When Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius closed its doors, a vital piece of FF IP was lost. It simply vanished. Sure, the memories remain. But, much like most of Square Enix's lineup of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts fare, when it's gone, that's a story, a setting, a cast, a journey, that no one will ever again experience. Sure, there are "all cutscenes 1080p" rips out there if you're lucky and the game (be it Square's or anybody else's) was popular enough for someone to go through all the trouble. But it's still not the same.
This, of course, has led to fan outcry time and again. Especially in a world where there are occasional exceptions to the rule—such as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp's premium release—players can't help pondering why their preferred gacha can't live on via an offline, pay-once-and-play-forever, model. The usual uproar over "dev laziness" and "not caring about the fans" will dominate the social media echo chambers, of course. The truth is more nuanced, as it so often is.
Japanese developers are now weighing in on why, exactly, offline versions of gacha video games are so rare. The catalyst? The above...
