Revive a Franchise, but kill another...

[Wolf Kanno]

So let's say you can go into the back log of a game company and resurrect some lost forgotten gem of a game, but in doing so, you, have to terminate further production of a current IP in exchange by the same company. Which one would you do?

Here are some ground rules:

1) Games have to be by the same developer. No bringing back Busby by killing Sonic the Hedgehog. It has to be the same developer.

2) Franchise has to be dead, if it has a game in the works or had a title released in the last five years or last generation of hardware it's not technically dead.

3) No smartass "kill current series so I can bring it back better" nonsense. I don't care if you hate that a series came back as a mobile entry or if you dislike the current direction of a franchise and wish it was more like the way you remember it being. That's low hanging fruit there, be better than that. Point is, your choices have to be two different IPs.

RwGHiicMNvA

[WarZidane]

Same company as in same publisher or same developer? Important distinction :p

That said, the franchise that immediately came to mind (Wild ARMs) apparently has a mobile gacha game coming up anyway, so with rule #3 disallowing that I'll have to think on this a bit more.

[Wolf Kanno]

Same company as in same publisher or same developer? Important distinction :p

That said, the franchise that immediately came to mind (Wild ARMs) apparently has a mobile gacha game coming up anyway, so with rule #3 disallowing that I'll have to think on this a bit more.

Developer, just to give people some leeway, since a few old franchises have been gobbled up by new publishers.

[Galuf]

Ooft Wolf Kanno just literally cannot run out of thread ideas.


im with WZ on this one, itll be a challenge to think of one. I dont really know of much series that have 2 game series with one alive and one dead.

[Lord Golbez]

There are a great many series I would be willing to kill to see Suikoden revived. Unfortunately, by your rules it's not really possible, since everything Konami makes is dead now. I guess revive Suikoden and kill Pachinko. :p But I would be willing to kill any other Konami series to revive Suikoden if they weren't already dead anyway. Yes, that means Metal Gear and Castlevania.

Chrono series. What would I sacrifice? Not FF, in case it gets good again. I'd definitely sacrifice Saga or Mana, but those seem to be pretty much dead anyway. I'd also sacrifice Kingdom Hearts. I'd possibly even sacrifice Dragon Quest, but I'd be reluctant, because I feel like DQ is almost a sure thing as far as getting a decent game, wheres Chrono could be phenomenal or could bomb. I'd sure easily sacrifice Dissidia.

Wild Arms. Um.... what else do they make? Well, I'm sure I'd sacrifice anything else they make. Apparently, they make Digimon. I'm cool with that.

Also, Breath of Fire is soooooo dead, but fine.

[WarZidane]

There are a great many series I would be willing to kill to see Suikoden revived. Unfortunately, by your rules it's not really possible, since everything Konami makes is dead now. I guess revive Suikoden and kill Pachinko. :p But I would be willing to kill any other Konami series to revive Suikoden if they weren't already dead anyway. Yes, that means Metal Gear and Castlevania.

Technically, Metal Gear counts as alive since Metal Gear Survive was just this year. If we can't count franchises as dead because of gacha mobile games, then Survive definitely keeps that "alive" :p

Sadly I can't pick Valkyrie Profile either since that has a JP-only mobile game recently.

I'd easily be okay with Ubisoft killing one of their franchises to bring back Prince of Persia, maybe one of the handful Tom Clancy franchises.

I'd also say Burnout, but Criterion is practically dead now, reduced to a dozen people and just supporting Battlefield projects these days.

Parasite Eve and Chrono, i'd kill SaGa and..something else by Square for that. Heck, I'd burn their Tokyo RPG Factory for it.

(just counting IPs with multiple entries here, since I can't really consider things like Legend of Dragoon a franchise when they only have one entry)

[Lord Golbez]

They might burn it the.selves for the insurance money. Oh yeah. I was thinking more about what I consider dead than the rules of the thread for Konami, so killing MGS wpuld work. Still, it's not much of a sacrifice to kill a series that's effectively dead.

[Rez09]

Company: Konami
Kill: Yu-Gi-Oh
Revive: Ring of Red

As much as I'd love to see Suikoden revived to wrap up the brewing war in Harmonia, neither 4 or 5 gave any indication they had any intention of doing that, and having played Tierkreis and watched videos of Woven Web, I don't see the direction they intended to go with the series as particularly desirable, so I'm going to pass on it.

What I am not going to pass on is Ring of Red however, because it had the potential to be a second Front Mission with completely different and engaging mechanics, but Konami left it in the dust after only a single title. It's unfortunate too, because the idea of placing greater strategic emphasis on what happens during combat as opposed to before it is a wonderfully underutilized angle and RoR pulls it off well, even if it does greatly slow down the flow of battle, and I'd have looooooooooooved to see more integration of terrain and new troop types as the series went on. Hell, I'm not even opposed to the story setup either, even if the original title is a bit 'meh', as alternate world post-WW2 is an engaging enough place and there is plenty of room for politics to play out across the different titles. Never gonna happen, though.

Know what else won't ever happen? The end of Yu-Gi-Oh, but I'd be perfectly okay if they killed it, and not because I have anything against the series (on the contrary honestly; I think it is a fairly decent product), but because there are just so many better places Konami could be better focusing their efforts. Like the currently underoccupied giant real-robot tactical genre.



Company: Sega
Kill: Super Monkey Ball
Revive: Pit-Pot

So Super Monkey Ball is basically dead, but there was a mobile entry within the past 5 years and I'd happily sacrifice whatever chance the series has of continuing to bring back Pit-Pot for a second shot, especially with the popularity of mobile games in general, which is where the title would shine. More dungeons, more mobs, more smashing things with hammers!




Company: Capcom
Kill: vs. series
Revive: Gargoyle's Quest

It's a close call on the kill here, because Street Fighter could stand to stop as well -- SF4 was extremely welcome after the long break between 3rd Strike and itself, but V isn't doing anything particularly worthwhile --, but on the whole the VS. series has always been extremely hit and miss with the company for me, with most of the titles feeling more like horrible janky MUGEN titles (MvC2 and 3) than professional products, and even the really strong entries in the franchise like CvS2 and MvC1 have seeeeerious problems. I would be perfectly fine with these crossover titles being ditched for quite some time, especially if the design space went to making different internal crossover titles or external crossovers in different genres.

That said, one thing I do appreciate about the VS series, MvC3 in particular, was that it gave a spotlight to some otherwise forgotten characters, most notably Arthur and Firebrand who haven't had games since 2010 and 1994, respectively. And this is actually pretty sad in the case of the latter, because Demon's Crest was not only one of the best platformers the SNES had to offer, but almost unarguably the best spinoff Ghouls and Ghosts ever spawned, and it's a shame Capcom never pushed on with the series, especially looking at how well Symphony of the Night did during the PS1 era. With the current retro phase going on this would be the perfect time to relaunch the series, especially if we could get Vanillaware/Arcsys level graphical work. <3



Also, fun story, at least two games I immediately thought of can't be picked because new games are in the works. What are the chances? xD

[Wolf Kanno]

Funny enough, this has turned out to be more difficult than I thought, partly cause my stock answers already have new entries while my rules don't apply to others. Not helping is my zero faith in some companies. I mean I would love to kill Metal Gear but at this point, I don't feel like Konami could bring back any of their old IPs well with their current corporate structure. I'm already afraid of the rumors of a new Suikoden game emerging since I guarantee it will be a Japan only mobile title.

Still, I should have something...

Square-Enix

Franchise to Kill: Kingdom Hearts - Let KHIII serve as the series swan song cause it's already shaping up to be a good title and should hopefully resolve most of the Xehanort plot. For me, I feel KH has run it's logical course and any future arcs would simply begin the cycle of long waits and countless spin-offs to see it to fruition, but I feel it would be better to kill it on a high note rather than continue to make a series I feel has been marred since it's inception with a "dragging it's feet" production schedule.

Franchise to Revive: This was tough because Squenix has actually been doing a decent job bringing back a lot of their old franchises lately. The big one I would like to see would probably be Chrono 3, but that would require the condition of Kato and Mitsuda being signed onto the project with creative control. Since that might not happen, my next choice would be either a new installment of the Ivalice franchise or Ogre Battle franchise by Division 12. Even without Masato there to bring in his rich and historical settings, I feel the Quest/Tactics team could still deliver a pretty great title.

Capcom

Franchise to Kill: Capcom Vs. Series - If you read my past post on MVC1, you'll know I pretty much feel like this franchise ended with MVC2 and all future installments have been sub-par. The Vs. franchise was pretty hot in the late 90s early 00s but I never felt the move to 3D was good for the series, and the dumbing down of the controls from MVC2 onward has transformed what use to be a fun franchise into an eye candy spectacle with little substance. Infinity tried to bring back some of the depth by bringing back the Infinity Stones from Marvel Super Heroes, but even that can't help a game with a lackluster roster (where are my X-Men Marvel?) and core gameplay that feels only a step up from being a pure button masher.

Franchise to Revive: Sadly, my own rules disqualify the game I really wish to revive which would be Breath of Fire, but Capcom has a pretty rich backlog of IPs to play with, so I would probably trade one tired old fighting series for a revival of a classic. I want Darkstalkers/Vampire Hunter brought back with new 2D sprites. Darkstalkers has always been an underrated fighting game series but the movie monster cast and cool characters make this franchise shine. I was actually super happy Jedah was brought into MvC Infinity, which is why I feel Capcom should try again with this franchise instead of sub-par ports of the collection.

Atlus

Franchise to Kill: Persona Dancing series - I have nothing against this series personally. In fact I love the music of the Persona games in general and love Rhythm Games, but Atlus has a bunch of other IPs they could work on that isn't spin-offs of popular titles. I also just kind of want to curb Atlus going all Square-Enix and milking their popular brands to death, so regardless of their good quality, I'm largely against the practice itself.

Franchise to Revive: Devil Summoner has had a weird history with the MegaTen franchise. During the PSX/Sega Saturn era, it worked alongside Person as the face of the MegaTen franchise since an actually numbered entry in the main franchise was going to skip this whole generation. The series received it's last new entries on the PS2 with the cult classic Raidou titles, and it's last hurrah was the port of Soul Hackers on the 3DS a few years back. The West hasn't even played the first entry despite Persona 2 giving it some heavy lip service. So I feel it would be cool to see the franchise come back, especially since Devil Summoner was created to be the type of franchise Atlus is trying to make the mainline MegaTen titles become, a series of game that are more story/character driven but still retain the Mon style gameplay. While I would like a new Raidou game, I would also love to see a modern game, maybe one connected to the more recent Persona titles since they technically do exist in the same timeline. The franchise actually has a pretty rich mythology going for it by this point and it has been a shame that it ended in 2009.

[maybee]

Going to kill Mario to see how well Nintendo copes without him. Would they break or would they and create a new platformer series?


Going to revive Wild Arms. been looking into the series lately, and been thinking how it was such a refreshing idea.

[Vyk]

You're like me, I had to reread this thread to realize they had to be under the same company.

With that rule in place I'd like to revive Shining Force but I don't think I can because of Shining Resonance. it's not Force but they consider all Shining things to be a very obtuse series as a whole. Can I revive Phantasy Star? Pretty sure that died on the PSP. And I would kill...I dunno. Maybe Yakuza? I can't think of a terrible series i hate. Yakuza has been around for a while. and just doesn't interest me. i dunno. i may come back with others

[maybee]

You're like me, I had to reread this thread to realize they had to be under the same company.


OH FRICK !


Then kill Mario and revive F- Zero.

[Lord Golbez]

Do you just want to kill Mario then? It's kind of telling that you changed the one you'd revive rather than the one you'd kill. I thought this was revive a franchise, but you have to kill one. Not kill a franchise, but you have to revive one. :p

[maybee]

Do you just want to kill Mario then? It's kind of telling that you changed the one you'd revive rather than the one you'd kill. I thought this was revive a franchise, but you have to kill one. Not kill a franchise, but you have to revive one. :p

Yeah. I think Mario can be too repetitive sometimes. Nintendo could do with a new platformer rather than just doing " Mario New SNES version 3D Wii/ 3D " all the time. Unpopular opinion, I know. In reality, I just want Mario to have a break.

[Lord Golbez]

I don't know what they'd do with a new platformer that isn't Mario. They already try out new game mechanics for Mario games. A new platformer would probably be the same except different characters and lower production values.

[Rez09]

< .<

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/DKC5_box_art.jpg/220px-DKC5_box_art.jpg

[maybee]

< .<

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fb/DKC5_box_art.jpg/220px-DKC5_box_art.jpg



Donkey Kong isn't really new though. He's just as old as Mario.

[Lord Golbez]

I readily concede that DKC is better than Mario if that was the point. However, I don't think DKC implements as many new ideas as something like Super Mario Odyssey. I tend to think that Nintendo funnels most of its ideas for what would be new and interesting in a platformer into Mario. That's why I don't think replacing it with a new platformer would do much more than lower the quality/interest in whatever was produced.

[Rez09]

While it is certainly true that Nintendo funnels most of its creative energy into the Mario series, DKC's existence does set the precedence for the company creating new high quality, well received platformers within a similar design space, which is more the point I was trying to make. I do not fully disagree with what you are saying, mind you, as Mario traditionally has been, and continues to be, the company's flagship series and when they want to develop a new platformer it is directly where they go and spend their money and effort, it is just that I do believe they, or as is the case with DKC one of their first party teams, do possess the ability to develop other high quality IPs if they actually care to, they've simply elected to let the Mario series serve as a safe catch-all for their efforts.



Donkey Kong isn't really new though. He's just as old as Mario.


Sure, however the character and IP laid pretty well dead after DKJ until it was reinvented as a banana chasing, barrel busting platformer in the mid 90s, which was certainly a new direction for the series and quite different from where Mario was going.

[Vyk]

I want nail biting drama in my platformers

[Rez09]

Company: Nippon Ichi Software
Kill: Disgaea
Revive: Soul Nomad

I just got an ad for yet another remake of Disgaea one -- seriously, how many remakes/rereleases/enhanced ports is that at this point? Can we just kill that with fire soon? Please? This company can make other decent games, they've done it in the past. Augh. > .< Soul Nomad is a good candidate for revival, as the Ogre Battle combat system is kind of awesome and I'd like to see what they could do with the game a second time around. There's also plenty of story room to work with considering the wide universe NIS has built.

[Mr. Carnelian]

Company: Ubisoft

Kill: "Tom Clancy's blah di blah"
God, enough already! Truly, the last word in generic, forgettable shooters.

Revive: Prince of Persia
I feel like it's a franchise that could support at least one or two more big titles.