Short about: Square Enix is known for making and releasing some pretty amazing games. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was a surprising gem, and both Final Fantasy and the Dragon Quest series seem to knock it out of the park with each new release. Unfortunately, even a publisher of Squares’ caliber is able to throw their weight behind a bad game every now and then. The latest Square Enix-published action-RPG, Babylon’s Fall, has performed horribly on Steam.
To be clear, Square Enix is regularly “disappointed” with the performance of their published works, even when the games mentioned actually worked very well. The publisher is known for having unreasonably high expectations for releases. Unfortunately, even with that in mind, the fall of Babylon is not going well. It might go better on the console, but on Steam, it hit the pathetic 8 simultaneous players during the evening of April 12th. Since the title was first released on March 3, it is not a good sign.
It is common for the number of players to decrease after the first few weeks after the release of a game, but not to this extent. Even PlatinumGames’ past work, Nier Automata, continues to maintain an average number of concurrent players of 1,464 over the last 30 days – and that’s five years after launch. In contrast, Babylon’s Fall has had an average of about 138 concurrent players, with regular dives for the double-digit ones.
So what exactly is wrong with the fall of Babylon? According to reviewers, the problems lie in the game’s non-existent level of difficulty, its tedious level design, and a strange oil-painting-like filter that negatively affects its graphic fidelity. The game’s most important saving grace, according to reviewers, appears to be its battle, but even that “blooms” apparently not until the late game.
Fans of Nier Automata probably expected better from PlatinumGames this time. An action RPG for 1-4 players with Kidney Depth, but a fresh setting and unique aesthetics? Even I would have reason to check it out, even though I’ve never played a Nier game before. Unfortunately, as we have learned repeatedly over the last few years, games do not always come out in the state they should. The fall of Babylon seems to be another victim of this tendency.
With that said, PlatinumGames is determined to do the right thing by its players. According to a tweet released in March, the developer is already working on seasons 2 and 3 of the game’s content, and improvements aimed at addressing player feedback are in the pipeline. Will this turn into yet another “No Man’s Sky” situation? With the game sitting on “Mostly Negative” latest reviews right now, it’s hard to say. However, anything is possible and we hope that PlatinumGames can turn things around for the sake of both itself and its players.
If you want to try the game, it’s on sale for $ 41.99 right now, down from $ 59.99 on Steam. That deal ends April 27, so you still have some time to take advantage of it if you wish. Alternatively, try its free demo, which requires you to associate a Square Enix account to play.