My ideal scenario here is that by the time they launch it, the core team will have fully developed a good 2-3 years worth of future content for the game. From there, a core team can stay behind to support the game while the rest can start up another console project (maybe UX/DR remake). If it’s an asset flip, they could probably have something released by 2028/29 after KH4 releases in 26/27. Then we could get in a rhythm of a KH game every 2 years or so. ML could be like a long training project for this new team like BBS-2.8 were for the KH3/KH4 teams, And it could potentially finance the next few games in the series if it gets anywhere near DQ Walk’s revenue.
I tend to look on the optimistic side, but I think it SE didn’t see strong potential in the game, it would have been scrapped along with the other content cuts. Developing it internally, using a new engine for it, and taking the extra time to fix whatever issues they ran into shows this isn’t intended to just be a low effort cash grab.
I will also admit I am excited for the potential of the game to provide a steady stream of KH content. That was an under-appreciated aspect of UX, even if it wasn’t always consistent. ML honestly could have unlimited potential if you’re a creative person who likes to role play. You can team up with your real world friends, go on an adventure to free a section of the map from darkness, and make your own little KH story out of it.
The gacha element is obviously the biggest drawback. I wish they’d just have paid story episodes plus the money they make from selling location data and from in game items like raid tickets, AP refreshers, cosmetics, etc. But since the target audience in Japan loves gacha stuff, it’s not likely to change.
Since we now know it’s using UE5, something noteworthy is that the engine had a version 5.5 update back in November that focused a lot on improvements for mobile game development. The ML team may have wanted to take advantage of the new and improved features before launching it. Apparently UE hasn’t been the best engine historically for mobile game development, so that may have been the source of some of their struggles.