Square Enix announces latest closure in its mobile gaming portfolio

In what is starting to become something of a trend, Square Enix has announced the impending closure of its mobile RPG Bravely Default Brilliant Lights. The news has come fairly suddenly, and the timeframe for the closure doesn’t leave much time for players to say their final farewells.

Having launched less than one year ago in Japan, specifically on January 27th, Bravely Default Brilliant Lights was a mobile reflection of the main series, retaining its turn-based Brave and Default battle system. There were in-app purchases, of course. However, surprisingly you could collect many characters from the series by simply talking to them, which gave the game more of a free-to-play feel than other gacha games, possibly explaining why it is being shut down.

In the announcement, Square released what feels like more of a party-line explanation for the closure. The message states the reason is that “we have come to the conclusion that it will be difficult to provide services that satisfy our customers in the future”, which is incredibly familiar to the one put out when Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier was announced to be shutting down.

Square has said they will be launching what they dubbed an offline version, where players will be able to look back on various characters and stories after the game closes, however that sounds like it will just be an archive of information, much like that did when they closed Kingdom Hearts Unchained.

Whilst it will no doubt be a sad day for fans when service ends on February 28th, it’s also a shame for those outside Japan who never had, and now never will, the chance to experience the game. It is also a sad time in general for mobile gaming fans as this is the latest domino to fall to Square's rampage through their mobile catalogue, closing some very enjoyable games in the process.