In transient: Square Enix is understood for making and publishing some fairly improbable video games. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was a shock gem, and each the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises appear to knock it out of the park with each new launch. Unfortunately, even a writer of Square’s caliber is able to throwing their weight behind a nasty recreation every now and then. The newest Square Enix-published motion RPG, Babylon’s Fall, has carried out terribly on Steam.
To be clear, Square Enix is usually “upset” by the efficiency of their revealed works, even when mentioned video games truly carried out very properly. The writer is understood for having unreasonably excessive expectations for releases. Sadly, even with that in thoughts, Babylon’s Fall isn’t doing properly. It is perhaps faring higher on console, however on Steam, it hit a pathetic 8 concurrent gamers in the course of the night of April 12. Since the title was solely launched on March 3, that is not an awesome signal.
It is widespread for participant counts to drop off after the primary few weeks of a recreation’s launch, however to not this extent. Even PlatinumGames’ previous work, Nier Automata, continues to take care of a median concurrent participant depend of 1,464 over the previous 30 days — and that is 5 years after launch. By distinction, Babylon’s Fall has averaged about 138 concurrent gamers, with common dips into the double digits.
So, what, precisely, is fallacious with Babylon’s Fall? According to reviewers, the issues lie within the non-existent problem of the sport, its boring degree design, and an odd oil painting-like filter that negatively impacts its graphical constancy. The recreation’s important saving grace, based on reviewers, seems to be its fight, however even that apparently does not “blossom” till the late recreation.
Fans of Nier Automata doubtless anticipated higher from PlatinumGames this time round. A 1-4 participant motion RPG with the depth of Nier, however a contemporary setting and distinctive aesthetic? Even I’d have motive to test that out, regardless of having by no means performed a Nier recreation earlier than. Sadly, as we have discovered repeatedly over the previous few years, video games do not all the time launch within the state they must. Babylon’s Fall seems to be one other casualty of this development.
With that mentioned, PlatinumGames is decided to do proper by its gamers. According to a tweet revealed in March, the developer is already engaged on Season 2 and three of the sport’s content material, and enhancements geared toward addressing participant suggestions are within the pipeline. Will this flip into one other “No Man’s Sky” scenario? With the sport sitting at “Mostly Negative” latest opinions proper now, that’s troublesome to say. However, something is feasible, and we hope PlatinumGames can flip issues round for the sake of each itself and its gamers.
If you want to give the sport a attempt, it is on sale for $41.99 proper now, down from $59.99 on Steam. That deal ends on April 27, so you continue to have a while to reap the benefits of it if you want. Alternatively, you’ll be able to check out its free demo, which does require you to hyperlink a Square Enix account to play.
