Chocobo GP is a depressing micro-transaction nightmare

[Gloves | 11,776]

Chocobo Racing on the PS1 was pretty fun, I liked it a lot, big fan. It's no Diddy Kong Racing, but it was an enjoyable game with decent multiplayer featuring characters from one of my favorite game series. To say I've been looking forward to Chocobo GP would be an understatement.

My excitement was pretty quickly diminished upon launching the game as it proceeded to shower me with welcome gifts in the form of "Mithril" and "Tickets", and some other junk I've done nothing at all to earn aside from having purchased the game at launch.

They've gone whole hog on the sub-currency system, you have Tickets, Gil, and Mithril. Tickets are fine from a conceptual perspective - play the story mode, unlock the stuff you like from the ticket shop with tickets you earned completing challenges, I don't mind that at all. But it's all a ruse to get you used to picking and choosing what content you're going to unlock, and to "ease the pain" when you realize that the good shit (literally characters, customizations for their vehicles, etc.) is all locked behind Gil. There are a few ways to get Gil - you can earn it by playing online and again completing challenges; the issue primarily here is that the drip of Gil is such a slow one, unlocking Squall costs 3000 Gil, and a challenge will net you... maybe 20.

Worry not, FF fans! This is where our lord and savior Mithril comes into play! Yes, you can purchase Mithril with your real life dollars! Praise be!

$10 of your US Dollars ($13.5 of my Canuck Bucks) will net you 1000 Mithril (with of course a bonus for buying more!). You can spend that Mithril on... Gil... Or a Battle Pass (with a different name, but same concept, you get it). Now you can finally pay to buy the game, so you can pay to play the game, to earn the in-game cash to buy the items in the game! Praise be.

Our benevolent saviors at Square Enix have blessed us early adopters though, bless them - for buying the game at launch I was bequeathed 850 Mithril, which is just enough to buy a Battle Pass (and have 50 Mithril left over with nothing that cheap to spend it on). So now I can level up and earn cool characters like... well just Cloud, actually. I'll have to play the shit out of the game to unlock both him and Squall, two characters very clearly chosen upfront to get into peoples' pockets as they're among the most popular playable characters in the series.

I honestly dunno what I was expecting though, and some would definitely be right to point out that had I done some research I'd have seen this coming. I'll admit to being a bit naive here - I was just expecting a simple little racing game, maybe some eventual DLC with new tracks and characters a'la Mario Kart. Maybe it'll be ok, but having played my fair share of Battle Royales and games with similar mechanics I'm not holding my breath. Gonna play through the story, try the online, and hope for the best. But boy has that first impression and PUSH for me to spend yet more money right out of the gate left a sour taste in my mouth.

[fox | 1,667]

Micro transactions are a pox on gaming

[RH | 4,903]

I use to play gachas and would budget about $20-50 a month on them, depending on how much I liked the game of the day.

Then one day I awoke to my senses and just said, “Richard, at heart you are a collector. WHY AREN’T YOU USING THAT MONEY TO COLLECT NINTENDER TAPES!”

The rest is history.

[Tanooki | 4,932]

Wow that's a deal breaker.  Are you really basically pay wall locked from doing this game because you need to basically pay up or like repeat a lot of stuff over and over to coin up to get to where you need to?  This sounds like a classic pay wall whale pit tactic of mobile games with energy meters and various in game currencies needed to keep competitive.  I get they want to grease people more, but come on, with a racing game, it should just be intact.  If you want to add an aside to it after, like MK8D did recently with its pass and a set of tracks that's optionally awesome.  But this??

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

None of that surprises me. 

When it comes to Dragon Quest the Real... Guess what? If you want to be a Sage or Gladiator, you have to pay a premium when you buy your ticket! Dragon Quest Island? There are add-ons that you can buy if you did not get their premium option. And heck, their arcade version of Dissidia was a 'one level' playthrough if you did not also get a special card that saves your data.

With the worst ATLUS has done, so far, is make it sound like their upcoming fighting game's Switch port will not have the same online benefits as the others. But even then if I want to waste money on a game, I'll go to an arcade. And if I want to deal with a "full experience" that requires me to pay for premium features, I'd rather go to Fuji Q Highland with hope that I get to spend an hour experiencing their "haunted hospital" attraction.

But yeah... This is a major turn-off for a gamer like me. And I am one who had spent way too much when it comes to games that included a gacha feature.

[RH | 4,903]

Wait, I thought this was a mobile game.  What’s the difference between GP and GP lite? What does the $50 purchase get you?

Like it or not, micro-transactions are part of mobile gaming. I am not entirely opposed to this, but what I do hate is full priced games that ALSO require micro-transactions.

To me, it’s like an unspoken rule that if you pay $50-70 for a title, you are getting a “full game”. However, if there are gaming transactions, you know you’re getting a minimal experience for free and then you pay up as you desire. The best games of the latter type of games offer very minimal, inexpensive upgrades for a performance boost.  Maybe they allow you to rush through areas of campaigns or they are one-and-done upgrades that provide only a minimal boost above the standard game. I am ok with that within freemium games.

However, when you combine the two (full retail plus micro-transactions for advancement) it’s not just greedy but dishonest to the purchaser that expected a full, $50-70 gaming experience.

I’m sad to hear this about this game, but the new SE doesn’t surprise me. They’ve made probably 25+ gachas over the years (Guardian Cross was my jam, and so was Kingdom Hearts in the early days!) but with each new iteration, they’ve gotten greedier. I do blame them, but they also push the limits because people buy this junk and there are literal billions to be made with this model.

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

https://twitter.com/FinalFantasy/status/1502250906330583040?s=20&t=-ZV4oaURTa3k4OPpxMzqQg

@Gloves

Edited March 11, 2022 by ICrappedMyPants

[ICrappedMyPants | 302]

That response from SE is laughable. “You hate this. Here’s more fake money to buy stuff. Thanks.”