I jumped for joy at another chance to get back into my 2023 Game of the Year in Final Fantasy XVI with the surprise announcement of this DLC at The Game Awards. Imagining I was in for a brief experience, and with a three-four hour runtime I was, I'd hoped that Echoes of the Fallen with its bombastically vibrant trailer would capture the jaw-dropping magic that the main title was able to do. Generally it speaking it did, but there did exist flaws within this short DLC that I found unfortunately a little too much to ignore.

Visual Clarity is a big thing for me in games, I really like being able to see the ooh's and ahh's but not at the expense of mechanical understanding and movement within an encounter. FFXVI had a few moments in the eikon fights that I legitimately could not tell what was going on, it's something I struggle with in games and FFXVI was a prime example of where this happens. Echoes of the Fallen contains a few miniboss fights with a major boss at the end. The first miniboss was mostly alright but again just awkward enough in the amount of touhou level mechanics thrown at you that I got hit by moves I thought I normally wouldn't. Where it really got bad was in the last fight against the big bad, I almost threw my hands up in the air in a bout of intensified confusion because of all the visual clutter. I loved FFXVI, I love the scale of these fights, but there's only so much purples/reds/yellows that I can take coming at each and every angle all the time before my ability to follow what's going on is completely lost.

Outside of slight complaints, the location itself was really neat, the runtime probably perfect for a near to end-game DLC addition, but the visual overload and combo-locking bosses was unfortunately not my cup of tea. Once more, Masayoshi Soken delivers a fantastic (yet short) soundtracking experience, the ultimate boss theme being one of the cooler tracks in the entire game. I recommend this if you're playing through FFXVI, but maybe not a must-see for players thinking about getting back into it.

Final Fantasy XVI: Echoes of the Fallen

Me parece una vergüenza que te cobren 10€ por el endgame que debería haber tenido el juego. Pero las peleas están bastante guays, y el boss final está guapísimo.

(6'5/10)

Le pondría un 0 solo por lo de que te cobren, pero bueno...

I was excited for the release of the two DLC's for this game, even more surprised to find that the first DLC released the same night it was announced. Wasn't able to play it last night, but I did beat it in one go this afternoon.

Echoes of the Fallen doesn't feel like much of a detour like some other DLC stories, it actually ties into the main plot pretty well. And overall, it was pretty good.

The story is decent, but I was just happy to play as Clive again, going on another adventure with the team. And as soon as I booted the game back up, I was just happy to be back.

Gameplay and combat took getting used to, I haven't played the base game since July, so I was a bit rusty. But there's nothing quite like having the controls click again after awhile. And you need to, because Echoes of the Fallen is no walk in the park.

What seems to be the main focus of the DLC is dungeon crawling, encountering boss after boss, wave after wave of enemies. It was cool seeing some new enemies, a new area to explore, and some phenomenal music. The final boss especially was so much fun, and the boss music was so unique to the game, and just incredible.

By the end you get some new items, and a new sword, the strongest in the game as well. And you're ready for the next DLC, or New Game + perhaps. Echoes of the Fallen wasn't mind blowing or anything, but it was a nice tie into the main story, and just a great return to what I consider one of the best games of the year.

Un DLC que se puede considerar como rellenito para el endgame, pero qué bien sienta volver a este juego y con una mazmorrita tan bien cuidada.

Es una fase en la que te cuentan cosas de los empíreos, te dan equipo nuevo, puedes llevar la espada de Cloud Strife, está bien trabajada, tiene nuevos temones para la BSO y, sobre todo, el jefe final está entre los combates más putamente guays de todo el juego (que ya es decir). Pura emoción y perfecto momento (y sde sorpresa) para hacer tiempo hasta Leviatán.

We have a Pokémon Sword and Shield, Scarlet and Violet scenario where the first dlc is fine and it's the second one where shit hits the fan. The ost is great as expected from Final Fantasy, I died for the first time during the Omega boss which I found to be a nice shift in difficulty (it was still pretty easy but not a total cake walk). Wielding the Buster Sword is cool as are the new Fallen Bits accessories. What sucks is that you have to pay to play this. This all definitely should have been a free update! Guess Square Enix are trying to compensate for the underwhelming sales.

i rarely feel like this with DLC but honestly this one should have been the base game's post-game, since it had literally nothing.

the new bosses might be the best in the game and the dungeon is thematically cool, even if it's exactly like every other dungeon in the game. makes me think X and XIII had something really smart going for them because even if they have linear dungeons, they don't feel disjointed or like weird guided spectacles at all, they just feel like they fit nicely into to the game.

still fun though!

Positive are that we are spending more time with the party, hard and challenging boss fight, new update to the lore and on inner thoughts of the characters.

Negative, the new characters are not that interesting to be honest.

It feel like this DLC is meant to be a teaser of the the second DLC, since this one is more focused on fights and new attack mechanics. I won’t lie it was super hard for me comparing to the original game.

Fun time for the fan of ff16, can’t wait for the next one next year 😁

Echoes of the Fallen was kind of a filler DLC, but a good enough one at that. the new songs are great as always and the new boss was sick to fight, i wish we had an eikon x eikon fight tho.

there isn't much lore that matters despite it linking well with the main plot.
not espetacular and not bad either, just in between.
for a dlc that released the day it was announced, i'd say it was fine enough.

No geral, me passa muito a vibe de um patch de FFXIV, sendo que um pouco mais "filler". É simples e curto, mas traz alguns pontos interessantes aqui e alí para o arco principal do jogo e aproveita bem as mecânicas introduzidas anteriormente, com novos encontros e lutas contra chefes que são divertidos e oferecem um desafio a mais interessante. Gosto de como essa DLC explora mais a fundo toda a amplitude que o moveset do Clive tem na reta final, utilizando de um design de lutas que lembra o próprio Final Fantasy XIV (coisa que o jogo base já fazia mas que aqui fica ainda mais evidente), as lutas formam padrões de ataque que cobram posicionamento e timing em diversas camadas ao mesmo tempo, enquanto oferece brechas para que o jogador possa reverter a situação à seu favor através de um conhecimento maior sobre às capacidades do Clive. A última luta da DLC, é a que melhor demonstra isso, ela é longa, funciona de forma rotativa, e se utiliza de ataques em área e bullet hell em conjunto para criar padrões densos que cobram por diversas formas, ao mesmo tempo, de se posicionar e movimentar na luta, mas dependendo de como você usa o Clive, pode tentar usar projéteis ao seu favor pra dar mais dano, dar counter onde for possível, manipular iframes para ignorar o ataque, etc. Além disso, uma coisa que me surpreendeu um tanto, é o fato de que essa DLC expande um pouco a possibilidade de build, com acessórios novos que trazem mudanças bem mais substanciais que apenas porcentagem de dano ou redução de cooldown. No geral, é uma boa adição ao "pós-game" e oferece mais situações para aproveitar o combate, coisa que sentia um pouco de falta no jogo.

for what it adds to the game, absolutely not worth the money

2 hours of content with a couple challenging boss fights and 1 (very) cool one but theres no reason it couldn't've been a postgame quest to hype up a DLC with more substance. Really looking forward to the second one because I think it'll be doing just that but this one here is a robbery.

AT LEAST they couldve given more character moments for Jill and Joshua or even the main character himself except they treat it like a side-quest where they're just bystanders.

The reward for completing this is some stronger gear, not even a Fallen themed costume set like we got in that update a while back. Big letdown for the first of 2 DLCs we got hyped up for, could've been 2 really cool new stories except it's now gonna be just 1 (hopefully...)