Recently, I played a bit of Chocobo GP, a nifty, little kart racer set in the Final Fantasy universe, and I found the art direction to be bright and appealing, the music to be fantastic, and the gameplay to be an impressive attempt at the genre. While I did run into a few flaws here and there, the main problem with the game isn’t mechanical: it’s the microtransactions.
I’ll preface this by saying that I did receive a code for this game from Square Enix, so I didn’t have to pay the full price of entry. That said, I have no reservation calling Chocobo GP’s monetization a rotten scheme. For a game that already costs $49.99 USD, it is egregious how frequent and aggressive microtransactions are pushed on players. Right from the start, the game shoves special packs in your face that can only be purchased with the game’s premium currency, Mythril.
Mythril is like any other premium currency found in free-to-play games, with a variety of bundles that boast discounts at higher tiers. It is worth noting that there is a free-to-play version of the game available called Chocobo GP Lite, but this version retains the same microtransaction system while locking many of the characters and features behind the full game’s fifty dollar price tag.
As if the existence of multiple currencies, special timed events, and daily and weekly bonus missions weren’t enough to exhaust anyone playing the game, Square Enix had the absolute gall to put an expiration date on their made-up currency. Yes, you read that right: every five months or so, your Mythril will expire. The premium currency has an honest-to-goodness, expiration date, like a gallon of milk or that boxed cake mix that’s been sitting in your pantry since college.
This decision is completely untethered from reality and reveals that these make-em-up currencies really are worthless. These baffling economy systems overshadow Chocobo GP’s positive aspects with a depressing pallor of greed and desperation, tainting what is, at its core, an enjoyable kart racer.
