Yes! From the start we aimed at making TFTV a better experience for new players coming to PP for the first time. If you are familiar with the genre and want a challenge, I would suggest playing on Hero. Would be very happy to read your feedback; you can also give it at our Discord https://discord.gg/hvaTfCd5

I personally, so far, do find it seems better integrated than the Vanilla game. There is a bit more of value in the GUI via the changes, the difficulty seems a tad smoother and more features better integrated in the actual gameplay, with less odd difficulty spiking. And that is part of their approach. The Mod is very customizable, you have more than just pure difficulty choices, which is welcomed by me. It even seems to make more sense overall.

TFTV certainly increases my enjoyment and makes Phoenix Point more agreeable to play, at least for me. An unexpected dual benefit, instead of just more and harder.

Sorry, just realized it was a question for a Dev. Nonetheless I'll leave the post as it stands, you may remove as desired. I just wanted to highlight that I actually find it more accessible, and more meaningful, than the original Vanilla game with all the DLC.

I came here wondering the same.
I've never beaten the basic game. Got it with all the DLC from a bundle, played... 12 or so hours. I got as far as a mission where I'm inside a base, and there were lots of gun turrets... but the mission always bugged out, and so I stopped playing. So I've never actually finished the game.

I was wondering if it would be worth playing through vanilla first? Or if I should just jump in with this one.
I get there's a ton of extra content, but how different is the end game stuff?

Originally posted by LordBlade:

I came here wondering the same.
I've never beaten the basic game. Got it with all the DLC from a bundle, played... 12 or so hours. I got as far as a mission where I'm inside a base, and there were lots of gun turrets... but the mission always bugged out, and so I stopped playing. So I've never actually finished the game.

I was wondering if it would be worth playing through vanilla first? Or if I should just jump in with this one.
I get there's a ton of extra content, but how different is the end game stuff?

I honestly advise to start with TFTV instead of vanilla.

Playing through with it right now, got to (I think) midgame. Played before around 2022 after all of DLCs were out, didn't finish it since it was boring as hell, but managed fine on Legendary difficulty. TFTV I'm kinda struggling a bit on Hero, so the advice of "you should play on a smidge lower difficulty than what you played before" is correct.

I say that it's MUCH smoother experience overall. When I saw what the team did with Legacy of the Ancients I was impressed - hated these missions in vanilla with a passion, while now they are not that numerous, have some neat mechanics and character inputs here and there. Ambushes are no more boring, you usually always fight different enemies throughout the game (I'd say 2 pandoran fights per any other enemy on average), so it doesn't get stale anymore. I suppose by the end game you'll fight like 5-6 crabpeople gang in a row before anything else, but that's to be expected. At least it's not a slog - rebalance of perks made it so terminator builds are not possible, so you won't be fighting the same battle with same ways to deal with everything every time.

The untying pandoran evolution from the times you fight them made it more contollable and that is much more pleasant. My only gripe so far is with Acherons. They were changed in TFTV and are now actually pretty dangerous, while I could somewhat completely ignore them in vanilla.

The Delirium events are written nicely and finally it feels like things slowly get worse and that there's "something real evil and not natural" getting closer to your people's minds. In vanilla there's little to no indication of this. And the cohesion between events is pretty decent as well - don't know how much was added, but seems like some gaps between different story arcs were bridged nicely with some extra character banter here and there.