Square Enix Restores Offline Play To Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster

Published: March 27, 2019 9:56 AM /

By:


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As reported yesterday, Square Enix on March 7th, 2019 introduced a patch to the Steam version of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster that caused the game not to launch if you were in an offline mode: whether you had no connection to the internet or were in the offline mode of Steam. This new requirement caused players game to review bomb the game due to the change in behavior, resulting in over 70+ negative reviews in the last day or so. Well, it looks like Square Enix has reacted, as a new patch for March 27th, 2019 has reverted changes made, and testing by TechRaptor has confirmed that the issue has been resolved.

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An effort to get the new requirement noticed ended up in a reversal of parts of the March 7th patch.

On the steam update post, a Square Enix representative indicated that "We are aware of an issue which affected the ability to play FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster in offline environments. To rectify this, we have removed the latest update with immediate effect, and you can now continue to experience the game as before." Many people lept to the conclusion at the time of the patch that it was a new DRM implemented in the game, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Based on the update post, the issue seems to have been an unintended consequence of attempting to hook in other Steam features.

While Square Enix didn't comment on the issue directly in that case, those like Durante (famed "patcher" of games such as PC versions of Dark Souls) noticed that the latest version had now booted with the Steam API DLL, when that had not been seen in the game before. That suggested that it was being actively used, and it's possible that a bad implementation ended up causing a bug that caused the launcher to not succeed when the game is offline.

The game never did seemingly get to a "review bomb" status despite the number of negative reviews, so it is still unclear going forward if an issue like this would be a justifiable reason to still count those reviews against a game in Steam's new review bomb policy.

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Shaun Joy TechRaptor
| Former Video Lead

YouTuber Dragnix who plays way too many games, and has a degree in Software Engineering. A Focus on disclosure on Youtubers, and gaming coverage in general… More about Shaun