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.
Oh I’m sure you noticed, I’m right there with ya, I raised as much hell as I could with the developer but all they did was play dumb like they didn’t really understand what I was telling them and they just kept repeating the same thing. If you don’t have save data you have to purchase again. Even after I told them it felt like they have essentially stolen, in a way $10 bucks from the original customers that supported them in the beginning and that they needed to make it right for those of us that did spend that money but no longer had a save data on their device. Shoot I even sent them a screenshot of my original receipt lol
Remember kids. THIS is what happens when you game on iOS. Don't bother wasting your money on premium games.
Dude, this has happened to, like, 2 (?) out of the 205 premium games on my phone.
Maybe a couple more, if i think back to Slitherine?
Honestly, if you think this is a reason not to buy premium, then “duh.” Tbh.
And contrastingly, Cat in a Box’s frankly epic RTS Red Conquest has been on every idevice I’ve owned since 2009, and still works superbly. Last updated 2yrs ago, for no reason other than love.
That, Blue Attack, Fastar!, and Blue Defence (probably in that order) remain outstanding examples of why - hell yes! - premium gaming is epic worthwhile.
More like, don’t spend more money than you’re willing to lose on online-only games. Premium offline-games, on the other hand, have been on my phone the longest and have received many solid updates. They aren’t tied to some online server somewhere, thankfully.
It’s even worse. I fit all the requirements for data transfer, however as soon as I hit the data transfer button, the app crashes. And I feel fucked.
And judging from the forum thread I am not the only one.
Really really bad move, especially as I really enjoyed that game. Well, not anymore.
I had wanted to look into this one when they took it offline, which I figured would happen. However, with the way it’s gone down, and how they didn’t just update the current app, I don’t have much confidence that this will have the lifespan of the many quality premium offline RPGs I’ve purchased from Square-Enix. So, I’m still on the fence on whether to try this one out and support them.