Final Fantasy Awakening

Final Fantasy Awakening is an action role-playing game developed by Perfect World Games and Square Enix for iOS and Android. It was first released in China by Perfect World in December 2016, with releases in other languages including English over the following two years from other publishers; its English release was the first "Final Fantasy" title to be licensed by Square Enix to another company. The English version closed in 2019 due to service changes, and all other versions shut down in May 2020 with the end of the licensing deal.
"Awakening" is set in the universe of "Final Fantasy Type-0", a spin-off title within the "Fabula Nova Crystallis" subseries. Players take on the role of a cadet of the Dominion of Rubrum as the four nations of Orience are plunged into war. The player engages in missions, fighting foes using hack and slash-style gameplay using parties of five characters. All gameplay is multiplayer-exclusive, featuring both cooperative and player-versus-player modes.
Planning began in 2014 after the online elements of "Final Fantasy Agito" stalled due to technical difficulties. According to original director Hajime Tabata, "Awakening" was the true realisation of his earliest plans for "Type-0". The game was overseen by staff from Square Enix, while the main development was handled by Perfect World, who were chosen due to their good track record for domestic and international online games. First announced at the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, its first beta test opened in mainland China in April 2016. It met with commercial success, achieving two million downloads within its month of Chinese release. It also saw strong popular appeal and positive reviews from game journalists.
Story and gameplay.
"Final Fantasy Awakening" is an action role-playing game where players take on the role of a cadet in the Dominion of Rubrum's magical academy. "Awakening" takes place in Orience, a world divided between four warring nations. It is referred to as a "parallel world" to that of the original "Type-0". Similar to "Final Fantasy Type-0" and "Final Fantasy Agito", the world is locked in a repeating spiral of history, with "Awakening" being an iteration of that history. The player character takes part in the war between Orience's nations, eventually aiding Rubrum's victory over the other nations; this triggers an apocalyptic event called Tempus Finis. While the player defeats the Rursan Judge overseeing Tempus Finis, the cycle of history is reset, though the player is allowed to remember their deeds and relives the cycle as different alliances of nations play out.
"Awakening" is focused around multiplayer gameplay similar to the multiplayer functions of the original "Type-0", but with a more evolved system and hack-and-slash style gameplay. The player character is customisable, with gender, general appearance and abilities chosen by the player at the beginning of the game. Between the game's missions, represented as nodes on a map of Orience, the player character explores the hub area of Rubrum's Akademia, talking to characters and accepting quests. There is a manual control option and an "auto" mode where battles are played out using the game's artificial intelligence (AI). In addition to story-based missions, there are arenas where teams of players can face off against each other.
Missions use five-person teams; the cadet, two other player with selected characters, and two AI-controlled party members; the AI partners and players are swapped periodically to alter the flow of gameplay. This ties into a move called the Triad Manoeuvrer, where three characters combine abilities for high damage. If the player's Rage meter is high enough, they can call a summoned monster known as an Eidolon, which can deliver high damage to enemies. Each character, including the original fourteen-person cast of "Type-0", has specific skills and unique moves. Additional battle effects are unlocked by including characters in the party with close relationships or similar skills. Characters earn experience points in battle, which both raises their level and earns in-game currency which can be used to purchase new weapons and items. The game uses a free-to-play purchase model: while the base game is free, optional items can be purchased for cash. Later updates included new battle areas, cross-server multiplayer battles between teams, and a "Vow" system where player characters could form marriages in-game.
Development.
Planning for "Awakening" began in November 2014, with full development starting at the beginning of 2015. The game was designed as a successor to "Final Fantasy Agito", which had hit insurmountable technical barriers which stopped further development of its online functions. "Type-0 Online", as it was called, was co-developed by Square Enix and Chinese online game developer Perfect World Games. While Perfect World handled primary development, the original staff of "Agito" supervised the project. Perfect World was chosen as they had extensive experience with domestic and international online games. After "Agito" shut down, the development team transferred over to work on "Awakening". Over 100 staff at Perfect World were attached to the game's development for more than a year. Development went on for longer than anticipated, although it progressed smoothly when it neared its first open beta. "Awakening" was the first "Final Fantasy" title to be licensed by Square Enix to another company for both production and publishing.
Hajime Tabata, who led production on both "Type-0" and "Agito", acted as the game's director. Following Tabata's departure from Square Enix in 2018, series veteran Yoshinori Kitase took over the position of director. The producer was Daihashi Motohashi. The game's title "Awakening" was chosen as Tabata consider the game an "awakening" of his early concept for "Final Fantasy Type-0", which was planned as a mobile title before releasing on PlayStation Portable. He considered "Awakening" the closest realisation to his original plans. In an interview, Motohashi said that they faced multiple challenges during development, mainly how to bring the original game's features over into a mobile experience. They also wanted to make use of the original game's extensive cast, giving them a larger role in gameplay. The brand was already well known worldwide, so the gameplay was chosen as something acceptable to the largest number of people. It was built upon the Unity game engine.
Release.
It was first hinted with the announcement that "Agito" was shutting down in November 2015. The company stated that a "reborn" version of "Agito" would be shown off at that year's Tokyo Game Show. The game was announced at the event under the provisional title "Final Fantasy Type-0 Online" for both mobiles and Microsoft Windows, along with a planned release window of spring 2016. At this time, it was planned for "Agito" players to receive an unspecified "favor" if they chose to play "Awakening". A beta test was scheduled for Chinese territories in the winter of 2015. The first beta test ended up starting in mid-April 2016. When it was first announced, a localization for Europe and North America was under consideration. At the 2015 AWS Summit Tokyo, an open beta for Japan was announced for June, with releases following in Japan, North America and Europe.
Its first playable appearance was at the 2016 ChinaJoy Expo. It was also stated at the event that Perfect World would act as the game's publishers in Asian territories outside Japan. In October 2016, it was announced that the game would be renamed "Final Fantasy Awakening", releasing under that name first in China. The game became available for general download in China on December 14, 2016. It later released in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau on August 3, 2017. In these regions, the game was given a title in traditional Chinese rather than English, with the team hoping to establish a unified brand identity for "Final Fantasy" in the region. Any Japanese release was being delayed until the game had a stable presence in the worldwide market.
The game was released in Indonesia on August 15, 2017 by Efun Company Limited. Releases in Singapore and Malaysia followed in October. A South Korean release came through FL Studio Mobile on October 17, 2017. Later, Hong Kong-based company Oasis Games officially licensed the game for an English-language release in Australia, New Zealand, and other territories in 2018. First releasing for Android in those regions on January 30, a release for iOS came out on February 26. A soft launch went live in North America on February 2, 2018 for Android and February 26 for iOS. On October 31, 2019, the game's English servers were shut down by Oasis Games due to incompatible changes to the original service. In February 2020, it was announced that "Final Fantasy Awakening" as a whole would shut down on May 18 of that year, with gradual suspension of services between February and April. In a statement regarding the game's closure, Efun said it was due to the approaching end of the licensing agreement with Square Enix.
Reception.
On the day of its release in China, "Awakening" achieved 500,000 downloads, coming in at #5 in the best-selling mobile games in China at the time. By the end of December, downloads had reached two million. Following its English release on Android, the game achieved 137,000 downloads. It also received positive player feedback, and was awarded Google's "Best of 2017" award in three territories where it had released at the time.
Website "GamerBraves" praised the game for its nostalgic return to the world of "Type-0" and engaging gameplay style, but faulted its cluttered interface and lack of some player-versus-player battle arena types. "GameAxis" called it "a worthwhile entry for players hungry for "Type-0" content", praising its gameplay but faulting its inclusion of microtransactions. "Geek Culture" again praised the gameplay and positively compared its cinematic presentation to home console games, but again negatively noted the presence of microtransactions despite the reviewer not feeling pressured into using them.