Death of a Game: Final Fantasy 7 The First Soldier

[@LuvzToLol21]

I remember reading a news article titled "FF7 themed battle royale shutting down" and thinking "there was an FF7 themed battle royale?"

[@Kogoso]

This was my entire experience with the game as well, "This was a thing?" while reading about how it was shutting down.

[@LuvzToLol21]

@@Kogoso lol yeah same. You'd think that a beloved game like FF7 being turned into a battle royale, a mobile one at that, would be met with the same kind of outrage as something like Diablo Immortal. But this game's advertising and publication was practically non-existent. I think most people only learned it existed because of the shut down announcement.

[@Eizenicus]

See i knew about it, but when I saw it was shutting down my reaction was more of a "wait thats still a thing?" Lol

[@nicholasmorgan7609]

I saw ads for it, but I didn't realize it was a battle royale

[@KuroNewbie]

Battle royales usually arent pay to win. And it didnt have a pc client. I bet the diablo immortal thing wouldnt be super big if it didnt have pc client

[@TabletopJunk]

This was definitely one of the most expected video game deaths in recent memory. What a bafflingly strange project.

[@jamesklee]

It really did feel out of place. Which is a shame, because the SOLDIER project could easily have been a great piece of FF7 lore to explore. I'm afraid we'll never get a fuller treatment of it, thanks to this weird failure of a game.

[@ssdssp4857]

This could've been a great game if it was also made for PC.

[@ugoboom]

seeing fortnight ass dudes aim down sights and gun eachother down, inside aerith's church, is like the most visually offensive thing ive ever seen. this game was doomed

[@randomphil8666]

Not enough advertising and I don’t think it ran well either, well not on my iPhone at least.

[@Aliens1337]

Square has been DESPERATE to replicate the success of FF XIV. However, all their attempts at live service games have pathetically failed. - They fucked up Marvels Avengers, one of the biggest IPs in the world. - Babylon’s Fall was dead on arrival. - Most people don’t even know about the FF Battle Royal and the Chocobo Racing game.

[@sleepythemis]

As an FFXIV player, Square really is a baffling company. They attract so much talent and then do the dumbest shit with it and only when that talent puts their foot down to keep the rest of the company's nonsense away from their projects does it work out in the company's favor... and the suits never learn that. They just completely block from their memories how their actions ruin everything they touch. As most XIV players know, the game is only still alive because its producer refuses to let 80% of Square's usual bullshit touch it. Even the cash shop attached to it was a compromise he made primarily to keep them happy and have more leeway to run the actual game the way it should be run.

[@astral_ragtime5365]

This is the most succinct summary of Square as a a company I've ever seen. Great talents and ideas brought low by corporate idiocy.

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

It's not that surprising to me. Square Enix as a whole is nothing like the Squaresoft of old and they've adopted the western mentality of graphics over gameplay. This is what led to their disastrous game engines and why their games are almost all action RPGs now. Their obsession with spectacle has cost them what would have been an otherwise loyal fanbase and now has a split fandom between the old and the new that are at odds with one another. Some people want a return to form with Final Fantasy and FF7R's launch was bad enough to necessitate a hasty announcement of Ever Crisis to appease that crowd. On the other hand, you have fans who want to do with the old turn based systems entirely and want to preserve the shift to action RPG. They've literally created a no win situation for themselves.

[@MrSoopSA]

In Japanese business culture you risk everything by questioning your superiors. It isn’t like the West where management hires people for their expertise input; in Japan the management is never wrong and it’s the employees who must take blame. Don’t be fooled by something like Nintendo’s bigwigs taking pay cuts because of the Wii U either; they’re the exact same way and that was a PR move to deflect away from them making a bad business decision with the system.

[@swarthybullxxx]

@@MrSoopSA spoken from someone who has never worked in the games or tech industry. If you had any skin in the game, you would know by now that project leaders and directors answer to no one except executives and the focus group. Factor in the rise of subcontractors, worker input has gone out the window.

[@Dresdenstl]

You'd think the bean counters would have learned by now since they've almost gone bankrupt multiple times now.

[@Agoraphoboy]

I played this for a while and all I could think about the entire time was how it needed to be on console/pc. I think it would've thrived

[@Jerler91]

Agreed, i would have given this a chance before fortnite if it was on console... now its dying and i just started playing fortnite 😅

[@Kaimax61]

yeah, it should've been in PC/console atleast 1 month later. Look at genshin, it wouldn't be as big as it is now, if it was mobile only.

[@scottwagner2566]

I can’t count the number of games that Eastern companies have released for mobile because mobile is big in Asia, then they have the shocked pikachu face when those mobile games don’t do nearly as well in the Western market. Things like WotV and Record Keeper (RIP) are the exception, rather than the rule. I would have tried this on PC or console, but I don’t have a good phone for a game like this.

[@SalemKFox]

I remember being interested in trying the game out, but for the longest time it just would not run on Bluestacks or any emulator. So I just gave up trying to play it until I randomly got a new phone, that could actually play it. I was a little sad to see that the game was already about to be shut off in about a month. But hey, I enjoyed it while it lasted. managed to win a few games, kill a few CPUs.

[@Tumpah]

Funny thing is the game doesn't even support alot of mobile devices..

[@konradzukowski213]

Not gonna lie, the first time I've heard about the existence this game was when Squenix made announcement of it getting shut down... Squenix has this odd habit of having crazy expectations from its games, but never bother to market them in any way, shape or form.

[@vicetea86]

precisely ,as a FF fan i was surprised I'd never even heard of this. How is that even possible?

[@mikoto7693]

@@vicetea86 I’d only heard of it because… of KZbinrs even if I can’t remember which one. Either Jim Stephanie Sterling, YongYea or AngryJoe. I think it was Sterling though. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of it but “battle royale” immediately killed my interest in it. And if that hadn’t then mobile game would have. I’m in FF games for the RPG and story elements. But admittedly I haven’t enjoyed the series for awhile now outside FF14 and time ago FF11. Nine was the last mainline one I enjoyed. I’m not really sure why.

[@PeterODatilo]

same

[@vicetea86]

@@mikoto7693 8 was the last one I'd really loved ,but that's primarily cuz I didn't get to play 9 really .10+ tho ,some love it but not for me. Final Fantasy was such a huge part of my childhood though that in general I still keep track of what they're doing, usually, lol.

[@phantom-X2086]

They were hoping NEO The World Ends With You would sell like FF7, even though advertised it terribly and decided to showcase GOTG over NEO like about a few months before release. They even said NEO did not sell well even though it actually sold decently well.

[@WalcomS7]

What's super frustrating is that it was an amazing game for it's genre. People genuinely missed out not giving this one a chance, but it being locked to mobile when it has so many different mechanics was terrible. It legitimately was a fantastic game with tons of customization and play options that fit the world of FF7 well.

[@ubermaster1]

I legit would've played it if it had a genuine PC port, I may dislike most BRs, but if you slap FF on it, I'd give it a genuine shot.

[@mikoto7693]

@@ubermaster1 I legit would have tried it if it had been on PS4 for a reasonable price and it had a good story with it. More on the FF7 world would have been interesting.

[@ShinFahima]

Yeah I would have been hyped for this if I knew it was a thing. And if it was PC-focused.

[@insertcoolnamelater9334]

I would have tried it on PC or PS4, just because Final Fantasy. Mobile no thanks

[@GELTONZ]

Yup. I played two rounds of it and said "Okay, if I could play this on a PC or Console? I'd be in." And the sheer overwhelming number of people who screamed this at SquareEnix is astounding. EVERYONE said this.

[@GusOmega]

That monster mode seems like a genius idea in another sense. Imagine a Battle Royale where when you get killed, you can choose to play as mobs around the map and help hunt down players and force them to move, but give better rewards / drops? Or you can choose to go and play other games. It can be a fun alternative mode-

[@crusaddy]

Lack of advertising is also important. I heard about it when it was revealed but as a hardcore FF14 player it was never advertised to me or any of my friends. That's missing a large portion of FF players they could have brought in

[@JPogi690]

I actually tried this game when it was first launched and let me tell you the game in not optimized to be played in mobile, controls are awkward and the server lag is too much. This turns me off playing this game ever again.

[@tigerfestivals5137]

I really wanted to play this game, but it being only on mobile was the killer for me. I didn't have a phone that would run it at the time and playing a shooter like it on mobile just didn't appeal to me

[@shinescythe]

Despite the baffling nature question “why does this exist?”, the game actually looks pretty cool from the footage. Shame it shut down, I didn’t even know it released lol

[@shinescythe]

“nature” was a typo but 💁

[@rastafari657]

I played it since the beta, it was actually dog shit for mobile, on pc it would have been decent at best.

[@soggybiscotti8425]

@@rastafari657 I think it would have been brilliant for PC. I too played since beta and I think with a few alterations it could have been made brilliant. Against the garbage that is fortnite and whatnot, this absolutely was a winner if they had just seen past what I can only assume was the greed of mobile microtransactions. From the release of the game I wanted nothing more than to be able to play it on PC. It's pathetic that they made such a decent game and left it to rot on the app stores.

[@dethcloud7763]

​@@soggybiscotti8425agreed

[@Tecrogue]

I remember wanting to at least give this an honest try, but after the first patch post-beta my phone was never able to launch it without it crashing.

[@jasonmasr]

One of my favorite gaming experiences in recent years; I was thoroughly entertained and played often. Should have been a PC /console release though.

[@amienabled6665]

How much money is ff14 bringing in that square can make flop after flop and still not be bankrupt?

[@DestroyerArcher]

@@orrusfellin5150 They're probably speaking Square Enix in general, so Outriders, Babylon's Fall, and Crystal Dynamics' Avengers also count. Possibly more I'm unaware of.

[@lstsoul4376]

@@DestroyerArcher Chocobo gp, diofield chronicles and probably forspoken.

[@lstsoul4376]

They have sony money lol

[@onemorescout]

Well it has a $15 monthly subscription and it has an estimated 2.2 million monthly active players so do the math

[@flow185]

@@DestroyerArcher soon to be forspokenby the looks of it

[@melon3109]

I tried to give it a shot but I couldn't get a controller working with it. Even tried using pc for it through bluestack, but nah wouldn't work either. So I gave up. Decided to wait for a pc or switch port. Which I'm surprised never happened. But cool they considered it.

[@brawlertank]

The thing is this game actually looks really good, I really like the look of the Dragoon class. This could easily have been a mainline game (or spinoff) as some of these mechanics would look pretty good if brought over to a party styled game like the most recent Tales of game.

[@SniperKing-O]

For a story and cool system, the First Soldier could have introduced allied factions within the Soldier army and a story tied into those factions. In FF7: Crisis Core, each of the three top tier 1st Class Soldiers, Angeal, Genesis and Sephiroth had each a dedicated fan base that you could check out through Zack, the main protagonist of the game. So, what if a storyline and faction system was revolved around these three Soldiers and you got the option to pick between which one you wanted to follow and the story would then be told from that factions perspective? Personally, I would have enjoyed following Sephiroth or Genesis' factions and getting learn more about them. Hopefully the game will one day come back and be reintroduced on consoles and PC.

[@raiga5-6-42]

I would divide the factions according to established lore Like Avalanche, soldier, and jenova children

[@SniperKing-O]

@@raiga5-6-42 That would probably be even better!

[@vicetea86]

that's so weird, personally being a FF fan and having a good mobile that could easily handle any of the Battle Royales I never even knew this game existed. Like the teaser at the end ,Champions online, being the spiritual successor of CoH/CoV I played it when it dropped immediately and it didn't live up to expectations. Not even close. I loved the "City of H/V" games very very much.

[@Dras7]

Damn i never paid attention to this game after the announcement since i tought it was some trash mobile cash grab. But now that i see the all the work that was behind it i would have liked to try this on pc it seems an actual interesting concept!

[@captaincow]

Played this game a lot the first few months, and even popped in again every so often until it’s last day. It was a genuinely fun game to play, that the devs clearly cared about looking at the season 2/3 content that they put in the game. But the fact it was mobile only really did set the game back. I remember constantly on Twitter there would be comments of people asking for the game to be put on PC/Console, because the game was unplayable on bluestacks for being blacklisted or something. And even a month or so after release they put out a player survey asking what the players would like to see, and one of the options at the end was a PC/console release. Just a shame none of it came to be.

[@jebern7723]

This game was quite fun, one of the better BR games in the market gameplay-wise. With the level up and the skills options its more like a cross between a battle royale and a PVP MMO. Some other factors that may have contributed is there seems to be some incompatibilities with certain phones, immediately preventing a chunk of people from even seeing it in the play store. I had to download it from a third party. Another is it has a high number of variables to manage in the middle of the match, you'll find yourself mentally exhausted after a few matches whereas in other BR you can "relax" at some point and just wait for the enemies.

[@raiga5-6-42]

The RPG aspect of levelling up from defeating player or random mobs was kinda bruh moment for a BR. But hey, at least you can do chocobo breeding. Because chocobo is far mor versatile than any vehicles laying around the map. Then Season 2 added a 'world boss'

[@David.Marquez]

I found out about this one a week before it shut down. Looked like it had good potential, but that's how most of these things look.

[@ordonlink259]

I remember experiencing the beta when it first released on mobile. I played one game. In that one game the lag was unbearable, I saw almost nobody, and the controls were not good. I remember specifically trying to connect a controller but only certain buttons worked. (Like i could aim but not fire or use all my materia.) I really believe if this released on anything besides mobile it would lasted way longer.

[@Darca1n]

Oh absolutely, but here's the issue with not being on mobile: They don't get that sweet, sweet, juicy mobile market chock full of hordes of whales, especially in the asian market as they're quite common there and mobile gaming is huge.

[@raiga5-6-42]

I played since day one until it shutted down. Devs were quite responsive to community feedback, lots of balancing here and there. Optimizations too. Though it's still janky or clunky at times when engaging on melee combat or even casting ranged magic.

[@soggybiscotti8425]

With some minor alterations to melee combat and whatnot and released to PC, it could have been one of the all time greats. They just put little to no funding behind it and left it to rot on the app store. One can assume purely out of greed for that sweet, sweet mobile microtransaction mulah.

[@xiori01]

What I liked about it was the Clean Interface. Unlike Apex with a shit ton of Icons on the screen left and right. Guns could be upgraded easily at a service station instead of scrounging for parts. It had a Huge selection of Emotes and Costumes. Even their Ping UI was better and had variety instead of just "Let's go Here" and "Enemy There!" But the most interesting and creative feature about The First Soldier was the Magic Materia spells. So many combinations that could assist you and destroy enemy units. I loved this game, but damn. Square really just dipping their finger in the Flavor Of The Month, then move on like it was just another free sample at the grocery store.

[@raiga5-6-42]

God i loved using tornado materia with dragoon glide. I can abuse the inertia to get away. And despite the zero damage, i can blast unsuspecting players away to environmental Hazzard or the danger zone. Yea and i wonder why they let such CEO run the company, en ef tee and the lately questionable company direction.

[@soggybiscotti8425]

Had they just done a pc release, this game would have been incredible with some minor alterations to things like melee combat and whatnot. It trashed all over fortnite. Such a shame they just let it die out of heat can presumably only be greed for micro transactions on mobile. I'd have paid good money for a proper PC release, no doubt. It was the only truly great BR game out there, with something for new people, and old ff7 vets like myself.

[@Skyshadow733]

Id love for you to do a death of a game for Deathverse: Let it die (once it officially shuts down I guess). I played it for about a week at launch but wow it died so quick, like not even 6 months even tho it was pretty polished and had a banger OST

[@Inosix]

I played during the beta. It's not a game that feels smooth to play unless you are using a controller (which I had to hack my phone to do). The netcode wasn't very good and it was choppy. And I was playing on an Samsung S21. It didn't feel great to play so I simply uninstalled during the beta.

[@Bannerman1903]

I would love to see a video of your total analysis of how and why games fail, most common factors and warning signs etc. So many of these failed games have similar factors!

[@papasalvo]

Don't mind me just doing my part to please the algorithm. I got a new PR the other day for Romanian deadlifts of 200lbs And of course I'm asking nicely for a death of the game covering puzzle pirates. I'm hoping since all the other comments got a like from nerdslayer that he has taken an interest in making one

[@andreworders7305]

The video game series that turned into a luxury fashion brand

[@risel56]

Oh man, that next episode preview had me worried for a second there. Had a lot of memories with that one and you made me think they were shutting it down. D:

[@houbsmars]

Weirdly enough, I enjoyed my time with it. The game combining BR with Final Fantasy elements like bossfights, duels, spells, and random events was awesome! I remember actually taking down Bahamut Sin solo and I felt like an absolute badass! There was a player who ran up to me afterwards so I obliterated him using the legendary gun he dropped, and then won the match by casting Flare with my Bahamut summon I got as reward for beating the boss. It was so sick!

[@AzureGreatheart]

I enjoyed what little I played of the game, but I hated the mobile control sheme. I would’ve played this game a lot if it was on PC, and I’m still bitter that it never got one; to me, Square killed this game through stubbornly sticking to their inexplicable mobile exclusivity, and I will always bring this up whenever the game is mentioned. I’m particularly irritated that they actually *planned* to do that initially, and just didn’t.

[@Trogdor1984]

Bizarre! Coming at it as a long time Final Fantasy fan since the 6th game...I remember the original announcement for First Soldier - then genuinely think THIS video is the first time i've heard it even mentioned since :/ Not sure why it never once popped up in adverts or in the Play store on my phone, i'd just assumed the game had been pushed back for further development and would hear something when it released! No idea what Square are playing at advertising-wise.

[@TheRandomYTMonkey]

As one of the first seasons top players, the first season had everything down perfectly. The match's were decently quick to get into, (under 2 mins.) and it was unique as far as BRs go. The second season introduced lag and the real issue, the infamous T04 error. I tried to stream this game many times as well as many others. This error would kick players back to the menu screen and you would need to load back into the game with the T04 error code popping up. By the time the player would load back into the game they would be dead or already in the gas dying. Many players as well as myself tried reporting this issue many times, the most support would say about the issue is they didn't know what was causing it. Instead of addressing the error issues they introduced 60fps. This made it clear their target audience was high end devices. Season 3 made things even worse as a melee glitch started popping up and went unaddressed almost the entire season. Each season there after just got worse, to4 errors prevailed and lag just made any match's unbearable. The new map, while being a nice addition, was a let down as well. The map felt under developed and spread out. They also missed so big opportunities to add in classic zones and buildings. The added classes, again while being nice also felt underwhelming. The extra modes were far to much while the player base was dying. Instead of all these extras and cashgrabs if they would have considered the player base more they might have been able to improve the areas that needed to be fixed and helped the player bases grow back through streamers and ads. I could go on alot more on this subject but it is a bit of a sore subject as I spent a good amount of money and time on this game.

[@goranisacson2502]

Very interesting since Nerdslayer doesn't really mention technical issues in the episode, beyond that the game aimed for high-fidelity phones to the exclusion of the wider market. Now I'm curious if these technical issues were widely reported and applied to all devices, or if they were primarily something that applied to people who weren't on monster phones? I feel like if it applied to every player across the board these issues would be more widely discussed, as that also sounds like another clue to the games demise and casts the dev team and their skill at making a game for mobile devices in a worse light. Also, just because I'm curious- were there really no storynode here except the basic premise of "this takes place in this part of the timeline and you're a newcomer hoping to get into the soldier program"? No lore or ongoing story beyond that at all?

[@aren_gee]

@@goranisacson2502 No storyline at all. You create a character, enter BR tutorial, then queue for a match. That's it.

[@goranisacson2502]

@@aren_gee Man that is INSUB-freaking-STANTIAL. No nutrition at all, even after the intro cutscene hinted there were stories to tell.

[@raiga5-6-42]

I didnt even know melee glitch existed since i only use melee to mobs lol, could you elaborate on that ? And the battle pass is interestingly a one time purchase. Only if you reached lv 75 though.

[@TheRandomYTMonkey]

@@goranisacson2502 the lag and T04 errors were happening to anyone not using 8gb processors in their devices. It was reported by most of the FB community. Most of the time it went completely unanswered and the few times the support team did respond it was always the same thing.

[@Tokyorunaway]

Amazing game with an even more amazing community. We've all discussed until we are blue in the face why this game shut down, and it's a shame. Met some of the best people and made several close friends here. I purchased a USB to HDMI cord for 20 bucks so I could play on my TV, then bluetooth a PS4 controller. So it was possible to "bypass" the mobile aspect of the game, so it felt just like playing on a console. It was bot heavy. But I kind of enjoyed that. You'd have like 4 real teams in a game, so you would have time to level up and get equipment and once all the real teams met up towards the end it always made for great fights. I didn't start until the first day of season three, but once I found my teammates, we played damn near every night for hours. Sad to see it go, but so grateful for the experience.

[@wolfgangus3381]

I was so excited for this as a Final Fantasy fan and ex-FPS player that's been curious about the BR genre. I downloaded the game on release, bought the season pass, and then failed to connect to the servers day 1. Day 2 I managed to complete the tutorial and get into a game, only for it to crash and realize that my phone had no hope of running it. I have a gaming PC and several consoles so I attempted to play it on an Android emulator, only to realize that Square Enix had gone out of their way to make sure the game can't be run through emulators. From then on, I checked up on the game every several months to see if it was emulator-playable yet. Never happened sadly. Such a waste of what could've been a fun, if niche game. Even Maximilian Dood was interested in it until learning it was mobile only.

[@machbass]

It's like sitting down and ordering at a new restaurant only for the staff to inform me the shop is shutting down, in the middle of my meal.

[@vastayanvixen685]

I got so sad when I heard they were shutting it down, had a very interesting concept, and I think it would've done better if it was on all systems rather than just mobile

[@lovareths569]

A great game, this online game able to kept me playing for whole 3 seasons (about 7 months). For comparation, i played Genshin Impact like 4 months and got bored, 3 weeks for online Ni No Kuni. I still hope that SE will bring it back somehow.

[@ElemXCR]

OH shit can't wait for the next one. That nostalgic game! If I could play it again, I'd be able to pay for some stuff lol But alas.. no time left :(

[@leowong8280]

some good points made that were well discussed within the community. however the video gave me a feeling that you also didn't stick around to play season 3. I do hope they learned from this mistake and release a pc/console version a couple years down the road.

[@josesosa3337]

You always have to be careful with large player game modes. If enough players move on, your lobbies can't fill up, and your game might as well be dead.

[@TheAlison1456]

nerdslayer videos are so comfortable that jazzy noir introduction, aah...

[@Suika_Ibuki_The_Drunk_Oni]

The very idea behind this concept is just baffling. Like, did square learn nothing from Dirge of cerberus?

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

The First Soldier is one of those games that no one asked for, but is jumping into the hype hoping people would get a reskin of an existing game because it fits a theme that people might be familiar with.

[@JohnWellingtonWells]

If this was released on PC I would definitely have given it a try. I've never been interested in BR games but this one actually looks pretty fun and unique, and it's always fun revisiting old FF7 locations. Shame.

[@giabaohoangtrong2051]

another most baffled death is Sakura Revolution, only near 6 months after its launch. SEGA poured hundred millions of yen into its development and, uh, Hideo Baba happened

[@SorasShadow1]

it's worth pointing out that Final Fantasy 14's whole ethos was very different from anything Square Enix churns out today, it and FF11 are both from *very* different eras with teams that have the leeway to stick to their guns because they're such long running profitable success stories. FF14 is turning 10 years old this year, so "they did it before with ff14" was the SE of *a decade ago*

[@andrewichigo]

I actually played this game for a bit and it was honesty pretty good. The issue is I don't particularly like mobile games. If they announced tomorrow that they were turning it into a PS5/PC game, I'd buy/download it in a heartbeat. Let me play a dragoon in a BR game and I'm happy

[@pelleas7001]

"We have to get the elephant out of the room" Followed by what was immediately shown in the video.... That got a good chuckle out of me.

[@OrenjiArms]

“Why this mobile only battle royale died…” I think I figured it out

[@AppleShrapnel]

Oh boy, Champions Online next. That was the first mmo I ever hit the level cap on. :P Looking forward to the deepdive on that one, for sure.

[@Verinius]

I'd like to bring in more depth to the discussion here. Tldr: Game is amazing. But the game was never fully optimized. Season 1 was very bumpy. The game crashed a LOT even on high end devices, let alone mid tier devices. There were also balance issues with Chocobos being overpowered allowing people to get 1-hit KO'd by a flying Chocobo kick. The max HP you could have is 200 HP at Lvl 10. Chocobo kicks in Season could deal 300 damage, way above the max hp. The Firaga materia was also overpowered in the hands of a Sorcerer due to the sheer damage it can deal, reaching over 220+ damage. Again, above the max hp cap. Season 2 made very good balance changes, added tons of new weapons, and added the Bahamut boss in the map. The Bahamut raid event was undoubtedly THE BEST event in the game because 30+ people would coordinate in a Discord server call just to complete the Bahamut raid quest. However, the game still crashed occassionaly. While they did reduce the crash frequency, there was severe FPS drops in large scale battles. The crashes could even be seen in the first East Asia server tournament. Competitors were getting disconnected mid-tournament. Season 3 was so-so. It had nice content, but not as epic as Season 2. They made very important balance changes like nerfing the Gravity materia, removing OP season 2 weapons, and introducing new accessories which changed the meta builds. However, this is also where they introduced a sketchy gacha mechanic with low drop rates for the best skins. However, the new map and games modes were fun. The community was solid, positive, and amazing for the most part. But as you guessed it, the game still crashed. By Season 4 a lot of people already left including myself. The Season 4 update was very underwhelming. You had the Trickster class, a new car, and an expanded map. It paled in comparison to Season 2 and 3. P.S. For reference, I was a Day 1 player and became an FF7FS Ambassador by Season 3. If anyone is interested, you can find high level gameplay clips in my channel while playing in East Asia server, which is the most competitive server in the game.

[@greenhowie]

Still got Babylon's Fall, Chocobo GP and the other one to dig up nerdSlayer, gonna be a busy spell for ya.

[@AmyBohemi]

I really wondered why I never before even heard about this game. That was until you said the words 'mobile only'. Now I can happily watch the video about a game I couldn't care less about both the genre and the platform 😃

[@Vaniity_Velvet]

I was in a Hit-and-run a few years back. The paramedics thought my spine was shattered and told me the surgeon would likely have to fuse parts of my vertebrate together. Luckily the other paramedic spotted a bench on the way to the hospital, they sat me down on it and within 5 mins I was back to normal, spine healed, wounds closed.

[@chronowolf4734]

I heard about this game the first time it was announced. And the second time I heard about it was just now, with you telling me it's dying

[@randomperson10101]

I was one of those players that actually had a phone that could handle it. Had moderate fun, but knew right away that it would've been much better on PC. Since for me at least, playing more active games like that on my phone kills my hands and if I'm doing that, I'm probably at home, where I have my PC anyways. So I just waited in hopes that they'd port it over. We can see how that ended lol. I really wish they'd implemented a proper story, and had it on PC or consoles. I think it would've thrived in that situation.

[@sh3w]

Death of Sword Art Online: Unleash next?

[@LimeadeRaimi]

As someone who played this game while it existed: The combat was terrible. Melee combos were janky and usually threw you PAST your enemy. You and your opponent's movement speed is so fast that you couldn't reliably shoot somebody or use Materia unless they were completely still. Fights boiled down to you both running around attempting to hit or shoot each other until somebody gets enough lucky hits off. The final circle was essentially a Cure-Off because neither player wanted to risk throwing themselves into the firewall. Ninjas and Mages were easily the best jobs because they got the best mobility and Materia respectively. I quit before Trickster was added so I don't know if Trickster actually had a decent combo or the overall combat was adjusted but when I played it was terrible. This is certainty the FFXIV 1.0 of BRs.

[@Reekumon]

Seeing A team's Dark Summoner intro after so many years was so nostalgic

[@NN010]

Yeah, I agree with this video’s judgement that not releasing First Soldier on PC and console was the biggest mistake Square Enix made with this game. When the shutdown happened, I saw many in the Final Fantasy subreddit say they might have considered trying out First Soldier… if it was on console and/or PC. The shame is if it had released there, it might have done OK. Not enough to threaten Fortnite, Warzone or Apex, but enough to carve out it’s own audience in the BR market & maybe accomplish SE’s intention of converting BR fans into FF fans. But they decided to go mobile only & that just led to FS being another game of many that could have been successful, but was killed by Square Enix management’s potent mix of incompetence & greed. If it wasn’t for them having the mainline Final Fantasy games, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, Nier & Team Asano’s output as a strong foundation, Square Enix probably would have gone out of business a while ago…

[@TheDeadmanTT]

I'm beginning to see a trend in spin-off games jumping on bandwagons too late getting shut down quick. But I can't put my finger on why . . .

[@masterofiv2882]

Yeah you are kind of right. To be honest now that you mention it. I dont think lowering the graphics would have done much to increase popularity. The best chance this game had of surviving was maybe being developed and released sooner with lower graphics. Even then how would it look if the minimum requirements were 2GB Ram & Snapdragon 660 or equivalent. The higher ups would have been too worried abour their reputation to release such a game. They should have been working on FFFirst Soldier for PS4 at least instead of teasing FF7 for the PS3. To be fair its out of the water for at least Fortnite and Free Fire can do collaborations with outside IPs buying them time to milk thier costumers.

[@andreworders7305]

Never heard of it, but there are way to many games named Final Fantasy VII so I’m not surprised to learn of its existence.

[@novachikun]

Once I learned this game was a Battle Royale, I knew this was the spiritual follow-up to the gameplay of Dirge of Cerberus.

[@Omgsarge]

NerdSlayer :"There is an issue with the audience in the first place: How many Final Fantasy Fans were playing on mobile?" Squenix Guy with Diablo T-Shirt: "Do you guys not have Phones?"

[@StrifeSoul990]

I love how everything FF 7 has to have Sephiroth even when it makes zero sense. If this is 30 years before ff7, he would have been a child an not the legendary solider or villain he woul become

[@Catspirit123]

One of the most “who was this for?” Games I’ve seen in awhile

[@malicekerendu3574]

Could you look into dragalia lost? No video, just research. That games story is wild. It was nintendos first original mobile ip and a gacha made by cygames. It was made with insane care, but nintendo refused to advertise it. It seemed like self sabotage. It would've been my favorite game ever if it weren't a gacha. And we fans were hopeful the ip would branch out to consoles and pc. But it was shut down over a month ago

[@jonro1091]

As another member of the ‘fan of FF in general but hadn’t heard of this until the cancellation’ club, having this stay mobile only seems like a massive missed opportunity.

[@djukor]

Honestly First soldier should have just been a Coop game whit an optional PVP mode. And obviously bean playable on non mobile devices. Hell even a Switch exclusive port would have helped. As i assume more people have switches than mid tier phones.

[@averagejoe5145]

I honestly wish that Square Enix would port some of their mobile-exclusive versions of some games to consoles already! A few examples of what I mean are the mobile version of Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (which did away with the tacked on multiplayer crap from the PSP version & let you get all the new items in the PSP version through normal single-player gameplay), the updated 3D version of Final Fantasy IV which ALSO removed the multiplayer crap from the DS version, & the 3D version of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years which has been a mobile exclusive! The so-called "Pixel Remasters" did end up screwing over mobile players & some PC players in the end though since those versions replaced the versions of Final Fantasy 1 to Final Fantasy 6 that came with the new bonus dungeons & bonus bosses from either the Game Boy Advance versions or the PSP versions depending on the game you're talking about! The Pixel Remasters only have stuff that was ORIGINALLY in each game AFAIK.

[@TimSkovblleHolst]

Looks like you can do 5 Death of a Game just on Square Enix this month.

[@akirajotaro]

This was a game I was actually pretty interested in when it was first announced, but then the next time I saw anything of it was the news that it was shutting down. I suppose you can add: "lack of advertising" onto that list too because from what I've seen, most people didn't even know it existed.

[@Grandmothers]

Death of World of Warcraft China next

[@MrMelanion]

I would love to see a gwent video, even when the game is confirmed to enter maintenance mode next year the developer are going to use their remaining developing time to create tools that keep the game evolving even on maintenance mode, and I feel that is quite unique

[@chrysanthes8751]

Watching this in preparation for the Ever Crisis video.

[@Mr.SelfishOne]

This game was awesome. I played it with my ps4 controller, on my iPhone… the game was too difficult to play using only mobile controls… once started using a controller I couldn’t put it down. I’m gonna miss it badly😥

[@Loriddian]

Sad because i enjoyed this. Needed console support to be perfect

[@rech.5374]

@@AzureRoxe bro chill

[@Loriddian]

@@AzureRoxe your wrong. Pc and console support would mean more players and money to be made. Thats just Basic business .

[@flow185]

It failed because the genre is over saturated and the medium was extremely bad but chinese money yk.

[@Blackpapalink]

@@AzureRoxe I haven't met a single person who prefers playing a shooter on mobile over PC, even the CoD Mobile crew. Touch screens and shooters do not mix well and it shows. I would have given the game a shot if it wasn't mobile only.

[@Loriddian]

@@Blackpapalink i play cod mobile on the big screen with a Ps4 controller.

[@Marinealver]

Battle Royal Mobile exclusive. That sounds like a real winner.

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

I think it is insane the amount of money Square Enix has lost trying to make their live service games work. FF7 First Soldier, Babylon's Fall, Marvels Avengers...... their insane greed is to blame and now all the CEO talks about is blockchain games and invested all the money in them.....

[@SeriousBeats]

I remember that titanfall mobile game and how fun it was and the amount of money I spent. Shortly after it was pulled. Never wanted to spend money on mobile games…..ever again

[@TrueTein]

Yeah saw this anounced and i thought to myself: for who is this game? Battle Royal was already sated, and i dont think you would get the RPG fans to play it.

[@sleepythemis]

Square is notoriously late to the game when it comes to breaking into new genres or tech as of late. The CEO is still going on about NFTs/crypto.

[@mortenera2294]

Literally people every time they hear about a game closing down: "This was a thing?"

[@Dmu_girl-2008]

As a final fantasy fan I’d have tried it if it was on consoles or pc. I’m not that bothered by battle royals to be honest and se has produced so many cash grab mobile games that I’ve gotten used to ignoring them (I honestly forgot this game existed till the shutdown notice).

[@BOSSASSAURUS]

I remember downloading this game to my phone only to forget to ever try it. Had this game on my phone from start to finish and never even tried it

[@KoalifyMan]

This was actually the ONLY Battle Royal game I ever play through and somehow manage to win the first time. Believe it or not, I do not like BR, but because this was a Final fantasy game I just had to give it a shot. It's decent game really; it's just so unfortunate that they develop this game for just mobile. If only they release it in PC instead, I think it would've been better.

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

Death of a game: Guild Wars 1 would be interesting as while it seems pretty cut and dry, there are actually a lot of factors as to why Guild Wars 1 was abandoned

[@hermitcard4494]

Final Fantasy Dissidia's audience: RPG players: We dont like fighting games. Fighting players: Why is this trying to be so complicated? I just want to FIGHT.

[@YukitoOnline]

I didn't notice it existed until they announced it's going to be shutdown..

[@Bearasites]

This game was only brought to light to me from Heather Anne Cambell, from Get Played Pod. And for the remaining months. It was a very enjoyable thing to witness. Sad it’s gone.

[@mattyvsmithy]

Not going to lie, this game was amazing for me! Being a dad I don't get much of a chance to play games so it was the perfect "laying in bed with my phone as the kids sleep" game to play for some quick matches and also ignited my nostalgia every time I jumped into a map. When it shut down I was legitimately disappointed.

[@kingdanett4043]

I know I'm probably the only one who cares about this but there was a Pixar's Cars MMO a long time ago that I loved as a kid called Cars World. It was ended right before the announcement of the Cars Land in Disney Land and I think that was there excuse to end it. I'd love to see a video on it to relive some memories but I don't think that will happen.

[@brogan_live8537]

I played this game the entire time it was out until they announced the closure. It was really fun and a nice twist on battle royal games with classes, class progression, and spells. Sad to see it go

[@AnimalDelos]

I was an avid player of this game, enjoyed the heck out of it. We had a little tightknit community with many streamers and whatnot, too. It was just fun, good times. We all agreed, though. The lack of a PC version (even if it meant cross-play would see mobile players get owned) put the game on borrowed time and life support. I don't regret any of the money I put into the game for cosmetics (especially the gosh awful loot boxes for them when my luck was bad), and while I didn't 'complete' the battle passes past season 1 (they added +50 levels every subsequent season and unless you played like 24/7 at that point was unfeasible for most, OR unless you paid real money to buy your pass up to level 100 [max buyable level as you could not buy any levels PAST 100] and THEN played/farmed the rest) it was nigh impossible. All that said, it gave those of us who loved FF7 and whatnot one thing we would have loved to see, which is character customization. If FF14 or 11 was set in FF7's world with their charas, cities, other locations etc, I think I'd have been inclined to actually get into one of them. FFXV gave us the Comrades Episode which let us customize our own "Hunter", and First Soldier basically let us customize our own character. Want to be a Turk? Wear the Turk suit and then whatever else you want as far as hair, headgear, glasses, etc goes. Want to be a Soldier? Soldier armor/suit and then whatever. Want to be some whacky crazy looking chara or wear a mascot costume? Do that. I did save images of all the legendary cosmetic weapons (And some of the cooler non-legendary ones I liked), maybe one day I will get something done that will be a memorial tribute to this game I loved. One day I will, anyway. It'll be crazy to see if anyone talks about this, or tries to fanmake a PC port/private server/etc of this game at some point if they can get their hands on the source code.

[@greeksotiris]

I think you forgot a big reason why it failed: no advertisement. I only knew its existence when I was opening the Google Play Store and seeing it had some events for the anniversary of FF7. And like you said, no PC and console version. Not many care about mobile gaming, let alone for games that demand good phones, like CoD Mobile, Apex Legends and Fortnite on Android (yes, you can still download Fortnite on your Android phone via Epic's app), so why not a better option for many people.

[@DrDirtyLeggz]

I remember when I got my first Victory Chicken Dinner. I earned the emote reward 'Throw a Tantrum' and said "This is probably an omen."

[@davidwenzel717]

Might have something to do with as a big final fantasy fan I had no idea this game was a thing till this video lol

[@Lxx00Jxx00]

I've always liked single player games and Final Fantasy was always one my favorite RPGs. First Soldier was my first Battle Royale and I really liked the game but couldn't fit to the touchscreen and mobile aspects of it, unfortunately. Just played 5, 6 matches and gave up.

[@spider-fighterdenoir6266]

I played this game and honestly it was solid. There werent any major bugs or glitches, the weapon system, the monsters it featured, the random little quests, the materia/magic, and the use of different class, and to mention the chocobos, everything was enjoyable. The number one critic of the game was that you could only communicate by typing and i fpund this game by pure chance on the app store. Square enix really didnt advertise this thing at all. It was like they wanted it to fail, which is a shame because it looked like a great deal of heart was put into the game.