Summary
In a lot of ways,Final Fantasy 16’s Rising Tide DLC does not disappoint. It offers plenty of fresh content in the form of a new story in an all-new location, newwater-based Leviathan skills for Clive, more side quests to complete, and new gear to craft. The Rising Tide’s boss fights, especially, are among its best features, asFinal Fantasy 16continues to prove itself as a masterclass in video game boss fights. In addition to The Rising Tide’s main content on the island of Mysidia, players can visit the Arete Stone at the Hideaway to participate in the new Kairos Gate mode, which doubles as one of the game’s most challenging activities yet. However, despite the valuable rewards players can obtain from completing Kairos Gate and the rewarding feeling of accomplishment that comes with it, the activity could still be better.
In Kairos Gate, players progress through what the activity refers to as “twenty circles of existential torment.” Each circle hosts a formidable challenge forFinal Fantasy 16players to overcome and typically revolves around defeating waves of enemies and powerful bosses. These challenges are made even more difficult by restrictions on level, gear, and consumables — meaning that any players who have gotten used to usingFinal Fantasy 16’s accessibility rings will be out of luck here unless they activate the appropriate Boons and disqualify their scores for the global leaderboard. That being said, upon completing a circle, players can spend Enhancement Points and Boon Points to apply permanent upgrades to Clive for their Kairos Gate run. While the purpose of Kairos Gate is to allow players opportunities to earn weapons, accessories, and crafting materials, this is precisely where it could be improved.
How Final Fantasy 16’s Kairos Gate Could Be Even Better
Kairos Gate Is Worth Doing, Just for the Rewards
Kairos Gate can certainly prove to be a rewarding experience. After all, that is really the whole purpose of doing the activity in the first place. If players are able to complete all twenty circles of Kairos Gate, they will receive eight Creator accessories that can be used to buffUltima’s Eikonic abilitiesand Radiant versions of the Eikonic blades. Furthermore, if players complete all twenty circles in Final Fantasy mode, they will receive Original Sin, the most powerful weapon inFinal Fantasy 16to date. Unfortunately, the rewards are arguably where Kairos Gate ultimately shoots itself in the foot.
Kairos Gate’s Rewards Are Ultimately Its Downfall
Much like inBorderlands 3, which sees players collecting increasingly powerful weapons in the endgame with almost no purpose attached to doing so,Final Fantasy 16’s Kairos Gateprovides powerful rewards that are essentially useful for nothing. After completing Kairos Gate and obtaining the best rewards, players have nothing to use them on unless they go through the base game again in a subsequent playthrough. The only issue there is that they are then entirely too overpowered for everything ahead of them. Kairos Gate could solve this by having more replayability, perhaps by providing different (or more difficult) variations of each circle or randomized enemies with each run to keep players on their toes.
Kairos Gate does have some form ofreplay valueby posting players' scores to a global leaderboard. With this feature, competitive players can repeatedly play through Kairos Gate in an attempt to get a higher placement on the leaderboard. However, a feature such as this is fairly niche, as not everyone is so concerned about how they rank among the world’s bestFinal Fantasy 16players. It’s unclear whether Square Enix plans to continue updating the Kairos Gate activity, but if it does, it should consider implementing some changes to increase its replayability and let players use their hard-earned equipment against increasingly challenging enemy groups.
Final Fantasy 16
WHERE TO PLAY
An epic dark fantasy world where the fate of the land is decided by the mighty Eikons and the Dominants who wield them.This is the tale of Clive Rosfield, a warrior granted the title “First Shield of Rosaria” and sworn to protect his younger brother Joshua, the dominant of the Phoenix. Before long, Clive will be caught up in a great tragedy and swear revenge on the Dark Eikon Ifrit, a mysterious entity that brings calamity in its wake.
