The earliest reports from the game come from June 2014, when Mistwalker trademarked the name Terra Battle. The game was officially revealed through Famitsu on July 1, 2014. The game was released on iOS and Android on October 9, 2014. To promote the game, Sakaguchi chose to create a new model of releasing content. Inspired by Kickstarter, he created a means called "Download Starter", where new content would be created based on the number of downloads the game would receive. He enjoyed the fan involvement that came with KickStarter campaigns, but did not like the idea of fans directly financing development. Instead, he chose the "Download Starter" model, which was aimed to create interest in the game after it was already created. At 100,000 downloads, more music from Nobuo Uematsu was created for the game. After the game had been downloaded 1.6 million times, composer Kenji Ito joined the project, with Kingdom Hearts series composer Yoko Shimomura joining him after the game had been downloaded 1.7 million times. To commemorate the milestone of 1,800,000 downloads, a new musical track by famed Chrono series composer Yasunori Mitsuda was added to the game. The final milestone, at two million downloads, would have been releasing a version of the game on consoles. The game's servers were shut down on June 30, 2020.
Reception
Pocket Gamer described their reaction to the preview build of the game as "cautiously optimistic", stating that the game was "an RPG stripped down to its barest bones, and...it works surprisingly well." while citing concern with the minimal graphics and free to play payment model. Joystiq played a version available to play at PAX Prime 2014, and stated that, while the game was overwhelmingly frantic at first, " the slide-and-move-on action was innate and enjoyable enough to encourage continued play." Game Informer praised the core gameplay, but expressed concern over the long-term effects of the game's imposed waiting time periods.
Legacy
In June 2017, Mistwalker announced a sequel and spinoff to the game, respectively titled Terra Battle 2 and Terra Wars, both for Android and for iOS. Terra Battle 2 was released on September 21, 2017, but its lack of success lead to it being discontinued, with it being removed from storefronts on June 3, 2018 and its servers shutdown in September 2018.
