In its desire to further and always expand the universe of Final Fantasy VII , Square Enix had announced a number of projects: the sequel to the 2020 remake, Ever Crisis (a game with the heavy task of telling the whole story of the Final Fantasy VII universe), the remaster of Crisis Core or a battle royale titled The First Soldier. But now, even if the latter is part of an attractive universe and recognized quality, success will not have been there.
Launched on November 17, 2021 on Android and iOS, the title taking place in Midgard before the events of the original game aimed to offer a completely different experience, riding the battle royale wave. Even if some curious people were undoubtedly tempted, the transposition of such a rich universe in such a represented game mode probably did not thrill players in the long term.
And it is after less than a year of existence that Square Enix announces that it will end the online services of this Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier . This final cut will take effect from January 11, 2023, the Japanese publisher certainly wishing to stem the bleeding. All this was announced in a message broadcast on social networks where the developers seem really saddened by this closure.
“After nearly a year of jumping on chocobos, melee fighting, and shooting from the rooftops of Midgar Undercity, it is with heavy hearts that we announce the end of service for Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier . We will end the service at 07:00 UTC on January 11, 2023. Despite our best efforts to bring you regular updates with fresh and exciting content, we were unable to provide you with the experience we hoped for and that you all deserve. »
Just because the game will be shutting down soon doesn’t mean it’ll be abandoned, and the team says they’ll continue to work on keeping the title up and running until the curtain goes down. closed. What we can learn from this failure is that the name of a video game monument is not enough to ensure success: if the proposal is totally out of step with the universe or if the essence of the title original is lost along the way, so failure seems a certainty. Marvel Avengers, for example, could have been an excellent title carried by a license known to all, but the game system and the repetitiveness of the gameplay will have overcome passions.
To readFinal Fantasy VII – New titles planned to expand the universe
Square Enix should focus on its safe bets, refraining as much as possible from diverging into weirder spin-offs than each other. It is about the quality of the universes and their coherence, as much as respect for the players who would be tempted to play these intermediate titles which look more and more like tests with a financial objective than real games.
