Death of a video game – Rise of Mana closes with emotional cutscene

I just hope you can read the Japanese to understand it.

If you listen to those who preach about the brightening horizon that “gaming as a service” will bring to us, then this is the future that we all want. One where video games are released, live in the moment, and then are just as quickly shown the backdoor once they have outlived their usefulness. Some barely even leave a cultural footprint to be remembered by.

At least Square Enix has a bit of decency to show Rise of Mana off with a little style. It uploaded a cutscene prepared for the free-to-play smartphone game’s final day of service, leaving us with the legend of the Mana Tree as every other game in the franchise does.

The only problem is that unlike Secret of Mana or Final Fantasy Adventure, we’ll never get to relive these credits again. In fact, many of us never even got the chance to in the first place.

Who knows? Maybe this will clear the way for a “proper” Mana sequel to come from Square Enix. Sure, lots of video games come to a close these days, but this one especially stings because it comes to us from an established franchise that has fans around the world. It might not be priority number one on Square Enix’s laundry list, but a chapter of the Mana tree legend is now closed off for the rest of time.

All because we gamers want a future where “gaming as a service” is the standard. Am I right?