Rabi-Ribi - Cocoa Mode & Before Next Adventure DLC

About time we can change outfits on Ribbon, putting aside the Halloween version which is basically the same as default but black and orange. Loving the new Irisu fight too, my eyes are in pain as always. Looking forward to the next 3 SP battles.

Basically be a catgirl and literally go through the world, breaking the game. There's bossfights too but who cares when YOU CAN BE A CATGIRL?

The store page describes quite well the content of this DLC: new SP bosses, new costumes, new CGs and new achievements. At the writing of this two of the SP bosses have been released so far, SP Irisu and SP Rita. Let's start with costumes. Finally, finally Ribbon can wear some proper clothes! If you ever thought how weird it is she can wear the same clothes through snow and ice, through fire and magma and always be fine then now is your time to dress up your fairy with something different. Erina also gets a new costume and it's actually one of my favorites of her costumes. I never disliked original purple outfit, Halloween costume looked good and her 3rd outfit was really cute but there is something special about a bunny having a tool belt with a carrot equipped. Or maybe it's the hair style that comes with the costume? Either way it's a really cute costume and I like it a lot. The new CGs look great but as content it's not anything major. Sure you can look at them but that's about it. I'm glad they were added but they were more like extra than a necessity. The meat of the DLC is most likely the SP bosses. I've cleared both SP Irisu and SP Rita on the hell difficulty and I gotta admit they truly deserve their title as SP bosses. Both of them were vastly improved from their normal counterparts. Many of the attack patterns are now more intense, harder to dodge or just absolutely crazy. Both of them also got a good amount of new tricks too so it's not just copy & paste stuff. SP Irisu is, for the most part, what you'd expect to see from an improved version of Irisu but SP Rita really brings something new to the table that I haven't seen any of the other bosses do in the game so far. It's possible to defeat her before she shows her trump card but everyone who gets this DLC should experience it at least once. Even though the DLC doesn't contain more story or new areas, I think it is worth getting for players who thought they already did everything they could in the game and want a reason to come back for more. Between this and the 'Is the order a DLC?' I'd say the latter should be prioritized first and get this after that one is done. Are the SP Bosses fun and enjoyable? In my opinion they are. SP Rita had some scaling issues at first but those were quickly addressed and have already been taken care of. I don't know what kind of tricks the unreleased SP bosses have but based on what I've seen of SP Irisu and SP Rita, I'm really looking forward to them. If you want to dress up Erina and Ribbon with cute clothes (or new clothes depending on your tastes) and want to fight some of the best bosses in the game in their SP versions then this DLC is worth getting. If you think the game already has too many boss fights or to you it's one and the same what Erina and Ribbon are wearing then you might want to skip this.

You can play as Cocoa, which is nice and makes the game feel "new" again since her moveset is very different from Erina If the final boss on the hardest difficulty is your training dummy, then you should get this dlc because it also adds special bosses that is very hard-hitting and very tanky and the attack patterns require specific movement on the specific spot to dodge. It's very fun if you're up for the challenge If somehow you still think this is easy, you might want a doctor to check your brain

I'd rate it for 3/10 instead of not recommended... I love this game, the music and the art are impressive unfortunately, there are some problems that ruined the game experience 1. I expected there would be some plots and cgs about cocoa but none and the process is the same as the bunny mode. cocoa is quite an intriguing character there would be more. 2. the skills for coping with enemies were confusing somehow, and there is no guidance for you 3. I'm right now stuck in the exotic lab, the slide doesn't work 4. there are some jumping issues Idk why. hope there is a further update that can fix the slide problems(this made the game unplayable and ruined my save) anticipating 10th anniversary

cocoa is cool, alone makes this worth it. if you want to get your ass kicked around a bit thanks to some of the coolest bosses in the game by far, yum.

So overall this is probably my favourite DLC. 4 insanely creative SP bosses, and a whole new playable character. If we talk solely about content, this DLC is amazing. But something that turned me off 2 years ago, and even moreso now is the way this DLC was released. Why was it released in a state that was basically unfinished? The SP bosses got added in slowly over time, but on top of that, it took 2 YEARS for the final part of the DLC, Cocoa Mode. I honestly don't see why it was released like this, but overall, this DLC is still absolutely worth it.

The "final" DLC. Bought it for the Ribbon costumes. (e:)It also has 4 CGs (that could've been added to the main game) and tough special bosses. If you haven't gotten the "is the order a dlc" yet, buy that one first, since it expands the story.

Now that Cocoa Mode is out, I feel free to actually review this DLC. Let's start with the 4 bosses that this DLC adds: Sorceress Rita, Glitched Syaro, Miru Syndrome and Irisu in Wonderland. SP Rita is a very tanky boss with very flashy attacks that use snowflake projectiles. You can destroy said projectiles with certain weapons (definitely use charged Explode Shot though), and destroying enough of them will deal a lot of damage to the boss. Like I said, the boss is tanky, so don't expect to be able to ignore the gimmick as it's your main source of damage. SP Syaro's gimmick is attack modes. She basically has 7 phases and can change between them in any order. Thing is, every phase has a weakness to a different weapon type, which forces you to change the way you fight her on every phase if you don't want the fight to last too long. SP Miru... If you read the digital artbook included in another DLC, you know Miru was supposed to be the final boss at one point. SP Miru actually feels like a final boss, and I believe that's intentional. That's... all I am going to say. It's the best of the 4 bosses added in this DLC and I don't want to spoil it. SP Irisu is also good. It's actually the first boss that was added to this DLC (it was being released episodically) and it shows. No unique gimmicks this time, just pure challenge. If you disliked Irisu in main game, you might still find this version fun, I know I did. And now... Cocoa Mode. It's the main reason to get this DLC. She has a completely different playstyle to Erina and items work completely differently for her. Here are some examples: Melee attack was replaced by throwing bombs, sliding ability was replaced by a teleportation bomb, double jump shoots out bullets from below just like in Cocoa's boss fight, aerial melee attack was replaced by a jump forward that doubles as a slide, and Super Carrot was replaced by a super bomb. Those are just the ones I can easily remember. She also has special bombs that are tied to Ribbon's magic; you activate them by pressing Up + Melee attack while a certain magic type is selected, and then you can either carry it or drop it. You start with 2 bombs for each magic type (they recharge at the start of every boss fight and at the savepoint in Rabi Town), but as you collect more items the maximum amount can go up to 5. There is no story in Cocoa mode unfortunately, she's only playable in Speedrun mode so all cutscenes are automatically skipped. I still think that you should get Order DLC before considering getting this one. That one concluded the story, while everything in this one is non-canon. Still, this DLC is a fantastic addition to the game that I would highly recommend.

[h1]2021 update disclaimer:[/h1] [b]This review was written [i]before[/i] the Cocoa Mode update and does not 100% reflect the current available content through it.[/b] Please keep this in mind while reading. Thanks. --- For casual players - this DLC doesn't give the player anything more than a costume for both Erina and Ribbon and one CG that you can access without any special circumstances. Besides these, there's honestly not much here for the casual crowd which sort of displeases me. This DLC is solely aimed towards the hardcore, or at the very least the more skilled crowd of people that play this game. The new bosses are definitely a doozie - even on the lowest difficulty some of them can outright one-shot you if you're not careful. And while the new CGs are really well drawn, it's just kind of a shame all but one of them are only accessible via these new, powerful bosses. As a casual player - I was disappointed with this DLC. I expected more than just a few costumes and only one CG. My skill level isn't good enough to properly face any of the SP bosses and thus - am unable to get the full experience of this DLC. Sure it could be an incentive to get better at the game and see said content no problem but first impressions for some are everything, and honestly - it kinda turned me away and I'm afraid it might do the same to you if you're not very good at this game. If you're a more skilled player though, you've got some great content to look forward to. The new bosses will definitely test the best of your abilities, so make sure you're well prepared for everything! If I could put a neutral rating for this DLC, I would, because my opinion is mixed. This DLC is not worth it for the casual player but rather - should be purchased by those looking to challenge themselves a little bit and maybe get rewarded for their efforts.