Babylon's Fall's devs want to know what you think of its graphics
They want to offer an "even better" experience
The "occasional stunning oil-painting backdrop" was about the only nice word Ed had to say in his Babylon's Fall review. PlatinumGames first foray into making a live service is otherwise a mess, with repetitive missions, dull combat, confusing stats and loot, and more problems besides.
Publishers and co-developers Square Enix aren't giving up, however. They've launched a survey asking how they can deliver a "better game experience", but it's the graphics they're focused on.
The Google survey is live now and can be filled in anytime before Friday, March 18th at 8:59am PT (4pm GMT).
After asking how much of the game you've played, the survey offers multiple choice questions about the look of individual elements including equipment and enemies, as well as locations and the overall "oil painting style 'brushwork' graphics." You can rate your satisfaction with each element from six choices, ranging from "Fairly satisfied" to "Fairly dissatisfied."
Babylon's Fall was made by PlatinumGames, who are best known for action games like Bayonetta and development support on Nier: Automata. That ought to mean Babylon's Fall has a satisfying combat system, if nothing else, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
To their credit, Platinum and Square Enix were open about the challenges of developing the game when talking to Katharine before launch. "Opinion [about the art style] was pretty divided at the time of the beta tests," co-director Takahisa Sugiyama told us. "It’s true that during the beta tests, the filter had a slightly lower level of polish and leaned more strongly towards an artistic depiction, which meant that screenshots looked better than the game in action. We’ve balanced the game to make it easier to play, incorporating feedback from players in the beta tests and adding new features."
Apparently more feedback is needed.
Platinum Games received investment from Tencent in 2020 (who hasn't) and say they intend to take more risks in future.