Since February 25th, 2015, Square Enix, the company behind famous series such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, have come out with a new game called Heavenstrike Rivals, which was announced back in 2014. This game is described on the Square Enix website press release as a "mobile adventure role-playing game" and includes "a complex – yet easy to learn – battle system with deep strategic possibilities... quick-entry player-vs-player combat and hundreds of unique characters to collect, grow and evolve," including a tactical battle system and turn-based nostalgia. The game was announced back in late 2014 when it was pre-released in its beta form to consumers in Canada and Australia.
Also, as a way to commemorate the global release, for a limited time, all players will be given a Black Mage token, which is said to help those who are competing in PvP mode. The PvP mode is also said to be set in real time, and players can use over 200 different characters to compete with, designed by none other than Ryoma Ito, the designer for Final fantasy Tactics Advance.
And not only that, but this game is available for free on iOS and Android devices, so long as the devices meet the games requirements. Well, "free." The game offers in-game micro-transactions that according to the Google Play store range from a measly .99 cents to a whopping 82.50. Why would anybody spend more on micro-transactions then they would spend on almost 2 AAA brand new game releases?
According to the Google Playstore, the game has no far received a decent response on launch, with over 10,000 installs and over 1,000 reviews in the course of about 2 days. According to its review scores on the Google Playstore giving it a 3.9 out of 5, and iTunes reviews giving it a 4.5 out of 5, so it appears to have made a good opening reception.
What do you think of this game? Are you looking forward to a new adventure made by Square Enix? Are you happy with the idea of established developers marketing their new releases on Mobile devices? What do you think of the game's microtransactions?
