Final Fantasy 16’s Kairos Gate is Good, But It Could Be Great

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, new water-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, as Final Fantasy 16 continues 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 for Final Fantasy 16 players 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 using Final 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.

Related

Why Final Fantasy 16’s Rising Tide DLC Is Best Experienced Before Finishing the Main Story

Due to the inclusion of a character from its main story, Final Fantasy 16’s Rising Tide DLC is best experienced before finishing the base game.

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 buff Ultima’s Eikonic abilities and 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 in Final Fantasy 16 to 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 in Borderlands 3, which sees players collecting increasingly powerful weapons in the endgame with almost no purpose attached to doing so, Final Fantasy 16‘s Kairos Gate provides 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 of replay value by 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 best Final Fantasy 16 players. 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

Final Fantasy 16 is an action RPG developed by Square Enix. Set in the land of Valisthea, six different factions are on the brink of war due to a spreading disease known as the Blight. Much of the plot revolves around summoned monsters called Eikons, who are controlled by unique humans called Dominants. 

Released

June 22, 2023

Genre(s)

Action RPG

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence

How Long To Beat

36 Hours

Metascore

87

PS Plus Availability

N/A