First of all, I apologize for the ~24-hour delay that has occurred while publishing this review. Sadly, making guides for 100% of the content in Vampire Survivors: Tides of the Foscari DLC has taken a great toll on me, and I needed to catch a break. However, during this break, I kept trying to figure out how I could post a review to readers of Prima Games that would convince them to buy and enjoy this lovely DLC without spoiling anything, but it will be very, VERY hard. Meh, I guess you’ll need to take my word for it as an alternate way of extracting value out of this review. In that case, roll the credits, we’re done here.
Tides of the Foscari Review – Seasons in the Abyss
I promise I’ll tread carefully with what I write. I’ll start by saying that team poncle has definitely outdone itself on this one. I loved the core game, and I absolutely loved the previous DLC Legacy of the Moonlight (review available here) but this one is not one, but at least two steps ahead. For one, Tides of the Foscari has some sort of a story. Now, the base of the story is kinda… cliché, in my opinion, but Vampire Survivors is not exactly known for its storytelling or holding your hand, is it now?
That’s a definite advantage, because you are completely encouraged to use your imagination to fill in the gaps and enrich the story yourself, and create your very own lore, backstory, character origin stories, etc. It seems that they listened to my critique of the previous Legacy of the Moonlight DLC, and they indeed implemented some sort of quests in the game that you will need to pass if you want to clear the content of the DLC.
Or you can just use the new tools given to you by poncle to mindlessly farm millions of gold and golden eggs.
Related: Complete Vampire Survivors: Tides of the Foscari DLC Speedrun Walkthrough
Is Tides of the Foscari a better DLC than Legacy of the Moonspell?
Definitely. But this shouldn’t be a reason for you to pass on the Legacy of the Moonspell DLC. Tides of the Foscari has a great level design which we haven’t seen before in Vampire Survivors, and pretty graphics (it’s really visible that they did make an effort in that department as well, despite this being pixel graphics and all that). They definitely took the best things out of Legacy of the Moonspell and offered further improvements to the product. So, the core of the game is basically the same, but even if you feel “burned out” from all the grinding, this will be a breath of fresh air, as you can’t just plow straight through the levels with your “over 9000 golden eggs character”, and there are twists and turns to tackle.
Initially, you might be bored, but fear not, things get significantly better pretty quickly.
Poncle also made a decent effort in the marketing department before the release which certainly got the community hyped. Based on Steam Charts, the number of players quadrupled upon the release, and that speaks volumes (sadly, no information is available about Xbox, Android, and iOS player count, but I estimate that it might be the same or better).
Should You Buy Vampires Survivors: Tides of the Foscari DLC? Is it Really Worth Buying?
Vampire Survivors: Tides of the Foscari DLC definitely has things you can have fun with for the silly and customer-friendly price of just $2. You’ll have 2-8 hours of fun while exploring and unlocking the content in this DLC (depending on how fast you want to go through stuff). Let’s also mention the music, which is now pretty much known to be great and fitting for the game’s theme. Finally, poncle definitely deserves more. Remember, team poncle refused to put microtransactions in their Android/iOS game. In fact, they gave the base game for free, you just need to pay for the DLCs. Reminds us of the good old-school gaming days when you buy a finished product and have fun with it with no strings attached.
“That being said, the question is not whether you can afford to buy this DLC, but whether you can afford NOT TO.”
Also, they fulfilled their promise (something that I mentioned in the LotM review) and they are working on the new engine. Technically, you can try it right now since it’s in beta, but it’s much better than the old one, which makes even the best PCs falter. With the new engine, things look and function better. In fact, I am farming Gold in the background on the new map as I am typing this review out.
Related: How to Test New Engine in Vampire Survivors on PC and Steam Deck and Reduce Lag and Stuttering
That being said, the question is not whether you can afford to buy this DLC, but whether you can afford NOT TO.
I wonder what’s next for poncle and Vampire Survivors in 2023? How will they raise the bar? Is new content for the core game coming at version 1.5, or will we get another DLC (1.3 was LotM, and Tides of the Foscari is 1.4)? We can’t wait to see it.
Big thanks to all community members who supported the Prima Games guides for Tides of the Foscari DLC by reading and sharing them from the moment the DLC came out, and a major shoutout to poncle for making such a simple indie game into something hundreds of thousands of players are enjoying, whether they play it hardcore or casually.
Pros:
- Interesting story setting
- Putting even more twists in the gameplay compared to the previous DLC
- Maintaining a good relationship with the community
Cons:
- Some minor bugs and glitches (that are seemingly solved with the new engine beta)
Final Words
I would love to say something generic like, “I want a longer story and more quests” and all that, but it’s $2 we are talking about, let’s be freaking real. Team poncle is a small team and, because of everything they’ve done, we should let them develop the game at their own pace, because they obviously strive to deliver interesting content to us.
When you look at it from a different angle, Vampire Survivors is a simple and dumb game, but it has the “X factor”, which has given it a cult following. It would be a meme of all memes if Vampire Survivors eventually would have the most DLCs on Steam (look up the current record owner, and you’ll perhaps die laughing).
I have written myself into a corner. You already know this is going to be a 10 because the core game and the first DLC got a 9 each. Improvements are clearly visible, and it would not be possible or fair to give it a 9 or lower.
Score: 10
A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PC.
