PSA: Dragalia Lost Has Ended Its Service As Planned

"Alas, all good things must come to an end."

Yeah but mobile games always put themself in a position where they must come to an end and cease existence entirely when they do so.

At least when beloved games like Golden Sun and EarthBound 'come to an end', the players can still, you know, play the existing games whenever they like.

Mobile gaming is the biggest waste of gaming out there.

@EarthboundBenjy Yeah...I'm not inherently opposed to the idea of gaming on mobile (although honestly I'd always prefer to use a dedicated gaming device, i.e. my Switch), but after a few attempts I've been completely put off by the pushing of microtransaction and game-as-a-service-type models.

The best games, IMO, are timeless, and it's just sad to see these titles amount to nothing within a time span shorter than even a single console generation.

The first Splatoon game saw this game rise and it's seeing this game fall.

And that game was on a failed system. Wonder what that says about live games on mobile.

Super Mario Run is the best one Nintendo have done in my opinion. £5 upfront for loads of good Mario content. Bargain.

I really dislike Nintendo for this decision they could have at least made it offline mode to be playable but no lets end the game forever.

Perhaps now Nintendo may wish to consider reconstituting the game into the one-time-fee kind for Switch.

@JohnnyC : As it should always be. I just wish the game could be purchased outright rather than being "free" with a DLC unlock.

And I wish the game didn't have an always-online requirement as well.

@Buizel @EarthboundBenjy I have to disagree with the sentiment that it was a total waste. Sure, it's awful and frankly unnecessary for Dragalia to become completely unplayabable just because the servers are shut down, but it was still a worthwhile experience while it lasted. This was one of Nintendo's weirdest and most interesting side-projects over the last few years, and I definitely prefer the game living and dying as it did over it never existing at all.

Ah yes that game that never came out in my country.

Never been able to play it since it was never released on the French PlayStore, it looked fun. Thanks, Nintendo.

This can be solved by unservicing more games, instead of killing the game entirely to a point no one can even play it, turn the game into an offline game that you don't need constant connection to servers to play it.

Release an offline version on Switch, or even an offline version for mobile works.

@EarthboundBenjy This is not just about mobile games, this is happening on many other games on PC and consoles that follow this service instead of product model, where the game requires a company supporting a game and if they stop, the game can't even be played at all, even Nintendo did this on Switch with Super Mario Bros. 35 despite the fact that the game could be supported with Switch Online subscriptions.

Dragalia... lost
(Sorry had to make that joke)

Unfortunately I really do believe that it was Nintendo who kneecapped this game's potential, I mean as far as I know all of Cygames' other mobile efforts are doing fine so I wouldn't blame them for this. One can hope that Nintendo won't let the IP rot away and maybe try making a console release based on Dragalia Lost, but I doubt that'll ever happen.

One more thing, there was a time in the late 1990s days of PC Gaming and the first major games that could be played with other people on the internet, where you could make your own servers, if the company stopped supporting their game, who cares, you already have the game and you can make your own server to play online with friends and randoms.

Companies realized that this model where you will own nothing and will be happy is better for them, gamers even stopped demanding this, and this led to more and more service-based games where internet and servers became a requirement for playing the game, even on single-player.

Cannot say I feel sorry Dragalia Lost is now lost (pun intended) because the game never came out in my country so I never experienced it. If they make a dedicated system version, I'll be there, though.

The one that still stings me is Miitomo.

@victordamazio the most notable example I can think of is Babylon's Fall on PC. The game will be completely unplayable in a few months. Same with the original Overwatch. This is not a mobile unique situation.

I never gotten around trying this game. Forgot to try it before it left lol

Pour one out for the 15 people who are saddened by this.

One more reason to never, ever invest time and money in a mobile (smartphone) game. And with the Switch and the Deck around, no one should, really.

@Ara
Not a lover of gacha games and I don't really play any of them nowadays, but there's plenty of mobile games that don't just disappear forever once they're past their prime. For example next year there will be a Touhou mobile game that ended it's service being converted to a Switch and Steam release. I'd blame Nintendo in this situation rather than the medium of mobile games.

@IronMan30 Try again, this game had millions of fans.

Really I loved this game, specially the characters..., But sadly, when games are as service or need internet connection for working, the day that they decide shutdown the servers, it's all..., Really this is worse that free to play and gacha mechanics because the game never will be play again in the future (only saved screenshos and gameplay videos for memories...), but sadly and ironic, free to play games are service games....

I remember playing this for like an hour at launch, and then uninstalling. Something about it never clicked with me.

But for reasons like this, I am adamant about never spending a dime on mobile games. When all is said and done, you'll be left with nothing to show for your investment outside memories. And you can get those for free.

@EarthboundBenjy Private Server?

@ItsATM try billions!

I certainly did not enjoy waiting for this game to arrive in Europe outside of the UK…

I had some good times with that game. It never demanded much of my real-life money, it was fun to play, the multiplayer was solid, and the story was exceptionally well-written. There was a perpetually optimistic tone to everything, and the messages underneath were often empowering and encouraging.

I tapered off when I found it was taking too much time away from other games but checked back in when I found out it was closing so I could check out the end of the story. Glad I could get that closure.

This game was the bomb. I mean really even the voice actors interacted with the awesome community and I thank them for that. And talk about generosity, I paid $60 for Xenoblade 2 and thought Dragalia Lost gacha had more worth in it as a free to play player.

Sure it ended, but man the characters and holy God the music (available on spotify) made it worth the final hurt. I've played some past gachas that straight up ended without closure, so it was nice to see the devs appreciate the fans all the way into the end.

Yeah, I never got to play much of Dragalia.
I would love to see it come to console.

@IronMan30 No need to be dismissive. The game did make millions in a market where most players spend nothing, and with enough free resources to practically discourage actually spending money. Its player count was in the same territory as the more popular console jrpgs, not counting Pokemon.

This will probably end up on Switch (or the console's next of kin) at some point. That'd be great. I enjoyed my run with it, but had to stop due to the gacha elements. Too addictive in my case.

@EarthboundBenjy I mean you can say the same for MMORPG games and those predated these mobile Gacha games. They eventually end.

Never got to play this one but from what I saw on youtube the gameplay seemed alright, and I loved the music.

Tbh I'm genuinely more curious if Nintendo and Cygames will ever partner up again for something new, that is hopefully not another mobile project, but that feels like a very thin possibility.