Babylon's Fall: born on a Monday, buried on Sunday

Alas, poor Babylon's Fall. The game has finally fallen down its final flight of stairs. As we reported nearly six months ago, the game's end of life arrived at the end of February, but folks are just now noticing tha??t the studio published patch notes for?? it.

Available to peruse publicly on Steam, the Version 1.4.0 patch notes simply state:

• End of service

The last patch the game hosted was all the way back in November of 2022, where the team reminded players that it would be the final update. Before that the team distributed a launch patch, a minor update shortly after release, and patches in April, May, a??nd July of that same year. The "live service element" of the game essentially lasted from March 2022 until a few months later in early September.

We hardly knew ye, Babylon's Fall

As someone who actually played Babylon's Fall from birth (the beta) to death, it's sad to wonder about what may have been. Had it not been conceived as a live service game, and if the powers that be gave it a bit more time in the oven, it could have been a cool stylized action romp from Platinum. The team could have moved on instead of? spending time developing post-launch seasonal content (before or after launch), and a standalone release definitely would?n't have scared off so many people from buying in.

Maybe The Suicide Squad game will meet the same fate? Stay tuned!

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Studio still set on producing live service titles

PlatinumGames has finally broken its silence on the uncomfortable and shocking collapse of its ambitious fantasy adventure, Babylon's Fall. Speaking in an interview with VGC, PlatinumGames CEO Atsushi Inaba noted that he was "extremely sorry" for any frustration or disappointment felt by the gaming community??.

Speaking semi-candidly, Inaba said that he was not in a position to discuss the title's development or marketing strategies in any detail, due to the studio's commitment to its publishers. But, reading between the lines, Inaba expresses a sense of regret that Platinum was confined only to the development of Babylon's Fall itself, which would suggest he would've liked the team to take a stronger ??role ??in its release.

"Firstly, the important thing that I want to note is that we’re not able to comment on certain areas of games developed with our partners,�said Inaba. “And that’s one of the reasons we’re not fond of our current situation that only limits us to game development, to be honest with you�in terms of any con?crete reasons or the process that led to this conclusion of the title, you’d have to go ahead and ask Square Enix about the details, unfortunately."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZktpmoGrg

Inaba did, however, openly apologize to anyone who might have been expecting a better fate for the title, as well as to PlatinumGames fans who might feel that the title was below the expectations of a product coming from the studio behind mega-hits such as Bayonetta and NieR: Automata.

"Any disappointment that we might have caused for our fan base is something we feel extremely sor?ry about, the fact that we led our dedicated fans to feel that way as a developer. Provi??ding any sentiment other than enjoyment and fun in our creations to players is something that we’re not very happy about at all as a developer."

Following a lengthy and expensive development cycle, Babylon's Fall was released in February of this year with the intent of becoming a long-life "games as a service" title. Unfortunately, the player base collapsed almost instantly, with one particular day in the game's launch month seeing only 10 concurrent players on Steam. Despite PlatinumGames' desire to hold the line and see the project through, Babylon's Fall never recovered from its disastrous opening salvo. Last month, it was announced that Babylon's Fa??ll servers will permanently close on February 28, 2023.

PlatinumGames has stated it still wishes to continue e??xplor??ing the games as a service model.

Platinum CEO breaks silence on Babylo?n’s Fall clos??ure: ‘We’re extremely sorry�/a> [VGC]

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Troubled RPG bowing out just one year from launch

Square Enix and PlatinumGames have officially announced that their ambitious RPG Babylon's Fall is to ??end?? service in 2023, a scant year after the live service adventure's launch.

In a statement on the official website, the development team says that it will close servers on February 28, 2023, after which, the game will be rendered unavailable to play on all platforms ??and all online data and player records will be erased. Further sales of the title and any of its post-release content have been officially halted as of the statement's publication.

"With the desire of delivering an exhilarating online multiplayer action RPG set in an elaborate high fantasy world, we launched th?e game’s official service on Thursday, 3? March 2022, and have continued to undertake additional development and operations," reads the statement. "However, it is with deep regret to inform you that we will be terminating the game’s service on Tuesday, 28 February 2023."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZktpmoGrg

"We will also cancel the large-scale updates that we had planned. In te?rms of the plan moving forward, Season 2 will run until Tuesday, 29 November 2022 as scheduled, and the Final Season will begin with the maintenance scheduled on the same day. This Final Season is the period during which you can earn the ranking rewards of Season 2."

Babylon's Fall, intended to be a long-life service title, struggled to build and maintain a community immediately upon release, with one particularly rough day showcasing less than 10 concurrent users on Steam,  less than a month after the epic title's launch. While PlatinumGames accepted these early struggles, noting that it intended to bolster the title with the aforementioned "large-scale updates," it seems?? that the team has seen the iceberg, and decided to c??all it quits.

The statement closes out by telling players that the team hopes to implement "events and initiatives" between now and the end of service. This will likely come as a small reward to those remaining Sentinels who paid $60 for the game at launch, and will be unable to play it in any fashion whatsoever just a year later. While it's easy to be glib about these matters, it ultimately represents a wast??e o??f time, money, talent, and effort from all parties, swallowed up by the ever-hungry, bottomless pit of trend-chasing.

It'll happen again. A?s surely as night follows day.

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Struggling fantasy RPG will sally forth

In a new interview with the game's own publisher, Square Enix, directors Kenji Saito and Takahisa Sugiyama have admitted to feeling dismayed at the reception to their epic fantasy RPG Babylon's Fall, ?but remain committed to producing new content and in-game ??updates for the live service title.

Launching in March 2022 following a lengthy development cycle, Babylon's Fall found itself swiftly subdued due to poor critical reception and a busy month of top-tier game releases. In a standout, (and heavily publicized moment), the Steam player base for the RPG reportedly fell from a meager 1,000 players to just one single player in early May.

Addressing the less-than-stellar launch in the new interview, Saito and Sugiyama expressed their intention to continue building upon Babylon's Fall's launch build, and have already rolled out several patches and updates to tweak visual, technical, and gameplay-based issues. According to the duo, Babylon's Fall today has "twice as much content" as it did at launch, and the team will continue to roll out new weaponry, quests, and challenges a??s the yea??r progresses.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZktpmoGrg

"There are still many areas we have not done enough with yet, and many aspects that will be hard to change unless we focus our efforts, so I feel there is a great deal of room left for us to meet player expectations as we diligently ??continue to develop and im??prove the game," notes Sugiyama.

“For all the issues? that are brought to our attention, we have strived to carry out as many emergency fixes and improvements as possible and get them out as?? early as possible. We do understand that these measures are still far from enough and will continue to push on with further fixes and improvements alongside all the new content we will be releasing going forward."

While many online titles that stumbled out of the gate would go on to perform incredible comebacks (the best example perhaps being Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Siege), Babylon's Fall is undeniably in trouble. For a game that was designed as a long-term live-service title, the situation is looking bleak. Bleaker even than Square Enix's other foray into live service, Marvel's Avengers, an equa?lly epic project which today limps on weakly from month to? month.

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The dead speak!

The Babylon's Fall concurrent player count continues to drop. The last time we checked into this ongoing tragedy, roughly a month ago, the concurrent player count apparently dropp??ed to less than 10 people. Now things are a bit more dire.

According to statistics provided by Steam Charts, Bablyon's Fall hosted one online player concurrently on May 4. Although it's less cle??ar, apparently at one point near the end of the day on May 8, there were zero concurrent players.

Live service games often shoot themselves in the foot before they even arrive. The mere mention that a game is going to be an always-online "ecosystem" when it previously looked like something that could have just been a complete offline experience will turn off a large portion of people. Then you have the era where you have to hook folks at the start, and there's going to be a natural drop??off there, because every game isn't going to resonate with everyone; especially in this time of media oversaturation.

Then you have the further bleed point of getting people to buy into the live service concept, wooing them with extras, bonuses, and of course: content is king. But given that it's so hard to compete with studios with bigger coffers, bigger teams, and an inhe??rently existing playerbase, not every live service game survives this phase.

It'll be interesting to see how long Square Enix plans on keeping Babylon's Fall alive, and how it fares on consoles (PS4/PS5). Right now they are steadfast in claiming that the show will go?? on, but there is a br?eaking point.

//www.tiktok.com/@destructoid/video/7098455037822668037?is_from_webapp=??1&a??mp;sender_device=pc&web_id=7052788164067706373

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April 13 was a new low

2022 has been a strange time for the gaming industry, but no single event perhaps sums it up better than what's going on with Babylon's Fall. The Babylon's Fall concurrent players situation has reached a new low, as SteamCharts alleges that under 10 people (eight, to be exact) were playing the game concurrently?? on Steam on April ??13.

It's not like it had much room to grow. Various charts put it at just above 1,000 concurrents even at launch, the height of the game's hype cycle: with an average of 509 concurrent players in the last 30 days. There was so much uproar that the development t?eam ?had to even put out a statement saying that "continuing service was not in danger," noting that "there are no plans to reduce the scale of development." It is not clear how the new Babylon's Fall concurrent players low impacts that.

It's wild to see a Platinum project end up like this, but anyone who played the beta this past August isn't surprised. The beta was rough on multiple levels (mechanically and aesthetically), and it was hard to believe that Babylon's Fall would launch just a few short mon?ths later in March 2022. It was a clear case of needing to go?? back to the drawing board, but instead, it shipped.

I don't see this getting the "Realm Reborn treatment" either; but maybe the best we can hope for (or at least, current players can hope for) is small improvements over time. It is a "seasonal" gam?e after all, and in the below tweet, it was confirmed that "content up to the end of season 2 is practically complete," and work has begun on "season 3 and beyond."

Given how seasonal games are generally six months to a year ahead of the curve, that makes sense. Hop??efully it's not just more of the same, and hopefully the live service model eventually goes away as the game is sunset, with all the improvements in tow: maybe then it can at least have a legacy for Platinum and Square Enix alike.

//twitt?er.com/BabylonsFall_EN/status/15?04853675931406339

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Building a 'better game experience'

After a solid couple of years' marketing and multiple beta tests, cooperative multiplayer title Babylon's Fall finally launched, March 3, on PlayStation and PC platforms. Unfortunately, the welcome it has received has been most decidedly medi?ocre, with both critics and fans treating the fantasy epic with a degree of relative apathy.

To this end, publisher Square Enix has announced that it will be embarking on an effort to improve the Babylon's Fall gameplay experience in a variety of ways �revitalizing the title's visuals, combat, and live service implementation. A new survey has been launched, which a?ffords players the opportunity to offer feedback on the title?? and help both Square Enix and developer PlatinumGames forge a "better gameplay experience" for the wielders of Gideon's Coffin.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZktpmoGrg

This particular survey is focused on feedback regarding the graphics of Babylon's Fall, and does not mention any other elements of the beleaguered tit??le �suggesting that further surveys are quite probable. The questions reference all visual elements of the game, from its charac??ter models and special effects, to its weapon design and distinctive "brushwork" art style �a style that was tweaked repeatedly during the title's beta period due to player complaints.

Given that Babylon's Fall has also had several beta tests �complete with fan feedback �and is still rolling out player surveys is a little double-edged. Positively, it shows that the development team is committed to delivering the excitement and engagement one would expect from a PlatinumGames release, but negatively, it leaves one wondering how many times players are willing to keep offering mo??re and more feedback before they wearily move on to other fantasy adventure titles �a genre which has already proven quite bountiful in 2022.

Babylon's Fall is available now on PlayStation and PC. You can check out Chris Carter's review here.

//www.tiktok.com/@destructoid/vi??deo/7075398574527319301

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It fell

Platinum Games is seemingly at a crossroads. As a follow-up to Clover, one of the finest development studios of all time, its reputation was legendary. As far as single-player action romps go, MadWorld into Bayonetta, into Vanquish, into Metal Gear Rising, Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta 2? What a run! Then Legend of Korra came and pumped the breaks a bit on expectations. Since that turning point, Platinum has been spreading its time across multiple studios, including collaborating with Square Enix for Babylon's Fall.

It's a weird one.

Babylon's Fall (PC, PS4, PS5)
Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: Square Enix
Released: March 3, 2022
MSRP: $59.99

When I talked about Babylon's Fall in my preview four months ago, I noted the promise of the core action system. But at that point a lot? of the freemium elements weren't in full swing, and the assumption was that the tower would evolve and shift into something radically different the more you progress. That didn't really pan out.

From minute one, asking me to mandatorily link my Square Enix account wasn't a great sign. It even warns you multiple times that "you cannot relink this," so my first emotional experience with the game was anxiety as I double and triple-checked menu text. 2022 in a nutshell. My first-impression blues didn’t get any better once I was asked to navigate a weird browser UI for seasonal news dealing with t??he game. You also can’t delete your characters for some reason, a notification that I got right after logging in. ??This game is a house of cards!

After actually getting in and creating my character, I got to experience a brief moment of joy, as I took in the incredibly weird story setup, which feels authentically Platinum. Your job is to climb and explore the mysterious tower of Babylon, amid some really bizarre (and enjoyable) English voice acting choices (Japanese audio is in too if you can't deal). The big narrative gimmick involves the "Gideon Coffin," which is attached to the backs of candidates in a creepy ritual of sorts that kills most of the participants �but you're special, and the story b??eats are somewhat driven by t??hat.

I actually really enjoyed many aspects of the story, and again, like a broken record,? I have to stress that I wish it was either a fully single-player game, or eliminated the live service elements altogether. Some ?of the little moments between missions where characters are just chatting at a tavern show the potential of this world, and the story portions can be exciting. The ability to equip vanity attire (transmog) shows that they cared about the design of how characters look and operate in a more granular way than expected. A lot of thought was put into this game.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZktpmoGrg

Visually, Babylon's Fall has gotten a little better since the shaky reveal, but it's still rough, especially when it comes to character models (and the number of repeat enemies). There are elements like the sound desi?gn that are trying to feel stylish, but stumble due to what could be time constraints. It's a really weird game that I'd love to have more insight on when it comes to the developmental process.

When you're actually fighting stuff, it's a ton of fun. Gameplay is the saving grace that made this assignment worth doing, which is no surprise from Platinum. At its foundation it involves?? a light and heavy attack system, but with a twist. You can actually assign weaponry to eith??er of the two, which fundamentally changes your build and playstyle.

When you add on the two "coffin combos" (which are the bread and butter of gameplay), it gets even cooler. Those are linked to L2 and R2, and can have two more weapons linked to them. Coffin abilities operate independently from everything else, so you can queue up a hammer smash even?? if you're on the ground or mid-combo with something else. It's really refreshing, lightning-fast at times, and responsive. Dodges are slick too, as you get a quick non-annoying blur effect when you hit at the critical?? time. Mixing and matching ranged and melee attacks showcases the potential of the system in a way that a lot of people are unfortunately never going to see.

But I hit a fun wall when I was constantly doing the same exact things over and over. You know how in Monster Hunter when you load into a sandbox, it errs on the side of feeling open? Well Babylon's Fall offers linear dungeons instead of sand??boxes, and many of them look the same. The most constraining thing of all is variety: something I already hinted at with the lack of enemies to fight. You see that room in the above screenshot? I've been there like over 100 times, no matter how many different ways it's dressed up.

Whether I queued up for solo story quests, party quests, or quick match runs, everything felt homogenized, and small iterations like lava floors don't fundamentally change that. Bosses do, but they're few and far between, as most of the challenges are the same hallways, remixed, and the same enemies, slightly tweaked. When combat is clicking in the moment against an enemy that actually matters, with a build that you've come up with that sings, it's easy to forget about some of Babylon's Fall's issues. Bu??t you're just not doin??g that often, as a lot of the game is confusingly spent in hallways and menus.

The menus are, surprisingly, a big point of contention. It's laborious to navigate even the most basic things and the UI is sluggish; even during the premium shop portions, which is probably a no-no for any publisher. So this all sounds like a free-to-play game right? Wrong. Babylon's Fall is $60, with a $99.99 digital deluxe edition. Looking at the in-game item vendor and having to sift through multiple premium pages was strange. Because it's a live service game with seasons, it's really hard to stay invested in what's at the top of the tower, and seeing the daily login bonuses pop up on top of everything else was a bummer. Even providing the first battle pass for free feels like a trap, and just le??ads to more?? menus.

Live service games often put the cart before the horse, and their lifespans are really dependent on how many people are playing and pumping money in (because of the way it necessitates constant updates with its vicious cycle). Even if there are people like me who will ingratiate themselves to the action system, Babylon's Fall is almost impossible to recommend, because you could be buying into an experience that has its plug pulled before the end of the year. Remember Let it Die? That started off with a similarly polarizing? reception (and the same "tower climbing" concept!), but grew into something more; albeit keeping its free-to-play machina??tions. Maybe something like that can happen here, but you can wait on that.

Every time I hit a frustrating or repetitive portion of Babylon's Fall I found myself wishing it was just a fully single-player game that was somehow worked into the NieR/Drakengard universe. To see a Platinum joint end up like this is disheartening. Again, the foundation is there, and I have no doubt that this would have been a stronger game that would have spread via word of mouth to action enthusiasts far and wide if it didn't have the freemium elements. Whatever happened behind the scenes, I hope it wasn't their call, and I hope this isn't the type of product they're going?? to focus on in the future.

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It's a good day to be a fan of fantasy

If you are a PlayStation player who is yet to check out the regal splendor and violent conflict of Babylon's Fall, then today will prov?ide you a distinct opportunity, as a new demo for Square Enix and PlatinumGames' inc??oming action-RPG is now available to download on PS4 and PS5.

The demo, (bravely launching alongside the similarly-themed FromSoft release, Elden Ring), will let players check out the opening sections of the adventure at their leisure. Support is offered for one-to-four players, and online cross-play will be enabled, so you can check it out with your fellow PlayStation pals. The demo is the widest trial for Babylon's Fall to date, and follows several closed beta periods.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UdjHVUDPno

To help you find your feet in the challenging tower of Ziggeraut, Square Enix released a new trailer looking at Babylon's Fall's unique combat system, which sees players adapt their arsenal and abilities as they lay waste to a slew of opponents. The "Gideon's Coffin" �the dramatically titled tools of chaos �can be adapted to new elements, effects, and skills as the player progresses, with synergy allowing for not only smart ??weaponry as an individual warrior, but also a precisely tuned team, or "Sentinel Force."

The demo and combat trailer are part of a bigger week of news for the Babylon's Fall brand, as it was also announced earlier this week that the game would be crossing over with Square Enix' own dystopian series NieR: Automata. As noted by our own Eric van Allen, this crossover event will see Babylon's Fall's first season introduce enemies, dungeons, and cosmetic items inspired by the adventures of 2B and her robo-pals. The event will offer a superstar way for Babylon's Fall to find its feet in the early going.

Babylon's Fall launches on PlayStation and PC platforms March 3. Players who pre-order the Digital Deluxe Edition will be able to access the game a few days early on Februar?y 28.

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Movin' on Up

It has been something of a long haul, but the coming of 2022 brings us just two short months away from the release of Square Enix' mythical epic Babylon's Fall, which will finally launch on PC and PlayStation platforms come March 3. The publisher released a dramatic TV trailer, set for screens across Japan, to help stoke those fin?al hype fires.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhVnkjWDfAY

Backed by a ??simple choral theme tune, the one minute preview sees the members of the might Sentinel Force embark upon their thankless and hazardous quest to surmount the tower of Ziggurat, hacking 'n' slashing their way through a platoon of grim and grisly creatures and intense, marathon boss battles en route to conquering the oppressive regime that dwells in the tower's upper tiers. Synergy is the name of the game �with teams of up to four players encouraged to utilize scalpel-precise teamwork to win the day. Equally as important is the synergy of the player's weapons �the Gideon's Coffin �which allows for a combination of two unique spiritual tools with which to fend off the party's assailants.

Developed by PlatinumGames �a standard in excellence when it comes to the hack 'n' slash genre �Babylon's Fall certainly shows plenty of promise. Launching during an incredibly hectic first quarter, Square Enix' new IP has quite a fight ahead to make itself heard among the many other releases coming in February and March. Still, with the promise of exciting adventure, dazzling visuals, and compelling multiplayer grinds, Babylon's Fall is readily equipped to find itself an audience among the ware??s of 2022.

Babylon's Fall launches March 3 on PlayStation and PC.

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The live servicey looter conceit could wear thin

As I played through the recent wave of the closed beta to gather my current Babylon’s Fall impressions, I was torn. On one hand, Platinum clearly knows what they're doing, and you can see it as plain as day when you're actually in th?e heat of combat. But I can't help but question the decision to make this a multiplayer dungeon crawler first; everything else second.

Like many of you out there, you may?? have seen the trailer and came away underwhelmed, but the powers that be have been working to improve the look and feel of Babylon's Fall since then. Here are ??some big things that Square Enix and Platinum improved upon in this newest release this week:

• They changed the visual style to look more detailed, but kept the spirit of the painting motif.
• Combat has been tweaked to be more responsive.
• Dungeons now scale to player count (it should have always been like this).
• Getting in parties is now easier with a menu prompt.

Some of that should have be??en there since the start to put its best foot forward, but it is the beta period after all! I'm glad they're sorting this out now.

If you haven't been following along, think of Babylon's Fall like a mix between Monster Hunter and other recent live service loot-focused games like Destiny. The hub world is clearly modeled after the former (it even has boards that you take quests from), while the loot system is very much Destiny-esque, with "boxes" to op?en after dungeon runs, ?with varying degrees of loot rarity (and varying degrees of usefulness), and a "power level" throughput to command progression. The idea of "climbing the tower" provides some level of promise that yes, this will eventually end (and after that, post-launch content is planned).

So, a lot of my problem with the dungeon crawling format is how rote a lot of the progression sense is, because it's clearly framed with the "do the same stuff over and over" mindset. The actual dungeon layouts in Babylon's Fall can feel lifeless and empty, with terrain constantly blocking your view of the backdrops: the most beautiful part of the game. There's really not much room for exploration either, as most paths lead to complete dead ??ends with nothing fun at the end. Player expression is paramount with ??loot aesthetics and combat (more on that in a moment), but the means in which to facilitate that can feel barren.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPE_n7BwVk

If this was something more in Platinum's classic wheelhouse, there would be jumping puzzles, labyrinths to explore, optional paths, rewarding secrets, and so on. But Babylon's Fall doesn't really have any of that. You pursue the linear path of each dungeon, oc??casionally jump over a few "traps" (which are more like the same set of spikes, re-used in the same few ways), then fight a boss. In one subsequent run I was basical??ly going through the same dungeon again, but backwards. The repeatable dungeon format tries to squeeze blood from a stone.

It's a shame, because I actually like the way it plays, and the combat system has a lot of potential. You can actually equip individual weapons to light, heavy, and two special slots (with abilities that essentially draw upon an MP bar), allowing you to swap between them at will, even mid-combo. It's a lot like Devil May Cry 3's dynamic system, but in some cases, even more open. My favorite combo was a light and heavy archery loadout that had melee linked? to special slots.

Each light and heavy slot had a different bow in it, and my specials allowed for close-combat spells to wreck if ?I wasn't drawing aggro at the moment. Since specials operate independently of your heavy and light att?acks, you can do some really cool things with your loadouts as you charge specials and unleash them at your own pace. I was basically creating my own combos, using two specials separately, while peppering enemies with light and heavy attacks. It's even cooler in practice with a party, as there's lots of opportunities to stunlock enemies and focus fire to the point where you're creating special team attacks. With cross-play between PC, PS4, and PS5, there's a good chance the playerbase will be healthy at launch.

There's a limit though. Similar to how bland the dungeons can f?eel, enemy variety can also take a hit. There aren't a lot of enemy types at the moment, and some of them can really blend together (hopefully this is just a beta thing, or will open up as the game progresses). One "big boss" fight I encountered so far mainly just vomited out minions that ruin the uniqueness of the battle. They can often feel like a blank canvas on which to paint your combat?? plan. If that changes, it'll up my interest considerably, despite my other issues.

All that said about the loot, I could see the progression coming to fruition as I leveled up. Each piece of armor made my character look distinctively cooler, and at the moment, my avatar is a hooded cyborg of sorts with a sword/bow combo. As far as loot-based games go, it does have more personality on paper. But all of that could be accomplished with something simpler; something more like the traditional NieR: Automata approach, with multiplayer as an option, not the fo??cus or crutch.

I really love the core of Babylon's Fall and the potential of the combat system, just not necessarily with this format. I think a lot of people are going to miss out on Babylon's Fall because of the way it's presented, and that's fine. Not everyone has time for a live service "endless" loot-b??as??ed game, and it's a pretty crowded market out there. If it doesn't succeed, I hope it gets reworked into something everyone can enjoy.

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Developer shares feedback from previous trials

Square Enix and PlatinumGames have announced a third closed beta for its incoming epic Babylon's Fall. The new trial for the action RPG will take place worldwide on the wee??kend of November 15-17, offering testers a new opportunity to take up the arms of Gideon C?offin and, once again, attempt to summit the dominating, insurmountable Tower of Babylon.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXJKFvqczxQ

The third beta will add PS5 to the mix, alongside initial tests for cross-platform gameplay, allowing Sentinel Force members on both PlayStation and PC platforms to team up for six challenging quests. All players from the previous two betas are automatically signed up for the third outing, and a squad of new players will also receive notification around one week before the beta's test period. If you want to be considered for the trial, on PC or PlayStation, then there is still time to sign up over on the official website.

In addition to announcing the third beta period, PlatinumGames announced that it will hold a special video showcase to discuss all of its findings from each of the Babylon's Fall betas, with attention paid to player feedback regarding control, visual clarity, movement, mapping, and more. Each beta has already seen changes effected to this end, with further tweaks and redesigns planned before the title's eventual release. An official Babylon's Fall Discord server will also open in the near future, offering an open forum for players to offer thei?r thoughts and opinions on the epic title's developm??ent.

For full details on the third beta, as well as all changes implemented thus far, visit the official blog.

Babylon's Fall is currently in development for PlaySt??ation and PC platforms. It is expected to la??unch in 2022.

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Feedback received from previous beta period

It's time to get your fighting fantasy kick on once more, as publisher Square Enix has announced a new run of dates for the Babylon's Fall closed beta. Developer PlatinumGames has released an in-depth feedback report, packed o??ut with info pertaining to the player base's experience to date, along with the studio's plans to improve various?? aspects of the multiplayer adventure.

Among a huge laundry list of thoughts and responses, perhaps one of the most interesting is that players did not find Babylon's Fall's gameplay to be particularly exciting, with a deliberate pace that some players felt makes the title slow and lacking in exhilaration. To this end, PlatinumGames is looking to revise the animation of Babylon'??s Fall characters, hoping to make combat a speedy and more engaging affair.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRX3EqCyB1c

Additionally, while Babylon's Fall takes great pride in its unique "painted" aesthetic, it seems that a lot of players have complained that they found the naturally stylized nature of the world impeded visual clarity and was a source of frustration. Platinum has suggested that it will attempt to find a compromise, making the visual action clearer and easy-to-follow while simultaneously maintaining Babylon's Fall's distinct identity and aesthetic.

These are just two examples from a huge host of features that PlatinumGames is hoping to adjust. Other topics covered by the report include server waiting times, U.I. bugs, character controls, and more. You can read the full report right here.

In regards to Phase 2 of the Babylon's Fall closed beta, the servers will reopen in Japan on September 10 (19:30-22:00 JST), North America on September 11 (19:30-22:00 PT / 22:30-01:00 ET) and Europe September 13 (19:30-22:00 BST). As for the full game, Babylon's Fall is currently in development for PlaySta?tion a?nd PC platforms and is yet to receive a release date.

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