When I saw a trailer for a new Secret of Mana game I was incredibly stoked in mere seconds. Sadly that elation vanished as fast as it appeared when I noticed that 'Rise of Mana' is a game only for mobile phones. What does this mean for true RPG fans?
Secret Of Mana is easily one of the greatest games ever to grace the Super Nintendo with its presence. Simply remembering the time I've put into that title makes me look at Rise Of Mana with hope, but I know better than that. Square Enix and I don't get along too well now a days. The games I like developed from Square Enix continue to only be their older titles. Bravely Default was a nice attempt, but the demo did not interest me enough to buy the game. So with all of this in mind I have to say my expectations aren't incredibly high.
The trailer for Rise Of Mana is incredibly beautiful and the featured music is some of the best I've heard in video games for a while now. But in the end a game is all about how it plays for me. The game looks to have some sort of weapon crafting and/or weapon leveling system that is a good plus. The battle encounters look enjoyable and I really like the two shortcut buttons for other abilities. The boss fights look very frantic and being able to join up with up to eight other players sounds fantastic. At the very least I will try this game out if it releases outside of Japan. Well if the price stays free.
The real problem though is that the game is going to be on a phone. I'm not completely averse to phone games, but the amount of mobile games I enjoy is a very small number. For starters a lot of mobile games are too short and just don't have the levels of exploration you could find on a good console game. A much bigger problem is the controls and how there aren't any. I've played quite a few games with virtual d-pads and well it's not really something I like.
A virtual d-pad lacks the tactile feedback of a real d-pad and thus is nowhere near as accurate to use. Covering the screen during a fast-paced battle with my own thumbs also takes away from the experience for me. I like to see everything that's going on as I'm fighting.
In App Purchases is also something I'm really worried about. I have nothing against free games offering cosmetic content at a price to fund development.
However, it's a completely different case when the game is littered with invasive adds prompting you to buy buffs or better equipment so you can get through the more difficult parts of the game. It's an outright show of disrespect for your player base if a game has difficulty spikes put into the game by design to heavily push in app purchases. Another terrible strategy is for the designer to add competitive leader boards in a game where you can pay real money to increase your score or grant an absolute advantage over non-paying players. Pay2win games are not something I ever care to play. Surely Square Enix wouldn't go down this road... right?
Square Enix are not the only company taking old IPs and trying to make money off of them with mobile adaptions. Capcom has tossed its hand in the despicable basket with Breath of Fire 6. Learning absolutely nothing from DmC: Devil May Cry, Capcom is once again changing longstanding traditional features of a protagonist for a new look. I do understand that Capcom wants the player character's appearance to be customizable so I'd say this does make a bit more sense from a mobile gaming point of view. Nevertheless, every other Breath of Fire game has been on a console. Surely Capcom wouldn't forget about the fans of this franchise?
If Rockman Xover is anything to go by, the game shows that Capcom are really inexperienced with mobile gaming and don't mind scrapping something together for free money. That may sound really harsh, but honestly just look up a gameplay video and tell me that isn't what's happening. If you can honestly say that then you have delusional abilities that are only paralleled by Square Enix's perception of FFXIII as a good series. Perhaps though Capcom has learned a lot more since their early forays in mobile game development?
Breath of Fire 6 lacks any gameplay footage so there is nothing to go off but the screenshots. The attacking effects and overall art design looks far more polished than Rockman Xover so that gives me a very small amount of faith. The town building elements remind me woefully of many 'freemium' Facebook games and I fear what ever gameplay lies here may be locked out with timers. If that isn't the case than I must also ponder how the story will be revealed.
Will it be usual RPG-fair? Or will it be similar to other mobile RPGs that charge money for each chapter.
I worry profusely for the future of RPGs. As long as games like Ni No Kuni and Etrian Odyssey are around then I don't have too much to fear, but none the less the amount of RPGs on mobile is disquieting.
I love the non-linear open worlds of a good RPG, the various side quests, and the variation in gameplay. Out of the two games I'd definitely say Rise Of Mana looks the most hopeful. Perhaps Square Enix has learned from their previous mobile blunders and this time have a quality product worth investing time into.
All we can do is hope.
What do you think of Square Enix and Capcom taking their franchises to mobile gaming?
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
