EGGLIA Rebirth can’t escape its free-to-play origins

destructoid.com:

One of my favorite developers of the past 20 years has been a little production house known as 1-Up Studio. You probably best know it from its work as a support studio, assisting in the development of games like Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Ring Fit Adventure, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. But that’s not why it’s one of my favorites. I like it for the games it helped developed before it became known as 1-UP Studio. Originally, the developer was called Brownie Brown, and it helped create some of the most interesting games of the 2000s and early 2010s. Games like Fantasy Life, Magical Starsign, and Professor Layton’s London Life. Oh, it also helped develop Mother 3.

In February 2013, the developer decided to rebrand as 1-Up Studio. Shinichi Kameoka, one of the founders of Brownie Brown, departed to set up his own shop called Brownies Inc. The studio got its start with two mobile games: Seventh Rebirth and EGGLIA: Legend of the Redcap. In 2019, it joined forces with Marvelous to create Doraemon: Story of Seasons, arguably the best Story of Seasons game available on Switch. While Brownies could have easily gone back to the mobile market following that release, it remained committed to consoles, even if that meant porting its previous free-to-play mobile titles over as premium-priced console games.

Some games excel when they jump from smartphone to console. Dandy Dungeon, Part-Time UFO, and Retro Bowl are three great examples I can list right off the top of my head that made the leap with style and grace. EGGLIA Rebirth, an updated version of the mobile title with all in-app purchases removed, attempts the same jump. Unfortunately, unlike those titles listed above, it doesn’t quite stick the landing. 

EGGLIA Rebirth