Final Fantasy Awakening

Final Fantasy Awakening[lower-alpha 2] is an action role-playing game developed by Perfect World Games and Square Enix for iOS and Android. It was first released in China by Perfect World in December 2016, with releases in other languages including English over the following two years from other publishers; its English release was the first Final Fantasy title to be licensed by Square Enix to another company. The English version closed in 2019 due to service changes, and all other versions shut down in May 2020 with the end of the licensing deal.

Final Fantasy Awakening
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)Perfect World Games[lower-alpha 1]
Director(s)
Producer(s)Daihashi Motohashi
Series
EngineUnity
Platform(s)
Release
  • CHN: December 14, 2016
  • AU: January 30, 2018
  • US: February 2, 2018 (soft launch)
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Multiplayer

Awakening is set in the universe of Final Fantasy Type-0, a spin-off title within the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries. Players take on the role of a cadet of the Dominion of Rubrum as the four nations of Orience are plunged into war. The player engages in missions, fighting foes using hack and slash-style gameplay using parties of five characters. All gameplay is multiplayer-exclusive, featuring both cooperative and player-versus-player modes.

Planning began in 2014 after the online elements of Final Fantasy Agito stalled due to technical difficulties. According to original director Hajime Tabata, Awakening was the true realisation of his earliest plans for Type-0. The game was overseen by staff from Square Enix, while the main development was handled by Perfect World, who were chosen due to their good track record for domestic and international online games. First announced at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, its first beta test opened in mainland China in April 2016. It met with commercial success, achieving two million downloads within its month of Chinese release. It also saw strong popular appeal and positive reviews from game journalists.

Story and gameplay
Screenshot of combat in Final Fantasy Awakening, showing some of the potential characters in battle with some common enemies.

Final Fantasy Awakening is an action role-playing game where players take on the role of a cadet in the Dominion of Rubrum's magical academy.[3] Awakening takes place in Orience, a world divided between four warring nations. It is referred to as a "parallel world" to that of the original Type-0.[4] Similar to Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Agito, the world is locked in a repeating spiral of history, with Awakening being an iteration of that history.[5] The player character takes part in the war between Orience's nations, eventually aiding Rubrum's victory over the other nations; this triggers an apocalyptic event called Tempus Finis. While the player defeats the Rursan Judge overseeing Tempus Finis, the cycle of history is reset, though the player is allowed to remember their deeds and relives the cycle as different alliances of nations play out.[6]

Awakening is focused around multiplayer gameplay similar to the multiplayer functions of the original Type-0, but with a more evolved system and hack-and-slash style gameplay.[7] The player character is customisable, with gender, general appearance and abilities chosen by the player at the beginning of the game.[8] Between the game's missions, represented as nodes on a map of Orience, the player character explores the hub area of Rubrum's Akademia, talking to characters and accepting quests.[9] There is a manual control option and an "auto" mode where battles are played out using the game's artificial intelligence (AI).[10] In addition to story-based missions, there are arenas where teams of players can face off against each other.[9]

Missions use five-person teams; the cadet, two other player with selected characters, and two AI-controlled party members; the AI partners and players are swapped periodically to alter the flow of gameplay.[11] This ties into a move called the Triad Manoeuvrer, where three characters combine abilities for high damage.[3] If the player's Rage meter is high enough, they can call a summoned monster known as an Eidolon, which can deliver high damage to enemies.[11][12] Each character, including the original fourteen-person cast of Type-0, has specific skills and unique moves. Additional battle effects are unlocked by including characters in the party with close relationships or similar skills.[11] Characters earn experience points in battle, which both raises their level and earns in-game currency which can be used to purchase new weapons and items.[3] The game uses a free-to-play purchase model: while the base game is free, optional items can be purchased for cash.[13] Later updates included new battle areas, cross-server multiplayer battles between teams, and a "Vow" system where player characters could form marriages in-game.[12]

Development

Planning for Awakening began in November 2014, with full development starting at the beginning of 2015. The game was designed as a successor to Final Fantasy Agito, which had hit insurmountable technical barriers which stopped further development of its online functions.[5] Type-0 Online, as it was called, was co-developed by Square Enix and Chinese online game developer Perfect World Games.[7][13] While Perfect World handled primary development, the original staff of Agito supervised the project. Perfect World was chosen as they had extensive experience with domestic and international online games.[5] After Agito shut down, the development team transferred over to work on Awakening.[14][15] Over 100 staff at Perfect World were attached to the game's development for more than a year. Development went on for longer than anticipated, although it progressed smoothly when it neared its first open beta.[1] Awakening was the first Final Fantasy title to be licensed by Square Enix to another company for both production and publishing.[2][16]

Hajime Tabata, who led production on both Type-0 and Agito, acted as the game's director.[5][11] Following Tabata's departure from Square Enix in 2018,[17] series veteran Yoshinori Kitase took over the position of director.[18] The producer was Daihashi Motohashi.[11] The game's title "Awakening" was chosen as Tabata consider the game an "awakening" of his early concept for Final Fantasy Type-0, which was planned as a mobile title before releasing on PlayStation Portable. He considered Awakening the closest realisation to his original plans.[16] In an interview, Motohashi said that they faced multiple challenges during development, mainly how to bring the original game's features over into a mobile experience. They also wanted to make use of the original game's extensive cast, giving them a larger role in gameplay.[11] The brand was already well known worldwide, so the gameplay was chosen as something acceptable to the largest number of people.[19] It was built upon the Unity game engine.[20]

Release

It was first hinted with the announcement that Agito was shutting down in November 2015. The company stated that a "reborn" version of Agito would be shown off at that year's Tokyo Game Show.[21] The game was announced at the event under the provisional title Final Fantasy Type-0 Online for both mobiles and Microsoft Windows, along with a planned release window of spring 2016. At this time, it was planned for Agito players to receive an unspecified "favor" if they chose to play Awakening.[22] A beta test was scheduled for Chinese territories in the winter of 2015.[22] The first beta test ended up starting in mid-April 2016.[23] When it was first announced, a localization for Europe and North America was under consideration.[4] At the 2015 AWS Summit Tokyo, an open beta for Japan was announced for June, with releases following in Japan, North America and Europe.[24]

Its first playable appearance was at the 2016 ChinaJoy Expo. It was also stated at the event that Perfect World would act as the game's publishers in Asian territories outside Japan.[1] In October 2016, it was announced that the game would be renamed Final Fantasy Awakening, releasing under that name first in China.[25] The game became available for general download in China on December 14, 2016.[26] It later released in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau on August 3, 2017.[27] In these regions, the game was given a title in traditional Chinese rather than English, with the team hoping to establish a unified brand identity for Final Fantasy in the region.[16] Any Japanese release was being delayed until the game had a stable presence in the worldwide market.[11]

The game was released in Indonesia on August 15, 2017 by Efun Company Limited.[28][29] Releases in Singapore and Malaysia followed in October.[30] A South Korean release came through FL Studio Mobile on October 17, 2017.[31] Later, Hong Kong-based company Oasis Games officially licensed the game for an English-language release in Australia, New Zealand, and other territories in 2018.[2] First releasing for Android in those regions on January 30, a release for iOS came out on February 26.[32] A soft launch went live in North America on February 2, 2018 for Android and February 26 for iOS.[33] On October 31, 2019, the game's English servers were shut down by Oasis Games due to incompatible changes to the original service.[34] In February 2020, it was announced that Final Fantasy Awakening as a whole would shut down on May 18 of that year, with gradual suspension of services between February and April.[35] In a statement regarding the game's closure, Efun said it was due to the approaching end of the licensing agreement with Square Enix.[36]

Reception

On the day of its release in China, Awakening achieved 500,000 downloads, coming in at #5 in the best-selling mobile games in China at the time.[37][38] By the end of December, downloads had reached two million.[38] Following its English release on Android, the game achieved 137,000 downloads.[32] It also received positive player feedback, and was awarded Google's "Best of 2017" award in three territories where it had released at the time.[2]

Website GamerBraves praised the game for its nostalgic return to the world of Type-0 and engaging gameplay style, but faulted its cluttered interface and lack of some player-versus-player battle arena types.[8] GameAxis called it "a worthwhile entry for players hungry for Type-0 content", praising its gameplay but faulting its inclusion of microtransactions.[9] Geek Culture again praised the gameplay and positively compared its cinematic presentation to home console games, but again negatively noted the presence of microtransactions despite the reviewer not feeling pressured into using them.[10]

Notes
  1. Perfect World handled publishing in Asian territories outside Japan. It was released in other territories by Efun (Malaysia and Singapore);[1] and Oasis Games (English territories).[2]
  2. Fainaru Fantajī Kakusei (Japanese: ファイナルファンタジー覺醒), Chinese: 最终幻想 觉醒; pinyin: Zuì Zhōng Huànxiǎng Juéxǐng
gollark: Using contraapiopyroforms, pyroapiocontraforms, cryoapioforms, apiopyrocontraforms and orthopyroapiohazards.
gollark: I have apiopyroformic shielding.
gollark: Sometimes‽
gollark: Then explain why people know what it means‽
gollark: The technical term is "apiopyroform".

References
  1. Romano, Sal (2016-07-30). "Final Fantasy Type-0 Online playable at ChinaJoy 2016". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2016-07-30. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
  2. "Final Fantasy Awakening First Official Announcement". Gamasutra. 2018-01-23. Archived from the original on 2018-01-28. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  3. Ghiurca, Andreea (2018-02-08). "Final Fantasy Awakening soft launches today". Pocket Gamer. Archived from the original on 2019-10-06. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  4. Goldfarb, Andrew (2015-09-19). "TGS 2015: Final Fantasy Type-0 Online Announced for Mobile, PC". IGN. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  5. 『FFXV』と『FF零式 オンライン』について田畑端氏を直撃！　2016年3月には驚きの発表も!?. Famitsu (in Japanese). 2015-09-22. Archived from the original on 2015-09-22. Retrieved 2015-09-22.
  6. Perfect World (2018-01-30). Final Fantasy Awakening (iOS, Android). Oasis Games.
  7. Sato, Ike (2015-09-19). "Final Fantasy Type-0 Online Announced For PC And Smartphone". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  8. "Final Fantasy Awakening Review – A Must Try for Every Final Fantasy Fans". GamerBraves. 2017-11-02. Archived from the original on 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  9. "Final Fantasy Awakening is a legitimate entry for fans". GameAxis. 2017-11-02. Archived from the original on 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  10. "Geek Review: Final Fantasy Awakening (Mobile)". GeekCulture. 2017-10-29. Archived from the original on 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  11. 《FINAL FANTASY最終幻想：覺醒®》今日雙平台熱血上市 零式之父與製作人專訪曝光. IWPlay (in Chinese). 2017-08-02. Archived from the original on 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  12. "Final Fantasy Awakening unleashes massive update". Gamasutra. 2018-07-09. Archived from the original on 2019-04-15. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  13. 『ファイナルファンタジー零式 オンライン』公式リリースが到着、PVも公開【TGS2015】. Famitsu (in Japanese). 2015-09-19. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  14. "FF Agito Official Management - 30 November 2015 (1/2)". Twitter (in Japanese). 2015-11-30. Archived from the original on 1 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  15. "FF Agito Official Management - 30 November 2015 (2/2)". Twitter (in Japanese). 2015-11-30. Archived from the original on 1 December 2015. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  16. 《Final Fantasy 最終幻想 覺醒》事前登錄開跑，田畑：期許成為亞洲代表作. 4Gamers (in Chinese). 2017-07-20. Archived from the original on 2020-04-04. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  17. Ike, Sato (2018-12-17). "Hajime Tabata Talks About His Departure From Square Enix, More On His New Company JP Games". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 2018-12-17. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
  18. 《FINAL FANTASY 最終幻想：覺醒》新任總監北瀬佳範訪談 預告系列作品未來走向. Gamer.com (in Chinese). 2019-08-12. Archived from the original on 2020-04-04. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  19. ［CJ2016］「ファイナルファンタジー零式 ONLINE」は鋭意開発中。中国語のiOS版がPerfect Worldブースにてプレイアブル出展. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). 2016-07-30. Archived from the original on 2019-04-15. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  20. Chelen, Matt (2016-10-22). "Final Fantasy: The Awakening Is Bringing Type-0's World To Mobile Later This Year". MMO.com. Archived from the original on 2016-11-26. Retrieved 2016-11-26.
  21. ファイナルファンタジーアギト - サービス終了のお知らせ(11/30) [Final Fantasy Agito - Notice of Termination of Service (11/30)]. Square Enix (in Japanese). 2015-08-30. Archived from the original on 2015-08-31. Retrieved 2015-08-31.
  22. Romano, Sal (2015-09-19). "Final Fantasy Type-0 Online announced for PC and smartphones". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2015-09-19. Retrieved 2015-09-19.
  23. Li, Yu Quan (2016-04-13). 《幻想Zero》4月开测 神似《最终幻想：零式Online》. Gamersky.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  24. Sato, Ike (2016-06-08). "Final Fantasy Type-0 Online's Open Beta In China This Month, Japan And The West Will Get It Later". Siliconera. Archived from the original on 2016-06-08. Retrieved 2016-06-08.
  25. "最终幻想手游正式定名《最终幻想 觉醒》". Final Fantasy Awakening Website (in Chinese). 2016-10-21. Archived from the original on 2016-11-05. Retrieved 2016-11-05.
  26. Romano, Sal (2016-12-14). "Final Fantasy Awakening open beta now available in China". Gematsu. Archived from the original on 2016-12-15. Retrieved 2016-12-15.
  27. "Final Fantasy Awakening launches in selected regions". GamerBraves. 2017-08-03. Archived from the original on 2018-02-01. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  28. "FINAL FANTASY AWAKENING 3D: ARPG Lisensi Resmi SE By Efun Games Co Ltd". iTunes. 2017-08-15. Archived from the original on 2017-09-20.
  29. "Google Play: FINAL FANTASY AWAKENING: 3D ARPG Lisensi Resmi SE". Google. Archived from the original on 2018-02-08.
  30. "Final Fantasy Awakening is now live in Singapore and Malaysia". GamerBraves. 2017-10-13. Archived from the original on 2017-10-15. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  31. スマホ向けRPG「FINAL FANTASY AWAKENING」のAndroid版が韓国で配信開始。事前登録者数は80万人を超える. 4Gamer.net. Archived from the original on 2018-01-28.
  32. "Final Fantasy Awakening Launches Today". Gamasutra. 2018-01-30. Archived from the original on 2018-02-28. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
  33. Minotti, Mike (2018-02-26). "Final Fantasy: Awakening is now available for iOS in the U.S." VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 2018-06-17. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  34. "Final Fantasy Awakening - Facebook Posts - 15 October 2019". 2019-10-15. Archived from the original on 2020-04-03. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  35. 《最终幻想觉醒》手游停运公告. Final Fantasy Awakening website (in Chinese). 2020-02-23. Archived from the original on 2020-04-02. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  36. Effun Gaming (2020-04-01). "最终幻想 觉醒/FINAL FANTASY Awakening:SE Authorize 3D ARPG - 1 April at 20:19". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2020-04-04. Retrieved 2020-04-04.
  37. 「最終幻想 覚醒」（邦題：ファイナルファンタジー零式 ONLINE）の正式サービスが中国でスタート。配信初日に50万DLを達成. 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). 2016-12-16. Archived from the original on 2017-04-02. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
  38. スマートフォン向け 「最終幻想 覚醒」200万ダウンロードを突破. Square Enix (in Japanese). 2016-12-28. Archived from the original on 2017-04-02. Retrieved 2017-04-02.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.