Sega planning to revive 'major ips' (2018)

SEGA
1

Not the first time we hear SEGA say that but we now have had official announcement for a major collection of games that is ShenMue 1 & 2.
They apparently are using this release to test the water as per what DreamcastGuy is saying.

The shenmue remaster seems to be a pretty cheap effort, so I am hoping it does well but more importantly, I am hoping they handle the next titles with more care. Because this shenmue remaster seems to be a quite lazy effort.

Apparently, next revivals could be Jet Set Radio, Skies of Arcadia… we’ll see.

I still feel the Switch is a fantastic home for retro gaming.

2

The Yakuza series is successful in Japan. Sonic is really successful in the western world. I imagine Sega will look at what gamers generally buy and try to reach them. It won’t be easy as the economy turns around.

3

I honestly hope Yakuza & Sonic are not considered in this ‘reviving major IPs’ strategy since both these IPs are currently active…

I am sick of these 2 licences.

4

We might not like the way Sega revives these franchises. I see there’s a new Phantasy Star game coming out on mobile, but it looks rather… generic.

I played a demo of Shining Resonance Refrain recently too and was not impressed.

I don’t want to sound only negative about Sega though. The Shenmue remasters look great from what I can tell, as were previous remasters of JSR and NiGHTS. More remasters of classic Saturn and Dreamcast games would be appreciated.

5

I’ll be annoyed if they do Skies of Arcadia having just dropped fifty big ones on the Dreamcast version :anjou_happy:

That said, this news does mean we all need to go out and buy at least two copies of Shenmue I&II

6

Sega should look at something like Golden Axe and find some of the best developers and give that a serious, serious shot. They can take the lore and fluid gameplay and make it more serious somehow. It’s all there. Then time the marketing and release of the game so there is no competition.

I honestly think someone at Sega really wants to turn this ship around. I would personally build up a large hardcore fanbase over time by releasing what really resonated with gamers. The free advertising is hugely beneficial, but it takes a long term approach (this is something Blizzard did extremely well – and they need to return to it as well).

Sega need to be careful here. I find that many people don’t truly understand how a business works. A 100 million dollar/pound loss on a game could kill a company. We shall see anyway.

7

Also, is Panzer Dragoon considered to be a major IP? :slight_smile: Let’s hope so. Sega should make another RPG and market it properly. It actually could happen, but there needs to be some excellent timing here, and Sega need to know that there is a market for it. They should respect the source material (keep the lore serious and real-world A-political). I’d say make it less colourful and more realistic in terms of graphics.

8

Let’s face it. You gotta be pretty retarded to be Sega, be sitting on a goldmine and do what they are doing. Is there no one in Japan who even understands the console industry? My god…for all the money these corporations move you’d think some semblance of inventive juice would be running the show as well…

9

As much as I’d like to see Skies of Arcadia remastered, it’s going to be difficult finding a spare 60 hours to replay it. It might be a good time passer if I get the flu at some point. It’s the ideal game world to escape into wrapped up in a warm blanket with hot soup to make you forget your troubles.

Jet Set Radio Future, on the other hand, is a game that would be very welcome. I never actually finished the Xbox game, and the cell shaded visuals and gameplay would hold up quite well even today with a simple resolution bump.

Maybe Sega will re-release Orta on PS4 and PC? Switch too. I don’t think it’s out of the question, and as the Xbox One X version shows, the visuals are far from Ancient looking.

10

If they released Orta for PC, I wouldn’t need my Xbox anymore!:grin:. The only reason it has been turned the last 3 years on was to play a little Orta. I can’t imagine it would cost Sega much to do a bunch of releases like this from their back catalog. Might even create new fans and make new releases of these IP sell better. (If they release a quality product that is.)

11

Absolutely, make a small division to re-release these old games. I bet they would sell like hot cakes on Switch and good enough on PS4/Xbox One.

12

That’s why every time I replay it I use action replay codes. My yearly playthroughs last just under or at the 20 hour mark! I think Skies of Arcadia needs a reboot honestly. And it should be made into an action rpg, sort of like what they are doing with the FF7 remake.

Older gamers just don’t have time for turned based battle systems any more. I’m sort of a hypocrite though as just recently, Octopath Traveler took me 66 hours to complete…

13

We’ll always find the time to play the ‘good’ games :smirk:

14

This is so true. You find the time… I found 120 hours to play No Man’s Sky. 60 to play Far Cry 5. 80 to play Assassin’s Creed Origins.

What is harder is to find 60 hours to REPLAY a game you’ve already finished…

15

Well, for older games, you know you earned every move, every spell, did every sidequest and leveled up to 99 the fist time you played it. So, just use gameshark/action replay codes.

Time=cut in half

16

I’m in two minds about this. Skies of Arcadia was very much an “end of an era” RPG, perfecting systems from the 8 and 16-bit RPGs that came before it like the classic Phantasy Star series. You’re going to lose a lot what it represented if that changes.

The text based dialogue, find the crystals storyline, lack of side quests, etc, make quite a different type of RPG than what we’re used to today. The ship battles were both different than what came before, and excellent in their execution. If Skies of Arcadia was remade in 2018, it would probably have real time ship battles instead, voice acting instead of the fun animations and gasps in key plot moments, and the story would likely need to be changed to be less of a collectathon.

If it’s going to change so much, I’d rather play a new game about air pirates instead, set in a similar light hearted game world, with a new set of characters and stories. They could call it “Skies of Arcadia”, or something different, the name isn’t so important. Skies of Arcadia is a game that feels complete as-is, like NiGHTS into Dreams. And as with NiGHTS, a simple HD remaster of the Gamecube version would preserve the game we remember for the future. Visually, I think it would hold up reasonably well.

The Final Fantasy VII remake is a bit different, because those 32-bit RPGs haven’t aged very well visually. The old characters were very blocky, jarring against the pre-rendered backgrounds and FMV sequences. It’s a similar issue with the original Resident Evil games, which have/are also being remade. In contrast, Skies of Arcadia is entirely rendered in 3D. I’d be pushing for a Panzer Dragoon Saga remake or some other continuation more than revisiting Skies of Arcadia for that reason.

17

I see what you’re saying but honestly: I have played Skies of Arcadia the real way, no codes, all the way through, about 2 or 3 times max. Ever since then, I just can’t bring myself to play the game without codes and sit through all of those repetitive random battles, over and over again for 60 hours. And you can’t find the time as well. Which is why I suggest using codes or Action Replay.

It’s much more fun to just use codes, relax, turn random battles off, explore the world uninterrupted, as well as walking through the environments/dungeons all the way through without the music being interrupted by the random battles, fight battles when I want, with stats maxed out.

Which is why the old game is fine as it is: timeless. We’ll always have it. I love the graphics, the game, just as it is. But I’m able to use codes because it’s on an old console and relax. Allowing me to enjoy it more, without being dragged down by the random battles.

HELL, I’ve been playing it in VR!!! I can die happy!!

So, that is why imo if it was remade, I would want it to be completely different with no random battles, an action rpg system and an expansion on everything we had: world, environments, etc, that is more accessible to old gamers and newcomers alike!

If they did just release a simple HD version. I probably wouldn’t even play it. Because… what would be so different? The graphics would be a bit crisper? And I most certainly wouldn’t be able to use codes. I’d just stick to the original anyway. I get it if you’re a purest though.

I guess Panzer Dragoon Saga would be different. The game is starting to show its age. I mean it was phenomenal for it’s time (presentation/art direction). But now you can really see those pixels, but that art direction has a special nostalgic place in my heart.

But, unlike Skies of Arcadia the battle system progression was perfectly balanced giving you enough exp to beat the game without even having to grind. And you could beat it within 20 hours, which is why I love it!! It’s just right not too grating.

18

The thing is, action RPGs can be quite long and repetitive as well. The Witcher or Elder Scrolls games for example. A major appeal of Skies of Arcadia is that it has a large world to explore, and a lot of content requires a significant number of hours to appreciate it. They could reduce the amount of time spent in combat significantly, of course.

I’m not sure that I would play a remastered Skies of Arcadia either, at least not straight away. I don’t usually replay RPGs. But I would be in favour of it for preservation purposes and for people who haven’t played it before.

Panzer Dragoon was always much more focused on being cinematic than providing a large world to explore. Replaying Panzer Dragoon Saga is almost like rewatching a film. There’s very little filler content. You’d lose some of the original’s appeal by making a PDS remake have realtime combat, but as Orta showed, it’s perfectly possible to translate some of the main elements like positioning over into a shooter to retain the essence of the game.

19

True. The WItcher 3 burnt me out. But what I really don’t like about Skies of Arcadia’s random battles is: they break up the exploration and atmosphere, while exploring. Maybe a remake or HD remaster could have the option to turn them on and off like Bravely Default had?..

But, an action rpg system does tend to blend seamlessly into the world at least. I guess it really doesn’t matter because both random and action systems both have their strengths and weakness. I just personally prefer action based battle systems is all.

20

Having a switch to turn off random encounters in the Skies of Arcadia remaster would be nice, or perhaps a slider to configure their probability. They would need to bump up the experience gained in each encounter relative to the number of encounters, but it doesn’t seem like something that would require too much programming effort (assuming they still have the source code). This is arguably the only major change the game needs besides a resolution upgrade IMO. There’s so much emphasis on remakes and reboots these days that it sometimes feels like we aren’t questioning what it is about the original that really needs replacing.