UnexpectedGames

Platinum Games has had their hits and misses over the years and despite their troubles as of late, their games continue to speak to me for a variety of reasons. They’ve been carrying a particular torch from their former Capcom/Clover Studio days and it’s a flame that I can’t quite put out. I (mistakenly) bought Babylon’s Fall at launch, but I shelved it at the time due to a busy work season and other big releases I didn’t really have time for (such as Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West, for example). On November 6, 2022, however, I decided to start Babylon’s Fall against my better judgment.

If you’re not aware, Platinum Games is shutting the servers down for Babylon’s Fall at the end of February next year. The game launched in February of 2022, so it will only have survived for about a year, which is sadly becoming more common for live-service games. Unlike what developer Brownies Inc did with their mobile release of EGGLIA: Legend of the Redcap, Platinum Games has no plans to update the game so it’s playable offline. Once the servers are gone, so is my character and all of the pointless progress I’ve made up to this point. Call it morbid curiosity or playing for posterity, but I mentally committed to at least playing through the main story campaign at the start of this failed endeavor. I am here to report, however, that I have not only finished all of the story campaigns, but I’ve also obtained the Platinum trophy as of November 30, 2022.

So, what is Babylon’s Fall? It’s an action-RPG with just enough character-action DNA (Bayonetta/Devil May Cry) to keep me engaged. It reminds me of the types of action-RPGs/dungeon crawlers we used to get back on the PSP, Vita and PS3; games like Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory, Ragnarok Odyssey ACE or even Trinity: Souls of Zill Ơll. If you’re familiar with Destiny, however, you’ll feel right at home here; it’s got color-coded loot, a free and premium Battle Pass with in-game currency (which you can no longer purchase), and even daily/weekly bounties. I played the entire game solo and it was sort of a drag. Most enemies and (especially) bosses are damage sponges and I have no idea if the game scales up or down depending on how many people you have in your party. If you’re properly leveled/geared, the game is also very easy as each mission provides the player with healing items and self-revives. To my surprise, there are still people playing the game, too! Unfortunately, very few players accepted my friend requests so perhaps they were just a figment of my imagination.

I dropped Destiny 2 for Babylon’s Fall in November as my online “MMO” game since embarking on this quest was sort of a self-imposed, “emergency” playthrough. Now that I’ve seen most of what the game had to offer and what the post-game grind requires, I don’t hate it. Babylon’s Fall provides a comforting, mindless experience that accompanies my weekly podcasts, YouTube videos and streams (like Easy Allies) and a part of me is going to feel a bit sad to see it go. I might stream and share my final thoughts during the game’s last day of service, just so I have some intangible record that I was “there” for whatever “this” was (outside of a Platinum Trophy for my PSN profile), but why did it have to come to this? Platinum Games insists on making more online live-service games, but how many more times must they fall before they realize that perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be.

Until next time!

-Matty