Fans call out Chocobo Grand Prix for heavy use of microtransactions, expiring paid currency, and more

gamepur.com:

Chocobo Grand Prix on the Nintendo Switch has just been released, and already fans are having issues with how the game is dealing with microtransactions and paid currency. The game requires heavy grinding for you to receive the necessary rewards to make purchases, essentially forcing players having to use real-world money to buy premium currencies. This is although Chocobo GP is a full-price game on the Switch.

Fan-favorite characters like Cloud Strife and Squall Leonhart are trapped behind a limited-time season 1 event in the game. You need to level up to level 60 to unlock Cloud or purchase a Prize Pass to randomly get him. Squall is only unlocked by collecting Gil. Both take a long time to accomplish within the game unless you use real-world money to just get them sooner.

Worse yet, some of the premium purchases players can buy with real-world money have an expiration date. Mythril, one of those premium currencies, can expire as discovered by Adam King on Twitter. Mythril will only last for around five months before “vanishing.”

Microtransaction and virtual currencies have always been the bane of video gamers’ existence. Companies have become more and more predatorial when it comes to enacting microtransactions, often forcing players to use real-world money to spend in their games through cheap tricks. This isn’t the first time Square Enix has done something like this, but it may be the most offensive and greedy. Hopefully, the company will receive push-back and reverse some of the choices made in Chocobo GP, but it is certainly not a good look for the company.