Final Fantasy kart racer Chocobo GP costs $50, monetizes like a mobile game

polygon.com:

If you’re interested in ChocoboGP, a full-price, $50 kart racer that launched Thursday, realize first that the game is littered with microtransactions and upsells into them. Irate Final Fantasy fans who paid the freight say they feel duped, and those who play even the free, “lite” version available on Nintendo Switch say the whole thing feels like something you play on your phone.

The gameplay is fine. Pick a chocobo or a Final Fantasy character, zip around a course, and boost your speed or take down your rivals with power-ups and magic spells. As for the rest of the game, “everything is [built] around purchasable season passes despite it being a paid game,” wrote one player on the Final Fantasy subreddit. “[I]t’s basically the same currency systems we see in gacha games, only it’s all for minor cart customization shit.”

While racers and levels are unlockable, karts, outfits, and other items have to be bought at different shops, using more than one in-game currency. Players have to keep track of Gil and tickets, which they earn from playing the game, and then there’s Mythril, which is available only with real money.

“[I] booted up the game, was greeted immediately with ingame currency you buy with mtx,” said one redditor, “battle pass to get rewards with two tiers, and the entire design making it feel like my nintendo switch is a phone. Like am I paying a $50 game or a f2p mobile game?”

Progression through the game’s Prize Pass also feels slow and stingy, according to some players. One tweeted out that, after an hour of online play in Chocobo GP, he won a tournament but was only Level 7 — barely one-tenth of the way toward level 60 and its ultimate reward, a playable Cloud Strife.

There’s also the matter of the Prize