Pipe Dream games, etc

[JBC]

Just another good survival horror game

I have high hopes for Visage if it ever comes out. It's one of the P.T. inspired ones, but looks particularly good. Might happen

[drauch]

Yeah, that's the kinda game I don't want in my pipe dream. I don't want to walk around and just get cheapscared, which is about all that exists anymore. Never understood the appeal of P.T.. There's nothing really survival oriented about that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

How about some dudes go down into a sewer system to fix some pipes and then they uncover some bad stuff: immemorial evil stuff living down there, secret passages into some abyss, get trapped, and gotta survive. Bingo. Pipe dream survival horror.

[z0mbie90]

How about some dudes go down into a sewer system to fix some pipes and then they uncover some bad stuff: immemorial evil stuff living down there, secret passages into some abyss, get trapped, and gotta survive. Bingo. Pipe dream survival horror.

You should pitch that to Konami for sure. I kinda liked P.T, I wouldn't call it survival horror either, but I like the whole "Going insane Simulator" Resident Evil 7 on the other hand I didn't enjoy. Same as with Outlast* and the other "walk around and then boo jumpscare" games. Rather play Amnesia if I want walking around horror

[Sumez]

Because Konami totally want to make great games nowadays

[JBC]

I thought Outlast was okay. I think I like the first better than the second though. It's not so much the gameplay as it is the atmosphere. You're just going from point A to B, hiding & switching your nightvision on and off. Not much depth there, but one of my favorite aspects of survival horror is reading notes that build a story. I feel like Outlast does that well. That's fine for a small, cheaply priced title.

My pipe dream survival horror is included in that Sony buying out Konami idea. Rehire all of Team Silent & get them back together, hand them the series & say "go to town". Call it Silent Hill 5 & decanonize everything after 4. Shattered Memories is good & Downpour is better than one would think, but they aren't the true Silent Hill. That can only be done by the OG guys.

Also, Fatal Frame 6 on Switch please. (Not really a pipe dream, this could happen)

[TransatlanticFoe]

For some reason, I want Flying Shark and Kyukyoku Tiger to be ported to the Sega Master System.

Actually, a more open-ended Remember Me sequel as well - with memory remixes creating branching paths. Sometimes I feel like I was the only person who liked that game.

[charlie chong]

streetfighter the movie vs mortal kombat would be fun for the lulz or a new ketsui where you play as the mushi ship or something
i guess my most wanted just be good ports of dodonpachi/donpachi ,batrider,ibara and the toaplan back catalogue.

[BryanM]

So you guys brought up the Shining series, and I thought to myself "Hey, those Shining Soul games weren't so bad. They could have been pretty good, if they weren't terrible." so off to the Wikipedia index I went.

The newest game in the Shining franchise? Shining Resonance Refrain. (It's a port! YAY!) Here's a screen shot!



According to Wikipedia, the artist on the series is one "Tony Taka". A porno artist. The blonde elf girl in this screenshot is basically a copy paste of a character from the Fault! sequel/expansion pack/or whatever.

So yeah.

Hoping at least for some kind of spiritual successor of some sort, because you can't copyright dwarves and centaurs and ninjas and shit, let's see what Camelot Software Planning's been doing lately.

2003 Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour
2004 Mario Golf: Advance Tour
2004 Mario Power Tennis
2005 Mario Tennis: Power Tour
2007 We Love Golf!
2009 New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis
2010 Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
2012 Mario Tennis Open
2014 Mario Golf: World Tour
2015 Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
2017 Mario Sports Superstars
2018 Mario Tennis Aces

The Mario Golf series is a masterpiece, we can all agree. And there's that great irony we've come full circle back to Tennis again - I guess it's just too damn sexy.

At the end of the day I can't hold any ire at what SEGA has become, it's just a big dumb corporation. The Takahashi brothers are the ones who don't want to make a Shining in all but name sequel. Are they afraid of competing with Fire Emblem or stepping on Nintendo's toes? Do they just not feel like it?

Perhaps the strain of getting the Shining Force 3 trilogy out broke them.

[Sumez]

The Golden Sun games are still extremely popular. It is kind of a rare instance of the developer of two very popular "b-grade" RPG series are still around, so it is almost surprising to me that they are only making golf and tennis games.
I get that they keep pumping that cow as the games are popular (and supposedly good, too), but why not make the best of this company? Were the Golden Sun games such a financial flop?

[JBC]

That's a shame about the Shining series. At least it's not as bad as what happened to Valis.

[FinalBaton]

That's a shame about the Shining series. At least it's not as bad as what happened to Valis.

Yeah talk about an ungraceful death

[Xyga]

but why not make the best of this company? Were the Golden Sun games such a financial flop?

same logic as most developers who quit depending on real work and just opt for the best production cost/profit ratio

edit: also they assume (I believe correctly) that there aren't many players left today who'd put at least 20hrs into repetitive dungeons and long-ass dialogue. old school jrpgs were the thing of 80's-90's/early2000's bois who don't have time for this anymore, and the younger play more online games or whatever.

[soprano1]

That's a shame about the Shining series. At least it's not as bad as what happened to Valis.

Yeah talk about an ungraceful death

Valis X, man.

[Sumez]

edit: also they assume (I believe correctly) that there aren't many players left today who'd put at least 20hrs into repetitive dungeons and long-ass dialogue. old school jrpgs were the thing of 80's-90's/early2000's bois who don't have time for this anymore, and the younger play more online games or whatever.

Definitely not as sound an investment as most other stuff you could do, but in this day an age video games has become such a broad spectrum - and doors have been opened for lower budgeted productions without people frowning at it - that it still confuses me that companies aren't able to branch out more.
There is clearly a hungry audience for this, and look at stuff like Netflix, who produce shows for pretty much any kind of audience recently, ranging from broad mainstream to geeky and completely niche stuff, and the variety is really supporting their service, since there is something for everyone. It really should be the same in the video game industry, but for some reason it's not.
That said, Falcom are having a ton of success these days, and I love that.

Valis X, man.

What the actual f....

I never liked the Valis games, but I didn't expect this.

[charlie chong]

if a shaq fu sequel got crowdfunded then surely any game is comercially viable in these strange times

[soprano1]

What the actual f....

I never liked the Valis games, but I didn't expect this.

Apparently, the developers thought all these years people played the games because you play as a highschool girl who shows her panties all the time, so the next step was obvious. True story. (I think...)

[Sumez]

I'm not sure why else anyone would play the Valis games :3

[FinalBaton]

That's a shame about the Shining series. At least it's not as bad as what happened to Valis.

Yeah talk about an ungraceful death

Valis X, man.

That's what I was referencing!

Poor Yoko

[Xyga]

Definitely not as sound an investment as most other stuff you could do, but in this day an age video games has become such a broad spectrum - and doors have been opened for lower budgeted productions without people frowning at it - that it still confuses me that companies aren't able to branch out more.
There is clearly a hungry audience for this, and look at stuff like Netflix, who produce shows for pretty much any kind of audience recently, ranging from broad mainstream to geeky and completely niche stuff, and the variety is really supporting their service, since there is something for everyone. It really should be the same in the video game industry, but for some reason it's not.
That said, Falcom are having a ton of success these days, and I love that.

Might be a matter of knowledge also. When you don't believe old school RPGs/TRPGs etc will continue to make money, you don't necessarily keep employees who have been doing only that for over a decade.
Same story with every dev company that's been specialized into a certain genre for ages, one day it goes out of fashion and they stop making games...now ask them to do it again today and they'll be well embarrassed, or they'll do it but fuck up and disappoint, even just ports and remakes will be shit, we've seen it happen enough times.

(edit: maybe falcom kept some key people, I don't know)

[Sumez]

Aren't people saying Ikeda and Yagawa are still at Cave?

[Xyga]

they're beyond senior status now, they don't waste energy in petty things like work and games anymore

[BryanM]

I get that they keep pumping that cow as the games are popular (and supposedly good, too), but why not make the best of this company? Were the Golden Sun games such a financial flop?

That last one seemed to sell around 500,000 copies. The Persona series averages at a bit over 1 million.

It takes a ton of work to create all the content in a JRPG, where players just rip through a stage that took you months to build in under an hour. In an interview, one of the Takahashi's mentions how exhausting it is and how the team needs time to recharge before attempting it again. Shining Force 3 was never going to be a big financial success - it was meant as a thank you to the fans.

Of course there was no possibility of it making a lot of money if only 1 third of the game ever got released overseas, and that the game only ever got released on the Sega Saturn.

Honestly it's a bit shocking how disposable games are treated by their owners. A book is something you can poop out in a week and sell forever. Movies? A lot of weird stuff never got a disc release, but pretty much everything that had any money put into it you can buy.

But video games on a console? These massive undertakings of hundreds of people and millions of dollars? You get a window of maybe 3 or 4 years of it remaining a product.

Then maybe it'll get resurrected later on the PC in an emulator. A $0 sale, but hey, we can play Shining Force III Scenario 2 and 3 in english now.

When you don't believe old school RPGs/TRPGs etc will continue to make money

There's a kind of "winning makes it easier to keep winning" effect in the business. Square Enix has all the money, so they can make games that look really good, have long production cycles, have big budgets, so they make more money so they have more money and the cycle repeats. It's really hard to compete.

The Shining Team on the other hand, was starved for funding and staff from the start. They had to rebuild most of the team when they got to Shining Force 2. SEGA, during the 90's, was busy getting itself taken over by Business majors who were more interested in killing the company in order to maximize the amount of hookers and cocaine they had for themselves. Than caring about stupid video games.

Octopath Traveler, the most retro thing Squeenix can bring itself to make or license that isn't running on a cell phone, is millions of dollars beyond what anyone trying to break into the industry can afford.

[soprano1]

These massive undertakings of hundreds of people and millions of dollars?

Yeah, that's another problem with the industry today, too much fucking money going around.
Seriously, millions? It's starting to look like the European football/soccer industry.
Then the investors expect double or triple the investment, and of course that shit rarely happens.

[BryanM]

That's just what it costs to rent an office, buy electricity, and pay the salaries of 10 to 20 people for a couple years. Millions is way on the lower end of what it costs to make even a shitty half assed game.

If you're not working in your own house making your own game, there's no cheap way to make these things.

[soprano1]

That's just what it costs to rent an office, buy electricity, and pay the salaries of 10 to 20 people for a couple years. Millions is way on the lower end of what it costs to make even a shitty half assed game.

If you're not working in your own house making your own game, there's no cheap way to make these things.

I understand. Maybe I'm naive, but these values are obscene to me.

[BryanM]

It's just a ton of work.

On the bright side, something on the scale of Dragon Warrior 1 can be made by one person in a couple of months these days.

On the bad side, that just means the bar is so much higher than that now.

Honestly I wish ASCii games could make enough money to replace a full time job. If they could, that's what I'd be doing with my life.

Producing and programmatically rigging art is so many thousands of hours, man.

[gameoverDude]

Gradius VI, Salamander 3, & Xexex II: Konami should sell these franchises out to G.Rev rather than leaving them buried in their backyard.
Rolling Thunder 3 DX: Hire M2 to make a version that looks like a Namco System 2 arcade title from 1992.
Galaxy Force III
Final Fight 2 DX: Take the SNES game, then add CPS graphics & enemy AI like the arcade FF1. More enemies on screen as well.
Razing Storm 2: Make this on Namco's current arcade hardware, targeting a constant 60 FPS. DO NOT add QTEs like those from Time Crisis 5. Add PSVR support for the PS4 version.

[FinalBaton]

The Shining Team on the other hand, was starved for funding and staff from the start. They had to rebuild most of the team when they got to Shining Force 2. SEGA, during the 90's, was busy getting itself taken over by Business majors who were more interested in killing the company in order to maximize the amount of hookers and cocaine they had for themselves. Than caring about stupid video games.

Yeah went and read an interview with one of the brothers today, after seeig your post on the first page. Was in a UK game magazine. Pretty sad how Sega treated them. super low budget for all Shining Force games and Shining in the Darkness too. They could have given them a bigger budget after the back to back successes of SitD and SF1, for fucks sake. Would have allowed them to keep their staff, and act as a show of grattitude. But as you said, business men had started taking over roles previously occupied by gaming enthusiasts in the company. The Takahashi bro being interviewed was pretty sour towards Sega, and it's easy to understand why. Pretty sad (I liked that bit where he just straight up laughed when the interviewer asked if rival Fire Emblem was ever an influence, throwing that notion in the gutter. That was a pretty cool reaction, haha. )

[JBC]

Gradius VI, Salamander 3, & Xexex II: Konami should sell these franchises out to G.Rev rather than leaving them buried in their backyard.
Rolling Thunder 3 DX: Hire M2 to make a version that looks like a Namco System 2 arcade title from 1992.
Galaxy Force III
Final Fight 2 DX: Take the SNES game, then add CPS graphics & enemy AI like the arcade FF1. More enemies on screen as well.
Razing Storm 2: Make this on Namco's current arcade hardware, targeting a constant 60 FPS. DO NOT add QTEs like those from Time Crisis 5. Add PSVR support for the PS4 version.

All of that sounds great. I'd love a full on Time Crisis collection that includes all 5, Project Titan, Crisis Zone, & Razing Storm. A House Of The Dead set wouldn't hurt either.

Reminds me of an extra strength pipe dream I've had running through my head for awhile:

Someone starts a company specializing in CRTs aimed at classic gaming enthusiasts. They use modern tech to minimize the space they take up so that you're basically looking at some smooth glass floating on an arm mount which can be rotated. On the back are inputs for scart, component, vga, dvi, & HDMI. Inside is something like an Emotia, but it can downscale anything into 240p. The monitor is fine tuned beyond the greatest medical grade CRTs of yesteryear, & includes some sort of smart technology to do all of the troubleshooting for you.

Just plug in your PC & fire up MAME for a perfect arcade monitor. Want to run Mega Man 9/10 in 240p? Hook up that Wii & go to town.

Edit - Add on to this a series of wireless adapters for retro consoles that beam your video signal into a receiver plugged into the back of that monitor & you're living in a younger Ridley Scott's vision of the future.

[BrianC]

So you guys brought up the Shining series, and I thought to myself "Hey, those Shining Soul games weren't so bad. They could have been pretty good, if they weren't terrible." so off to the Wikipedia index I went.

The newest game in the Shining franchise? Shining Resonance Refrain. (It's a port! YAY!) Here's a screen shot!



According to Wikipedia, the artist on the series is one "Tony Taka". A porno artist. The blonde elf girl in this screenshot is basically a copy paste of a character from the Fault! sequel/expansion pack/or whatever.

So yeah.

Not to mention that one girl in the picture wears cleavage dress armor.