The Rising Tide brings more Final Fantasy XVI, with both the positives and negatives.

I really found myself enjoying the opening hours, and found the new areas to explore breathtaking. The new story is engaging, and the new combat abilities are fun to play around with.

Unfortunately, I found the soundtrack okay, the new primal fight underwhelming, and the new "arcade" mode a rehash of existing systems. Sidequests return in their all their FF14 glory, that is more mundane MMO fetch quests.

Overall it's more FFXVI, a game I enjoyed. The price ¥2420, (about $15USD) fits for the amount of content, but I felt like there was lots of content I didn't ask for. I wish they had taken some feedback on board and played more to the games strengths.

Pretty mediocre expansion. It seems only Monolith Soft know how to make quality JRPG expansion passes. The first wave was okay (Omega was a fun fight) but I had a lot of expectations for this one and it did NOT deliver.

Story is mid as hell and the DLC was only like 3 hours long. Side quests are still super mediocre and I have no idea why they hyped up Jill having an expanded role, disappointed how they utilized her character once again. The new area at least looks nice and is more visually interesting than anything in the base game, I also thought the Leviathan fight was mechanically interesting although did not reach the heights of some Eikon fights in main story.

$25 is way too steep for this expansion pass when the Xenoblade games outclass this with a massive 20-30 hr expansion as well as 3 other waves of content. Overall pretty disappointing expansion and leaves a bit of a sour note on FFXVI which I feel is a flawed but decent game that could've used really solid DLC to improve on the base game as opposed to the middling DLC we received.

great music great setup overall but so much for it being the "Jill DLC" when she literally does nothing in this whole damn DLC it was marketed so wrong. made up a premise to setup the leviathan fight all just to butcher jills spotlight
honestly disappointed with how this came out seeing as this most likely the last thing that's going to get added to XVI which is a very very special game to me. and even the leviathan fight wasn't all that and annoying in some parts
i loved this but it just doesn't match the usual quality and i really really fucking love the base game to death it means the world to me but this just sends me off with a sour taste in my mouth and a hint of sadness over wasted potential. THIS COULD'VE BEEN JILLS TIME TO SHINE

The Rising Tide is a decent enough DLC, though it suffers from many of the issues that plagued the FFXVI base game.

Having two more sets of Eikon abilities helps ease the repetitiveness of the base game's combat and the DLC's story, while short, does wrap up a few of the loose ends while also tying in nicely with Echoes of the Fallen. Finally getting to fight Tonberries in this game was also very fun.

Side quests are still as bland and tedious as ever, unfortunately, While the DLC's difficulty is stepped up just like EotT, a welcome change from the breeze that was the main game, the final boss can be frustrating and even borders on unfair with one of its mechanics in particular.

It's also very disappointing that completing the DLC has no impact whatsoever on the base game's ending, given how it vastly changes the situation surrounding the ending. Feels like a huge missed opportunity.

The rising tide is an amazing final farewell to FF16. The new Eikon is incredibly fun and versatile, and the boss fights, as always, are immaculate. Misidia is also a perfect contrast to the rest of the games world. It really does show what all the crystals have taken from the land by showing what COULD be, a lush peaceful environment compared to the dying war torn twins. I will say I do wish the expansion was longer, I beat it in 2 sittings and was kind of hoping for more, and I did NOT like the DPS phase of the final boss, but besides that, it was a wonderful farewell to FFXVI, I'll miss this game so much.

A particular moment that stuck out to me from this DLC is when Clive and the gang experience Mysidia firsthand, seeing blue skies and lush green life once again, after being deprived of it by Ultima. Their awe was not unlike mine. This new location is indeed a sight for eyes sore of gloomy skies. In that way, the DLC has already filled a hole that XVI had for a good amount of its runtime. And I think that is a pretty good summation of The Rising Tide; it is what XVI needed to become truly whole.

You can see that theme in Tide's story as well. For the most part, you will be assisting Shula, a leader of a tribe of people who used to live in the South before the fall of Drake's Horn, in rescuing Leviathan's dominant from a cruel fate concocted by her ancestors. In many ways, her journey runs parallel to Clive's, as she has to be the one to step up to the plate, decide what is best for her people, and bear the consequences of their actions. Both Shula and Clive learn from each other, and in turn, they become closer to what their people need them to be. It is a very solid foundation that helps Tide's story arc to be one of the stronger ones in XVI overall.

Then you have Leviathan's powers, which, in gameplay, fill a new role that the other Eikons haven't truly served. With their long-range attacks and high evasion capabilities, it's basically a great zoning tool to have while you are rapidly crunching down on the enemies' stagger gauge. It plays almost like some of those lock-on-based shooters, from back when the gaming industry hadn't truly figured out aiming and shooting mechanics yet. And it's a blast to use. For me, one of the most satisfying parts of XVI's combat is killing mobs as fast as possible, and Leviathan's high stagger damage is very helpful indeed.

And of course, we have to talk about XVI's special sauce: the Eikon boss fights. Leviathan is easily my 2nd favourite Eikon fight, and fellow XVI enjoyers will probably know how high of a praise that is. It's not the most epic in terms of pure spectacle and presentation, but it's definitely the most challenging one. Died a couple times trying to pass the DPS check, and was also too eager to use all my health items in the last stage, haha. Gotta shout out the Timekeeper boss too, probably my favorite non-Eikon boss fight in XVI.

I do have some slight disappointments, the biggest one being the lack of Jill's involvement considering the Southern setting. But overall, I am very satisfied with this DLC. If CBU3 really decides to move on from XVI after this, then it is indeed a wonderful note to end on. XVI has been living rent-free on my mind for almost a full year now, and The Rising Tide has only strengthened its place, like rain seeping into the soil and nourishing life.

A bit of a letdown really. It feels like they just extended 16 by a few hours with its own similar sidequests, an okay eikon battle, and just generally easy even in FF mode. I had hopes they would fix some issues and was looking forward to their endgame dungeon, whatever you want to call it. It's just 20 waves, with 15 of them feeling way too similar and the rest just repeating one phase of past bosses. Even the secret boss is just a repeat with a couple of new moves. I genuinely think this hurts my perception of the game. I didn't really think all the new Eikon abilities were great, but a couple were fun to use.

A solid DLC featuring the game’s strengths and weaknesses. It definitively does a good job of explaining Leviathan’s absence from the main game whilst approaching it in an interesting and different way from the other Eikons. The main area is stunning and the new characters are compelling and Clive’s as amazing as his companions are useless, standard FF16 stuff we love. And they added in a rogue-like mode, cause that’s what the kids are into these days.

As a side note, I love how every side quest adds lore tidbits, it’s a strength of the game and I love how they kept that. I do wish they weren’t as shoehorned into the UI and had more meat in them, but as a lore nerd I’m satisfied.

I’d just be sad this is it for this cast. They are so great and full of untapped potential it’d be a waste to just move on.

If you love FF16 like me, get this dlc, it's more of what you love. The battle against Leviathan, his powers as well as Ultima's, the music, graphics, exploring the new region, all of that is awesome. One thing I didn't expect to love was Shula. She is so hot, to me at least.

I like how a "balance" patch came with this dlc where they buffed all the shit abilities nobody used. They are certainly stronger, but no one is going to use them considering we have two new eikon abilities to play with. And boy are they strong, overpowered even. Additionally, the meta to destroying bosses is still the same: cycle through your ultimate abilities because they deal the most damage/stagger and slow time so you'll be able to recharge them in no time. Again, no real point in using the newly buffed abilities.

Included in the patch are quality of life changes such as having 5 sets of eikon abilities as well as being able to instantly teleport when you are about to complete a quest. These are certainly nice but why weren't in the game on day one? Weird oversight, I guess.

What sucks? Some of the side quests. To unlock the store, blacksmith and chocobo riding, you need to do a side quest respectively. How do you complete the side quests? Talk to NPCs. That's it. Not even a single enemy to fight. Talk about boring and unnecessary. This was so stupid I have to dock off a point.

Overall, The Rising Tide is a very epic dlc though it sucks that it isn't free. Square Enix has to scramble as much money as they can from this game and FF7 Rebirth's poor sales.

Feeling pretty conflicted on this since The Rising Tide was positioned as the more significant DLC package of the two in the season pass, but it ends up being more like two Echoes of the Fallens in a trenchcoat.

This DLC has almost exactly the same structure as its predecessor down to the same number of major bosses (I don't count the Egi since it's recurring and is more a glorified ability tutorial) but stretched out to maybe twice the runtime. It also includes a handful of new sidequests that really do nothing but pad out its length and unlock features you already have in the main game. Gameplay-wise the new options are a good enough time, but everything else around it I found pretty uninspired, aside from the yet again best-in-class difficult boss fights. Other than that... Tonberries were cool, I guess? I was also somewhat disappointed that the proportion of interesting gameplay-altering accessories seemed lesser than Echoes.

While the story here is a little better and more pertinent to the main plotline than its predecessor, I still found it mostly pretty uninteresting give or take a couple small high points, and the ending really feels like they ran out of budget or time as the characters basically turn to the camera and say "this is why we're not doing this obvious thing" and then you randomly get granted a new ability that feels meant for when you would have possibly done that thing. I dunno!

Just... Man. I really do wish I liked it more. My heart says go lower but at worst its about at the same level as Echoes so... There it is.