay moves and stuff, and was generally very happy to be back with Clive and the gang, striking down fools with the power of friendship. I found out it was a pretty short DLC so I saved the last hour for whenever the next DLC drops. It's supposed to drop in the next 24 hours, so here I am.

Echoes is pretty much a meaty, sizeable dungeon run; the kind you would expect to be abundant in these sort of RPGs. And XVI certainly had a lot of them already, so Echoes doesn't necessarily break new ground on that department. In fact, it doesn't really break any ground. It pretty much keeps all the qualities of the main game: entertaining dialogue, fantastic looking environments, great soundtrack, fun minibosses, and an amazing final boss.

The plot of Echoes definitely feels like one of those filler anime episodes, except there's no drop in quality, it just feels filler because it doesn't directly relate to the main story. If you talk to Harpocrates and browse the Thousand Tomes, the game will mention that Clive's accounts of this DLC will not count towards his wisdom, and that's probably the most apt way to describe Echoes' event, haha. But we do get some more badass Clive lines, so it was certainly not for naught.

But Echoes truly excels in the enemies it introduces. Omicron is a speedy miniboss that feels particularly satisfying to perfect dodge against, and the Ancient Minotaur near the end absolutely wrecked me a couple times. The absolute peak is the final boss here; Omega in all their forms. Their attack patterns and moves are so fun to deal with, it's basically a good distillation of some of my favorite parts of XVI bosses: chaotic bullet hell and AoE attacks mixed with quick blows and lunges that you gotta dodge well. And of course Omega's soundtrack fucking owns.

Aside from that, I don't think Echoes will stick out to me whenever I think of FFXVI in the future. But as far as I'm concerned, it does its job of being this neat, little appetizer before The Rising Tide, and that's all I expected from this. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be crying to My Star on the Orchestrion.

P.S. it's insane that they let us transmog Clive's sword to the Buster Sword. I will NOT be switching back to any other sword model haha

+ More voice acting
+ New dungeon is fun
+ Great idea for a boss
+ Good visuals
+ Even better music
+ Fun worldbuilding
+ The enemy designs are SICK looking and so is the areas you fight them in

- Could use more story
- Setup is a little weak

Exactly what I expected.
It's a short but sweet expansion that adds a new cool area to explore, new music tracks, some additional weapons and tools which are pretty strong, and arguably one of the best and most challenging boss fights in the entire game.

I enjoyed the new story arc despite the slow start, it adds some important things to the overall lore. Also it's cheap so if you enjoyed the main game it's definitely worth buying.

Final Rating: "Good" ~ 7/10.

A great but unessential part of FFXVI's experience and story.

The new "characters" they added were nothing of note, but the short boss-run-like experience was exciting and never overstayed its welcome. The further unraveling of the mysteries of the Fallen was neat and the new weapons and gear are worthwhile.

I wish there was more communication between Jill, Joshua, and Clive, but what we got was fine. It's well worth the price of admission and a great time if you enjoyed the base game (or, are enjoying it and want a little more at the very end).

Mais do mesmo. DLC totalmente dispensável.

Se fosse integrada ao jogo como uma missão secundária, faria muito mais sentido e seria, praticamente, a única missão secundária interessante e mais elaborada do jogo.

História boa, explica um pouco mais sobre a origem e história dos Decaídos, mas não desenvolve tanto.

Poderia ser gratuita. Não justifica o preço.

I'm left mixed on this one. It has some cool concepts and aesthetics, finally some interesting accessories, more much needed party banter, and is host to a couple of the better (maybe even best?) boss fights in the game, but everything inbetween is pretty tepid and forgettable. This DLC screams "bonus" rather than another proper paid chunk of FFXVI. The story is conceptually cool, but it feels so far removed from the rest of the game and bereft of any stakes I may as well have forgotten it immediately after playing.

A DRIFTING TENDEEEER
COME RIDE, HEROES, RIDE
HER GALLEON SEVERED
AWAY WITH THE TIIIIDE

ITS PEAAAAAK RAAAAGHR

The first half of a 2 part DLC bundle, EotF goes into some lore surrounding an ancient civilisation wanting to play god, and how their efforts would lead to their demise. We saw bits about them in the base game, but getting more detail is always welcomed.

The gameplay is essentially one large dungeon, there’s a tower that you must reach the top of, and there are hordes of enemies standing in your path. The main draw are the new boss fights, they are absolutely incredible and plenty challenging.

The final boss is actually a throwback to a super boss from FF5 so that’s pretty cool, and it’s an awesome fight here, a visual spectacle as well as a true test of reflexes and planning.

The game showers you in new equipment which is absurdly powerful, it’s great… for the like 2 hours this lasts.

This is a really short DLC, you arrive at the tower, climb it, fight the boss and that’s literally it. Yeah it’s fun to do, but it doesn’t really do anything that different from the base game, and I think could easily be confused as an overproduced side quest.

I was pretty surprised when I reached the top, and like I said the final boss was great, but after it all, I just felt like this was an obligatory inclusion to make the DLC bigger overall. I’m guessing part 2 will be much more content filled to justify the price tag, but as is, this is fun, but completely skipable - 5/10

It's fine, you know, whatever. It's a slim, action game Final Fantasy XIV quest line that's slightly cheaper than a month's sub costs. Chase some jagoffs around, do a dungeon with exactly three (3) bosses and some trash mobs in between. Whether that sounds compelling is entirely up to you. But man, a little bit of distance makes this gameplay so much less compelling. Too much of this game relies on liberal usage of a generous dodge and managing a handful of cooldowns, done in the exact same way for every enemy. By the end of my main playthrough, I'd chosen a set of abilities that I thought were fun. (Basically revolving around using Lightning Rod and Zantetsuken to make the most out of a stagger.) There was really no point in me trying to iterate on that for a 2-3 hour DLC, and I just kinda did the same thing over and over. Coming to this after recently playing through Kingdom Hearts II, where you have to constantly change your strategies even for some basic encounters, really puts this into focus.

The biggest buzzkill was the first time I staggered the DLC's main boss. I had a Zantetsuken locked and loaded, a Lightning Rod there to cause extra hits and damage, and a Diamond Dust ready to juice up the damage multiplier. (It can go higher in the DLC than in the main game!) I pulled those off, then used Gungnir to prep a second Zantetsuken. But as I watched the animation play out, I realized that I wasn't actually doing any more damage. I'd forgotten! There's hard locks on how much damage you can do, because the fight has to transition to the next phase, make sure you see all the dramatic set pieces.

They are cool set pieces, no doubt. The fluidity and spectacle of some of that boss's animations did leave me awestruck in a couple of cases. But the animators' hard work gets highlighted over the work that I'm trying to put into to enjoy this thing; that all the effort I'd put into doing extra damage meant absolutely nothing. I had to play by the game's timeline, and I just don't know why I'd even bother trying to have fun with the game's mechanics at that point.

There is a lot to like about the main game, but this DLC mostly dragged into focus the things I don't like about it all that much. It's just an extra dungeon with a not-particularly-good story and a boss that cost a lot of money, but doesn't feel very different from any other boss in the game. It feels slightly like an obligation, just something they did because that's what you do with AAA games these days. Presumably the second DLC—which I will play, because I'm an idiot—will be a bit bigger, a bit tastier, will at least have a few new abilities to play with. This just kinda felt like a waste of everyone's time.

Also—small spoiler here—can I just say that rearranging the Omega theme from FFXIV is kinda tacky? They've used it enough times in its original game alone, don't really need to use it here, too. Not even a particularly good arrangement. Bleh.