It is also considered cultural export
The other day, I was surfing the Internet, and as usual, I would browse some game news from time to time. Recently, it has been a time of succession, and the game news is naturally more intensive, and if you don't pay attention, you will miss some important news.
And at the moment of all this prosperity, in a corner where no one cares, the "luminous group" was officially merged by SQUARE ENIX headquarters.
At the beginning of its birth, the "luminous group" that took over the follow-up update mess of Final Fantasy 15 launched its masterpiece "Forspoken" this year as a proof of its own strength. Contrary to expectations, Forspoken, with its ultra-low game quality, ended up reaping a violent death.
The road to self-certification of the "luminous group" failed, and the "liquidation" came faster than expected. ALTHOUGH NOMINALLY MERGED WITH SQUARE ENIX, THIS CAN ALMOST FORESHADOW THE SNOW OF THE "LUMINOUS GROUP".
The "luminous group" never seems to have really brought any "good work". Since Tabata's departure, its biggest memory point, aside from this year's Forspoken, seems to have only the news of the cancellation of the next 3 DLCs of Final Fantasy 15.
Forspoken was a true minecraft, but it was at least finished and eventually released. However, the DLC that was canceled in Final Fantasy 15 probably lost its already slim chance of seeing the light of day with the merger of the "Luminous Group".
However, a recent visual image of the Final Fantasy 15 spin-off gave me some hope for the defunct DLC — it does look like this.
So I started searching for information about Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos. To my surprise, it really didn't disappoint me. In the game's related publicity, I can see the shadow of the dusty "3 DLCs" in its entirety.
The three major DLCs abandoned in Final Fantasy 15 are: "Dragoon Ellania Chapter", "Luna Chapter", and "Noctis Chapter". The content of these 3 DLCs is fully reflected in Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos.
"Dragoon Tales Chapter" tells "Elania's worst day". On this day, in order to avoid the pursuit of a large number of "Shinra warriors" on the ground, Noctis and Luna chose to go underground and build their own shelter.
In "Luna's Chapter", although Luna dies, she never leaves, and she still fights for the people she loves. Luna will transform into a gem and through the power of "elimination", she will help her companions in battle.
In the final "Chapter of Noctis", after experiencing too much Noctis, I finally became ready for enlightenment. In order to realize his ideal with everyone, after separating from the star god, he once again picked up the sword in his hand and launched his final battle in the first person.
In this way, the "3 DLCs" that have become the regret of countless players have been completed in Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos. Today, we are finally able to experience the full story of Final Fantasy 15.
Well, looking back at this text, it's hard for me to hold on to it myself - I really can't make it up.
As you can see, the advertising campaign for Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos is full of inferior domestic web games that spill over the screen. It just used a couple of already fixed advertising frames and filled them with Final Fantasy 15 characters. WHEN I FIRST SAW THESE VIDEOS, I THOUGHT THE SAME THING – AFTER ALL, SQUARE ENIX'S GAME CG HAS LONG BEEN A VALUABLE "LIBRARY" FOR PAGE GAME MANUFACTURERS.
But when I was really curious to learn about Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos, the results were a little unexpected.
Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos is not the kind of inferior domestic web game that I expected to steal materials, but a war strategy mobile game officially licensed by SQUARE ENIX and developed by Machine Zone.
Machine Zone is an American mobile game company, its works are mostly SLG, and its representative games are "War Games: Age of Fire" and "Thunder World".
In the early days, Machine Zone's works had quite good commercial results under the SLG category, and it felt like a "first-line SLG manufacturer".
Source: SensorTower
But the good times did not last long, and after owning two main works, Machine Zone stopped innovating. Although new works are constantly being launched, they are always changing soup without changing medicine, and the gameplay and content cannot break out of the existing framework, and gradually develop in the direction of "skin-changing mobile games". This also led to the continuous decline of Machine Zone, which was eventually acquired by AppLovin in 2020.
Final Fantasy XV: War for EOS is the first title Machine Zone released in February after it was acquired.
After the acquisition, did Machine Zone change its past mistakes and take an innovative step? After reading the ads and pictures above, I think you can probably have an answer.
No.
Final Fantasy XV: War for EOS features several advertising videos, each with a different content. It can be a survival game of building shelters underground; It can be a "match-3" game with a swipe of your fingertips; It can also be an action game with "hearty" combat.
Just like all kinds of inferior mobile games and page games, you can never trust the content of its advertising. Ads only provide content that appeals to you, and do not need to be connected to the game content itself. Sometimes, their ads will deliberately "make stupid", giving you a feeling of "why is this person so dish, just change me" - and all this is just to entice you to click in.
The real face of Final Fantasy XV: War for EOS is actually the "old line" of Machine Zone - a "krypton gold mobile game".
The architectural model was changed to a bit of "Final Fantasy", the characters were replaced with the original characters, and some UI and plot additions were made, using the previous SLG system and gameplay - just like that, a genuine licensed "Final Fantasy 15 game" was completed.
Of course, krypton gold content is not less, even if the gameplay and quality of the game are still more than ten years ago, but krypton gold's method is to keep pace with the times: limited time recharge, multiple times rebates, accumulated gifts, "Final Fantasy XV: War for EOS" is all available.
Removing the inferior quality of the game itself, I think you should have a question at this time, why is this mobile game themed "Final Fantasy 15"? If you want to "suck up traffic and just rotten money", then it may be more "good" to use the more popular "Final Fantasy 7 Remake" or "Final Fantasy 16" as the theme in recent years?
The answer to this question is also simple. Because, "Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos" is the least created gear even in the "skinning mobile game". As early as 2017, Machine Zone launched the "skin-changing mobile game" of "Final Fantasy 15" - "Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire"
In 2017, shortly after the release of Final Fantasy 15, the popularity of the game remained high. Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire quickly gained great exposure.
However, in the online environment of that year, the advertising model of "answering" at a glance had not yet formed. Although Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire is still a "krypton gold mobile game", at least its promotion is still decent. Not only invited the live-action star Saki Takei to promote it, but also made a high-quality 3DCG for the game to assist in the publicity.
Saki Takei is the actor of the classic character "Akatsu " in "Nioh". 2017 is also the year of the release of Nio, at least for players, Saki Takei is no stranger. And this kind of casting also added a bit of heat to "Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire".
In the end, at least on a commercial level, Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire was a success. The game has achieved a high revenue in the "Skinning Krypton Gold Mobile Game", and the cumulative number of downloads has exceeded 10 million.
However, after all, the essence is still "krypton gold mobile game", and the popularity of "Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire" is also declining over time. Without gameplay support, only krypton gold as the main power, although it can still be maintained with the attribute of "strong PVP", but it cannot avoid the decline of the game.
Final Fantasy XV: War for EOS was born in just that context. The gameplay framework of the game is actually not much different from Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, it is "skinning" and "skinning". AND THE OFFICIAL IS ALSO QUITE SELF-AWARE, IN THE STORE PROMOTION INTERFACE SIMPLY PUT THE TWO GAMES TOGETHER TO COMPARE AND PUBLICIZE, IN ORDER TO ATTRACT OLD PLAYERS - SQUARE ENIX HAS TINKERED WITH VARIOUS "REMAKE" FORMS IN RECENT YEARS, AND ITS AUTHORIZED "SKIN CHANGING MOBILE GAME" HAS ALSO BEGUN TO BE "REMADE", WHICH IS SOMEWHAT HUMOROUS.
As mentioned earlier, the advertisements for Final Fantasy XV: War for EOS have a strong "domestic inferior" atmosphere. Although this game is not a domestic mobile game, this is indeed true - because its "creativity" really comes from domestic mobile games.
For example, "underground shelter", one of the forms of game advertising, is a copy of the domestic mobile game "Fortress Seven".
The promotional video that combines "Final Fantasy 15" and "match-3" gameplay is derived from the domestic mobile game "Puzzles & Survival".
However, these "copied" domestic mobile games are also somewhat different from ordinary domestic mobile games. Instead of targeting domestic players, they focused on overseas markets from the beginning – and mobile games that we traditionally considered "inferior" actually sold well overseas.
Overseas players have not experienced the domestic game environment, and the environment and preferences of players in different regions are also different. For the audience of such games, this batch of domestic "Krypton Gold Mobile Games" is actually an "excellent imported game" with high revenue. Without original bias and "excellent performance", overseas manufacturers will naturally study the reasons for the "success" of these games - in many cases, there will even be quite serious analysis.
In this way, the "plagiarism" of "domestic advertising" can also be traced. It has indeed played a huge propaganda role in different environments overseas, and a wave of "cultural export" has come. Marketing tactics are only about the result, not the form. As long as it allows you to click in, allows you to download the game, and makes you krypton gold, then the goal has been achieved. Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos has all kinds of funny publicity for just that purpose—after all, it doesn't even have the right name.
SQUARE ENIX's work on Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos is probably just licensing. In fact, game manufacturers authorizing IP to others to do "defense mobile games" is not a new thing in recent years, and no one will be unable to live with money.
Serious manufacturers may have in-depth communication with the docking company to provide content support and setting proofreading. But more often than not, vendors simply license the IP and then leave it alone. SQUARE ENIX IS CLEARLY THE LATTER. It's just that it at least doesn't include Final Fantasy XV: War for EOS in the "Final Fantasy 15 universe" that includes works from various fields, retaining a hint of bottom line.
This is probably already a good idea for SQUARE ENIX, where most of their mobile games do not live for more than 1 year.