Square Enix may be famous for its Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games but it also handles plenty of mobile games, which aren't always successful, like the recent Engage Kill and Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile.
Engage Kill will shut down on March 21, 2024, just a year after its launch in Japan on March 1, 2023. Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile will close on March 29, 2024, just 19 months after its release on August 4, 2022,
If the titles of the games (albeit their franchises are quite popular) don't ring a bell, that's not surprising, since neither made it to the Western market.
Defined as an “Animetic Timeline Battle RPG", Engage Kill is set in the same world of the anime Engage Kill, which aired in mid-2022.
It had plenty of talent behind it, including the anime's writer Maruto Fumiaki and character designer Tsunako, whom you may know as the artist behind the Hyperdimension Neptunia and Date a Live series.
Yet, it apparently failed to live up to Square Enix's commercial expectations. The closure announcement posted on the official website says what has become pretty much an established formula nowadays.
The developers have worked every day to provide a good game, but have come to the conclusion that it will be difficult to provide services that satisfy the customers. Therefore, they have decided to terminate the title.
We've heard this before many, many times.
Moving on to Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile, it was inspired by the Fullmetal Alchemist manga by Hiromu Arakawa, and it reproduced its world and characters in a tactical RPG.
In this case, the developers mention in the official announcement that while they received praise for the game's depiction of the original story, they also received criticism.
They have worked hard to rebalance the game and revise its systems, but ultimately realized that it will be challenging to maintain a team structure that could provide the service the users require. Hence, the decision to close down the shop.
As usual, sales of in-game currency have been killed effective immediately on both games, and the currency that won't be used by the end of service will be refunded, which is nice.
The developers will also continue to provide events until the games goe dark, albeit for Fullmetal Alchemist, it'll be reruns, and the rest of its story will be delivered via streamed voice dramas between January and March 2024.
These are certainly not the only mobile games by Square Enix that received the axe recently.
Just yesterday, we heard the same about the Western version of Dragon Quest Tact, while the closure of Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia was announced a few days ago.
Back in November, Square Enix lamented that new mobile games like Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis and Dragon Quest Champions had failed to compensate for the weak performance of existing ones.
