Egglia: Legend of the Red Cap (Free) is an odd little game from some of the people behind Square Enix’s Mana series of action RPGs. It’s not for everyone, but those who appreciate the quirky charms of games like Legend of Mana or Ever Oasis might enjoy what it has to offer. It launched in August of 2017 on iOS as a paid app, but there was one odd catch to the game. In spite of it being a wholly single-player experience, it required an internet connection at all times to play.
Many of our readers called foul on this, while others were willing to give the publisher the benefit of the doubt. Well, I’m not sure who wins this particular fight, but I know I’ve got at least a little egg-lia on my face right now. Publisher DMM has decided to stop online service for the game, which means the original app is essentially a dud. They now offer the game as Egglia: Offline (Free), a free app with IAP to unlock the rest of the chapters past the trial portion. Once that IAP is purchased, you are free to enjoy Egglia to your heart’s content no matter where you are.
But what of those who bought the original app? Do we have to buy it again? DMM has implemented a sort of method for carrying over purchases, but it’s temporary, unorthodox, and oddly particular. First up: do you still have the original Egglia app installed? Did you start a save file on the game or is it still mint, never played? If you still have it on your device and you started a save file, you will be able to retrieve a passkey that can be put into the new Egglia app, granting you access to the full game. If you deleted it, or you never played it, or you even want to start a new file in the new app? Well, you’ll have to pay for the whole thing again, apparently.
This is pretty stupid from where I’m standing, to be honest. Did it need to be a new app? Was there no way to allow the new app to restore purchases from the original? We’ve seen other App Store publishers handle this kind of situation before without creating such bizarre hoops to jump through. Granted, we’ve also seen other App Store publishers offer no avenue at all for existing buyers, so I guess it could go either way. In a way, though, this almost feels worse than just getting a simple kiss-off. The game is barely a year old. I don’t think publishers of paid games are obligated to support their customers forever, but only a year? It’s no surprise so many people avoid paying more than a few bucks for mobile games when this kind of outcome is possible.
If you didn’t buy Egglia because of the online requirement, I suppose you’re the big winner in all of this. You now have an offline version you can buy, and you’re not out anything. It’s still the same cool game it was, now playable as you ride the subway. The ones who got hosed the worst are the ones that trusted the publisher. I’d say this is bad for business, but it feels like DMM has already gotten tired of their brief foray into games publishing, so they probably don’t care.
Provided you fit all the requirements to transfer your data, you have until September 28th to get your passkey from the original app and input it in the new one. After that, the original app won’t do anything at all. So if you’ve still got the game on your device and you started a save file, I’d recommend getting that done as soon as you can. If you don’t meet those requirements, I suppose you can join me over here as I kick this can around with extreme aggravation in my heart.
