DLCXbox · PC · PlayStation · Switch

Vampire Survivors: Tides of the Foscari

Poncle · RPG, Action, Indie

Overview

A fighter, a mage, and a thief enter a forest: a quest. Explore a surprising new forest, called Lake, and wield incredible new weapons, like the sword, the arrow, and the magic, in this fantasy based on fantasy. Mow down thousands of enemies for glory and treasure once again, in Tides of the Foscari

Tides of the Foscari is the second DLC expansion for Vampire Survivors, introducing another huge stage as well as a slate of new characters, monsters and weapons to play with. And of course, secrets may be lurking in the shadowed canopies of the deep forest… But as always we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of vampires.

Nestled deep within a continent-sized forest is Foscari Academy, a school where the elite of the world train their children for careers as powerful wizards, indefatigable generals, and expert spies. The Academy is divided into three houses, a premise hitherto untouched in all of fantasy fiction. Three students, one from each house, brave the journey into a forest stuffed with mythological creatures, all to have a jolly adventure, with absolutely nothing interrupting the whimsy. This is all mind-blowingly original stuff, we know, but it only gets better folks.

Including a cast of extremely original and not remotely derivative character archetypes, such as:

Eleanor - Star pupil of The Azure Tower and a skilled magic user, Eleanor is as bright as she is shy.
Maruto - Undefeated champion of The Crimson Anvil. Stern, brooding, but with a heart of gold beneath his scowl, Maruto is a man of few words and strong arm.
Keitha - Sly, quick-witted, and fun loving, Keitha will do anything for a bit of adventure and levity. Deliberately stays near the bottom of class rankings in The Amber Sickle to avoid hassle.
Luminaire - The guardian of Lake Foscari, Luminaire is an ancient witch of great power and pure heart. Known in stories as the Lady of the Lake, or sometimes the Arboreal Mistress.

Also including a range of unique weapons, definitely not drawn from the personal media tastes of a selection of game devs:

SpellString - Eleanor’s trusted textbook, sure to provide the answers on any magical topic that might cross her path.
Eskizzibur - Forged by Maruto’s blacksmith uncle as a jape, but to his surprise his young nephew was capable of lifting it.
Flash Arrow - Keitha’s home crafted arrows will put a hole through a tree at 100 paces, though her prodigious tendon strength certainly helps.
Prismatic Missile - A fragment of concentrated elemental power loaned to Luminaire by spirits as thanks for her continued protection of the natural world.

♫ The World Eater

Lake Foscari - An enchanted forest stuffed with fae mysteries, mythological entities, and beasts you’d find in any given RPG bestiary. The perfect place to have an average adventure with zero complications.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT671 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

Tides of the Foscari is a clearly liked add-on, and reviews that compare the two original packs nearly always rank it above Legacy of the Moonspell. Players praise the low price, a fantasy setting built around three adventurer heroes, and a structure that has you use specific characters and evolved weapons to break seals, reach a hidden second map and fight a final boss. Most reviewers who compare weapon sets prefer this one, naming the three-spell union, the greatsword and the arrow, and the soundtrack gets praise again.

The criticism centres on the maps. Both stages are winding and walled, and several players say that once late-run effects fill the screen they lose track of the paths and even their own character. Launch week also brought a white-screen crash that stopped some players from starting the game, a few broken achievements, and an obscure first-stage objective that left players stuck if they did not know the trick. A golden-egg farming room and a gold-farming character divide players between those who enjoy breaking the game and those who feel it ruins progression.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Generous content for a couple of dollarsHigh

Price comes up often, and nearly always as praise. Some reviews are nothing more than a thank-you: "Thanks for the low price! I'm poor and miserable, but I can buy it". Several players add that the pack gives more than it seems to promise, because the second map is a surprise: "You pay for one map but actually, you receive 2!!" On the other side, one negative review calls it a paid patch that took about five hours to finish.

A step up from Legacy of the MoonspellHigh

Reviewers who bring up the first pack mostly prefer this one. "Better than Mt. Moonspell in every way even though Mt. Moonspell was already great." one writes, and a longer review says "Everything the first DLC got somewhat wrong this one fixd." They credit the stronger weapons, more distinctive characters and secrets that give the map a reason to be revisited. A few hold back on parts of it: one preferred Moonspell's music and characters, and a negative review that still calls Foscari a bit better finds its single green map boring.

Progression, secrets and the hidden second mapMedium

The players who write at length about the pack's structure love it. You break seals and crystals with particular characters and evolutions, which opens a second, darker map with its own unlocks and a boss. "Unlocking a secret level inside the main level, then progressing that level over multiple runs is an amazing idea for this game," one reviewer writes, and another says "I love the way that progression through the DLC is handled, making you play as each character in a sequence." Some like how the story of the three adventurers unfolds as you play. The same reviewers warn it can be hard to work out what to do without help.

Strong new weaponsMedium

Most reviewers who compare the two packs prefer this weapon set to Moonspell's, though one negative review found it less interesting. The three spells that combine into one union weapon, the greatsword and the arrow are the ones they name, with one player arguing "the greatsword is the single best weapon in the game" and another that "Eleanor and her evolved Spellstring are just too OP." Not every addition lands: a couple of players dislike Keitha's Flash Arrow ("I just don't like weapons that only travel where I'm facing.") and the Shadow Servant, and a few negative reviews call the items gimmicky.

The soundtrackMedium

Music is praised again, often in a line or two: "The OST in this one is a godly upgrade". Several mention the kazoo versions of tracks with affection, and one longer review describes how each hero's theme fits their class. One reviewer found Keitha's track boring.

The Berserk nodLow

Fans of the Berserk manga are pleased by a swordsman with a giant sword they recognise as Guts: "You can now play as Guts from Berserk for just 2$". One negative review still liked the abyss map's nod to Dark Souls.

Where players are split

The maze-like mapsMedium

Some players enjoy getting lost ("I got lost in the woods and liked it.") and say the paths become easy to follow once learned. A negative review takes the other side: "it is a mess to navigate when the screen gets filled with animations and enemies". Others add that the pause map shows little ("Minimap naturally shows you nothing even from areas explored"), that the maps are mostly one colour ("Tides of Foscari is just all green with not much differences"), and that the player sprite disappears behind effects: "How hard is it to layer the character on the top so that they're always visible?" One reviewer suggests playing before your save is maxed out, since "this DLC would be best played either before you have progressed within the game to the point of trivializing the difficulty or on a new save".

Gold and golden-egg farmingMedium

Reviewers describe a character and a hidden room that make farming trivial. Some players are delighted: "Sammy is the best gold farmer there is and probably ever will be." and "They introduced an common enemy which 100% drop golden eggs!" Others think it breaks progression; one negative review says that because of this room "any enjoyment from progressing a character to Gaston levels of Egg devouring is ruined". Another notes that a heavily egged character slows the game to a crawl and cannot easily be toggled back.

The final bossLow

Players who liked it call it a highlight ("DLC also has an epic boss fight"), and others found it a slow bullet sponge. One reviewer reports that collecting a key weapon before the fight stops it from spawning during the battle, and adds "Even when working properly the final boss fight is insanely lack luster".

What frustrates players

Launch crash and early bugsMedium

The most serious reports come from launch week, when installing the pack left some players unable to start the game: "the game loads briefly and then there is a persisting white screen". One player traced it to audio settings ("make sure your audio format is 96000Hz or below"), and another found the only fix was removing the DLC. Others report a stage failing to render, weapons that would not evolve, and that "some of the achievements are broken", with one player's kill count for an achievement resetting after syncing.

Achievements tied to paid DLCMedium

Completionists who had finished the base game resent buying the pack to restore a 100% record, and a few negative reviews give it as their reason: "Achievements locked behind DLC is a no-go". Some players take it in good humour and treat the new list as a reason to return.

An obscure first-stage objectiveLow

Progress on the first map requires evolving a stationary ally's weapon, which needs a specific passive the ally cannot pick up. Players who missed this got stuck over many runs: "First timer players most likely wont know either Guneviere or Party Ghoul needs Curse Skull Token passive". A long-time fan sums up the wider issue: "it can also be a bit frustrating to figure out what you're supposed to do". One player also complains that allies eat health pickups the player needs.

No Adventure modeLow

A few players miss the story-style Adventure that other packs include ("Hope this gets an adventure some day"), though one reviewer who expected to miss it writes "I thought I would be sad about the lack of adventure mode but it actually turned out better than expected."

3. The player conversation

Much of the conversation compares this pack with the first. Launch-week reviews are almost all positive (97%) and full of jokes about kazoos, Sammy and the missing vampires, while the longer reviews read the pack against Legacy of the Moonspell and mostly declare it the better of the two. The critics are mostly veterans who had maxed the base game: they question the map design under heavy effects, the egg room's effect on balance and the achievement treadmill, and a handful of them still recommend it. Reviews written after launch week are less uniform, with 92% positive (331 of 360), and some later reviews place it below Ode to Castlevania while still calling it worth buying.

4. What the developers could do

Keep the player character visible and add a low-effects option on walled maps: several players say they lose the path and their character once effects fill the screen.
Let the pause map record explored areas: players say the map shows nothing about where they have been, which makes the mazes harder to learn.
Signpost the first-stage seal objective: players got stuck because nothing explains that the stationary ally needs the Curse Skull passive to evolve its weapon.
Rebalance or limit the golden-egg room: one negative review says it ruins character progression, and another asks for finer control over eggs.
Test DLC installs against unusual audio setups before launch: the white-screen crash stopped some players from starting the game until they changed audio settings or removed the pack.
Fix the boss-fight weapon spawn and add mechanics to the final boss: one reviewer documents the spawn bug and others call the fight slow.
Consider an Adventure for this pack: a few players asked for one to match the other expansions.