Square Enix has officially rolled out the Final Fantasy 15 mobile game called 'A New Empire". It is free to download to iOS and Android devices. Amid the excitement of many fans, however, the new freemium mobile game comes off a bit unfavourable by both critics and players.
Final Fantasy 15: A New Empire is a multiplayer free-to-play mobile game developed by Machine Zone, Inc. under the name Epic Action LLC. It revolves around the universe of the latest Final Fantasy franchise with alternate stories focusing on the kingdom of Insomnia.
With A New Empire, Machine Zone veers away from the Final Fantasy's role-playing roots and transforms the title's core gameplay as a strategic army-building. This alone makes the huge difference between this instalment and the original franchise to which publisher Square Enix and the developer made clear right off the bat.
However, fans and critics are in tune that A New Machine turned out to be an entirely different game in spick-and-span with no trace of Final Fantasy 15.
In addition, A New Machine fails to subtly inform players of buying what it is offering in-app. While this may be a free-to-download game, Polygon noted that it is also a "pay-to-win" one.
There is a constant reminder from here and there to purchase things with real money while players cannot play the game for a limited time while there is an ongoing upgrade. Later in the game, it becomes noticeable that it is impossible to pursue it without stashing some cash out of one's pocket.
"A New Empire is how unattractive it is, how divorced it is from Final Fantasy 15's crystal-filled, charming world," states Polygon. "It's a muddled mess of bland art design and conventional gameplay, albeit poorly explained by Prince Noctis' incessant tutorial".
On Play Store, players gave A New Machine one-star reviews stressing how generic the game in many levels that it seemed no thought was spent on it in the process.
