The Final Fantasy kart racer, Chocobo GP, released this week and players are reporting their disappointment with the games abundance of microtransactions. Final Fantasy fans who have paid for the $50 version of the game are reporting that they feel ”duped” and even those who are playing the free, ”lite” version of the game available on Nintendo Switch say it feels like a mobile game.
The gameplay is similar to that of Mario Kart; select a racer (Chocobo or a Final Fantasy character), race around a given course and take down your opponents with power-ups and/or spells. But, for the rest of the game, “everything is [built] around purchasable season passes despite it being a paid game,” says one player on the Final Fantasy subreddit. “[I]t’s basically the same currency systems we see in gacha games, only it’s all for minor cart customization sh—.”
Racers and levels are unlock-able, but it appears that karts, outfits and items must be bought as various shops, using more than one in-game currency. Gil and Tickets are earned from simply playing the game, but Mythril is only available with real money.
“[I] booted up the game, was greeted immediately with ingame currency you buy with mtx,” states another disgruntled player, “battle pass to get rewards with two tiers, and the entire design making it feel like my nintendo switch is a phone. Like am I paying a $50 game or a f2p mobile game?”
The game also features a ”Prize Pass” which seems very slow to unlock, according to some players. One player tweeter that after an hour of online play in the game, he had won a tournament but only came up to level 7 on the pass.
The Prize Pass also has a cost itself which will set you back by 800 Mythril, which converts to roughly $10 for 1000 Mythril. There is a launch promotion on right now that will give you 1,600 Mythril for $8.
“I wonder how long it will take for Square Enix to learn that just because games like Destiny 2, Call of Duty, and FIFA are able to double dip doesn’t mean they can do it too with their lower budget games,” another player wrote on Friday. “You either need the content or the brand to do it, ideally both. Chocobo GP has neither of the two.”
It’s unclear if Square Enix plans to do anything about this, but only time will tell.
