"This is a Free-2-Play mobile game disguised as a $40 game": Square Enix's greedy monetization of Chocobo GP leaves fans outraged

The Final Fantasy franchise is no stranger to spin-offs. The 1999 PS1 title Chocobo Racer brought the iconic RPG series to the arcade world for the first time. 23 years later, we get a successor in the form of Chocobo GP for the Nintendo Switch.

What should've been a nostalgic trip down memory lane quickly turned into a horror show after the game's launch a few days ago. The overall experience was deemed fairly mediocre, easily outshined by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, deemed to be a superior experience.

But the true car-crash here is the horrible monetization scheme implemented by Square Enix.

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Chocobo GP gets totalled into oblivion

Beneath its cute and charming exterior lies a less-than-pleasant truth. In a nutshell, the game aims to nickel-dime the player even in the paid version, which costs $50/£40.

For starters, the game includes a Battle Pass which has exclusive characters such as Cloud Strife and cannot be obtained without paying real money. The in-game advertising is also jarring and leaves a bad taste in players' mouths.

There are also microtransactions for purchasing the premium currency, Mythril, which many deem to be priced quite high. As seen below, one of the bundles costs above $100.

The grind for unlocking decent rewards that might appeal to the player is quite time consuming. Additionally, Mythril expires five months after the date of purchase, and is the final nail in Chocobo GP's coffin.

Just looking at the UI makes it clear that this was designed as a mobile game. In fact, it does have an Android version called Chocobo GP Lite (which is also available on Switch).

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A spreading fire needed to put out

Understandably, fans are not taking well to the news, even on Reddit:

The game and the publisher both are being mocked at this point:

It's definitely not a good look for Square Enix. They have come under fire for similar situations in the past but they still don't seem to be letting up. As it stands now, the game sits at a 2.4 User Score rating on Metacritic.