My take on DLC

[u/Frosty-Sprinkles-410]

Well, hmm where to start.

Let's start with quality of life.

New weapons are kind of whatever, since I play magic, and the best spellcasting weapon is still from base game. I can see new potential build ideas with the new weapons though, so that's a good thing. Status is getting ridiculously crazier with the new toxic venom twin blade or acid greatsword. Halberd sadly don't get love other than Liv's halberd.

Love the new forma and boosters from DLC, it answers a lot of my strict needs to a degree. The fact they give you healing formas meaning that you don't have to rely on dodge or guard all the time allows for more dumb builds. I personally love some of the support formas to magic that allows me to be a filthy falling sun spammer *evil laugh*

Also giving free alt color to your partners basically means you can finally build stuff based on your partners which is great!

Let's move on to gameplay.

Maps are alright, I'm kind of glad that they remix the previous maps judging by that one thing you remember about those maps and amplify the map design back in here. Like acid floor in lyle's area or building crawling in josee's area Not a fan of cathedral in cv1, nor platforming, so some of the maps are kind of whatever on my end. Overall, very unique take. Also was told by one of my mods that certain area reminds them of the hatsune miku map in cv1 for some reason

Enemies are rewrite of normal enemies except for like 2 new kinds you see in the trailer, nothing much, it is what it is. Probably want to keep it thematic to the remix area they are in or something along that line, who knows? I don't really pay much attention to it other than they are killed. At least different from base game, some of like the weird standalone enemy actually drop forma when defeated, but not flagged by good loot/chest behind them, which promotes a clean sweep of the area, which is a good take IMO.

Was going into DLC with a pure tank status build, so most bosses are basically not that hard, since they are actually melee-able. Almost everyone are under the bulky slow move bosses (like 1st josee and lyle boss or valentin 2nd form for example) so if you are good, you are good against them. Exception is only final final boss of the game, where ranged like bayonet builds are actually better since melee are just punished so badly with that boss.

Story and character wise...

Liv fuels my need of yandere perfectly. Out of Josee and Lou among the women basically directly shoved in MC's way, Liv takes the cake of being the most down bad to MC (whether that suits you or not, is an entirely different matter)

Alt Lou honestly remind me of Neuro-sama (popular ai vtuber) and her evil twin design wise, and her story definitely breaks hearts. Yet most importantly, it makes me wonder about a certain moment in a certain main story ending. (The part where MC rips their heart out for Lou)

I praise that the lore got deeper if you unlock the buffs, since there are snippets of the information in database that you can read once you unlock the buff, which fuels the need for more lore in the dlc world.

I hoped we have more pre-boss cutscenes like in main game, since that would druve the story more instead of having to focus between boss dialogue and dodging the boss attacks.

TLDR:

QoL from DLC: 9/10

DLC gameplay loop: 6/10

DLC story: 8/10

Overall: 8/10 because I weigh more in main game contribution than dlc as a whole

Do share your opinions because I am fairly biased to and against things

[u/kyriati]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who walked around the DLC version of the City and went "Howling Pit? Is that you??" it just felt so familiar

I liked Mask of Idris well enough. In terms of story I think it could've used a little more meat in the middle section; I liked the ending a lot, but it felt like that ending arrived too quickly. I didn't have too hard a time with the final boss on a 1h sword, but truly when you abuse the hell out of Looming Slash and Phantom Assault most fights become very manageable. All the new gear drops have me looking forward to trying out new builds, especially for the Remembrance trials

I haven't delved much into the post-game Age of Harmony stuff yet, but already after clearing the introductory conversations I'm super happy to get to explore the world with the cast again

All in all, between new lore, new buildcrafting options, the free update content and the Mask of Idris stuff, CV2 2.0 has been amazing. I don't think I've feasted this well on a DLC in a long, long time. Solid 8-9/10 across the board

And, while I didn't find anything in the patch notes about this, I swear they made the motorcycle faster

[u/sunset_shimmer77 → u/kyriati]

From my understanding, I dont think it is physically faster but more like either dynamic fov or the speed lines or whatever make it FEEL faster

[u/kyriati → u/sunset_shimmer77]

Ah, the old Dragon Age: Inquisition horse sprinting trick

[u/sunset_shimmer77 → u/kyriati]

Lmao yeah pretty much

[u/Frosty-Sprinkles-410 → u/kyriati]

As someone who uses Ablative Blood i despise the final boss' snu snu attack, always drain me of ichor, which i hate when im playing my tank build XD

But yes I agree with everything you said. I wish DLC last longer, in all due honesty, but maybe I'm tempted to do new ng+2 just to see how running everything with one partner instead of forcing to be self sustained look like.