This past summer, Will Silberman went head-first into Final Fantasy XVI and reviewed the absolute hell out of it. He found it to be a rich and perfect experience with a compelling set of characters driving a meaningful story. In my opinion, Will nailed everything great about the game in one long review.
Wanting to prolong that experience and give more context to the narrative, Square Enix followed the main quest up with a DLC called Echoes of the Fallen. Compared to the main quest, playing the DLC felt like a small extension to the FFXVI world that gives reasons to keep playing thanks to new level caps and cool equipment rather than a compelling story. Sometimes that is enough to get on board with DLC.
Clean off that giant sword, feed that Chocobo before we head out, and let’s get going on this crystal-clear review.
Simple story compared to its big brother
Echoes of the Fallen focuses on Clive and the crew’s ascension into the Fallen’s Sagespire, a giant structure that is more creepy than cool. After finding additional crystals with a group of traders, who are not interested in answering Clive’s questions about new crystals showing up in the world, he soon finds his way to a giant spire that is massive as it is creepy. Within the spire, the story unveils that the Fallen were researchers and they did some ‘questionable’ things to creatures in the land. It’s a bit horrifying but nothing quite Resident Evil.
Echoes of the Fallen’s story is simple in structure, action-driven, and short in stature. There isn’t anything wrong with a short DLC story experience, especially one of this nature where the gameplay drives the moment rather than the narrative. The problem lies within coming out of the FFXVI story and into this less-than-complex story, where you’re expecting this great narrative extension but coming up short in the process. It’s an especially tough sell when the gameplay only lasts about three hours. There is honestly not enough time for this adventure to be narratively meaningful.
Now, Echoes of the Fallen has a couple of purposes when it comes to narrative, so it’s not a waste of time. It is meant to deepen the tale of the Fallen, an ancient civilization that existed before FFXVI’s events, while also giving the gamer a purpose for continuing their FFXVI adventure and acquiring new items. If you needed a reason to keep fighting, then the story with Echoes of the Fallen does enough to push you into ascending a large boss-tiered spire to give you more. If you wanted more context about the game’s past civilization, then this creates a bigger space for the developers at Square Enix to play and figure out who these beings were that left the world in such chaotic magical ruin. Maybe we get more context and backstory (or prequel story) in the next DLC go-around. I certainly hope so because I want to know more. Anyway, there aren’t many blanks filled in because of this DLC, but it does deepen the mystery and helps create room for a bigger story down the line.
Anyway, the story is short, sweet, and driven by action. You’ll take that any day of the week, I’m sure, especially if you wrapped up the main game and all its side quests. This will quench your thirst for more.
The fighting, the gear, and the beauty
While the morsel of the story included in this DLC may not fulfill your appetite for heavy and deep storylines, the action will certainly occupy your action plate. Echoes of the Fallen treats the action as if you’re playing a tiered Mortal Kombat tower. As you fight your way to the next platform to meet and fight the next set of enemies and boss, you ascend to the next level where the difficulty increases, and you’re met with new challenges. It’s a continual climb upward that keeps delivering a new difficulty that has you focused and locked in on the action. People love challenges and create new ways to take down a tougher bad guy than the previous, so this fits that bill.
While I played on the story-centric mode of the game, which didn’t offer much of a challenge but allowed me to take in Clive’s adventure throughout the main quest, the baddies delivered in Echoes of the Fallen were more of a challenge than expected. I can count on one hand how many times I died in the main campaign. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count my deaths in Echoes of the Fallen, and that’s just the last boss. It took me nearly 30-40 minutes to bring the last boss down.
Anyway, I could see how the gameplay structure was put together with the DLC and the small bits of story did help make the bosses more than just a fighting carousel, but the difficulty helped capture my interest throughout and had me hooked until the end.
Now, beyond the action and difficulty through the ascension, a few upgrades were included to push the DLC and make it a bit more worthwhile. The first is that the level cap increases for all modes of play. For me, it was increased to 55, which wasn’t too far off from the 50 I ended with before the DLC started. For those difficulty freaks out there, the cap increases in Final Fantasy Mode to 105. I don’t know how people can garnish fun with more difficulty, but my hat is tipped to you and your efforts. You’re beautifully crazy.
In addition to the cap level increase, the game also rewards players with new equipment. For my efforts in completing this DLC, I was awarded a pretty badass Fallen sword. I’m sure when I revisit this game later and try again, I can get the other items, but getting a new exotic sword to go and slice/dice baddies was reward enough. I’m not complaining.
Aside from difficult bosses, new level caps, and equipment to keep motivated to take on that very difficult boss at the end to unveil some Fallen secrets, the DLC is a wonderful reminder of how gorgeous this game is graphically. I’m still in awe of FFXVI’s visuals. It makes up for some of its narrative shortcomings. The spire is huge, it’s breathtaking, and there isn’t a lick of space wasted with a lack of detail. It fits perfectly with the rest of Final Fantasy XVI adventure.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Echoes of the Fallen is a gorgeous addition to Final Fantasy XVI’s main campaign. At most, it brings new vicious enemies that offer new levels of challenge to the player with motivating rewards waiting in the wings for those that take it on. While the story does add more intrigue to who the Fallen might have been before Clive was a gleam in his parents’ eyes, the DLC seems to be more focused on the game’s action and beauty rather than a deep storyline.
