Hopes/Predictions for 2022 games?

[Lord_Brand]

Wouldn't it be crazy if we got a mashup of Zelda and Fire Emblem? Zelda setting and characters, Fire Emblem-style gameplay?

Speaking of Zelda, I'd love to see remasters of OoT and MM for Switch, though knowing how Furukawa's Nintendo works, they'd be sold as separate games rather than as a 2-in-1 package like they should be.

Edited January 1, 2022 by Lord_Brand

[Fabulously Olivier]

4 minutes ago, Lord_Brand said:

Wouldn't it be crazy if we got a mashup of Zelda and Fire Emblem? Zelda setting and characters, Fire Emblem-style gameplay?

I guess. 

 

TBH, I'd rather just a Fire Emblem. I for one don't especially like Zelda's setting and characters.

[Lord_Brand]

For me, the appeal comes from the chance to implement Zelda characters and tropes in new ways. Like how to implement various items, how to interpret classes through the lens of different Hyrulean tribes, the chance to have an enemy force made up of humans or other non-monster tribes, etc. I made a topic about the whole idea a few years back. I know it's not likely to happen, but that would make it all the more amazing if it did.

That said, Awakening and Fates remasters for Switch would be ideal, too. At this point, Nintendo could make a pretty fortune off compilations of their numerous long-running franchises, Fire Emblem included. Bring the whole series to Switch, from the original all the way up to Fates.

Edited January 1, 2022 by Lord_Brand

[Fabulously Olivier]

Awakening and Fates remasters would be okay, if we were strictly talking AI-upscaled ports that take little to no actual development time and don't replace remasters of games that actually need remastering.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Lord_Brand said:

A Chrono Cross remaster? I'd prefer a Trigger remaster first, myself. But it'd be great if Toriyama could be brought on for the character designs to give the game more consistency with its predecessor. And maybe trim a lot of the chaff characters in favor of giving the worthwhile party members more development (seriously, why do characters like Funguy and Turnip even exist? Turnip's especially bad as you can't get him until the very last dungeon and he's a strictly worse Glenn that doesn't get Einlanzer or a dual tech with Serge). And maybe handle the game's hackneyed subplots about environmentalism and racism better (especially in regards to those damn, dirty dwarves). Really, Cross needs a remake or reimagining more than a simple remaster. Which would be ironic yet fitting, as Cross itself was a heavy reimagining of Radical Dreamers for the SFDD (which is even alluded to at one point late in the game).

I mean, Cross was on the NVidia leak list, and then there's all those stories and rumors about PSX Square remakes. And Cross was brought into attention thanks to the Another Eden collaboration crossover.

Because Masato Kato wanted it.

https://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=13665.0

Quote

(Laughs) Kato: When we were working on Chrono Cross, we only created characters that were not good. Even though people would say, "Nobody needs Funguy," I was happy to write them. I did think to myself, "Now that I think about it, maybe I went too far with Funguy." But he had his own taste.

--At the time, I was thinking that with over 40 characters in the game, there would be characters like this (laughs).

(laughs). Kato: At that time, I was free to do whatever I wanted.

That's why like half the cast is out-there stuff like Pip, NeoFio, Funguy, Turnip, etc. He had a penchant for the unusual.

Quote

Kato: As I said in my old strategy books, I asked Hiromichi Tanaka, "What kind of game is it if the first two friends you get when you start the game are a straw doll and a dog?　What kind of game is this? He corrected me and said, "You need to start out with a heroine, a childhood friend, or a proper character to grab the player's attention."

--Was Mojo supposed to appear before Leena and Kid?

Kato: In the first scenario I wrote, Mojo was supposed to be dancing around in the scene where he meets up with Leena (laughs).

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by Acacia Sgt

[Lord_Brand]

Spoiler

And as a result, the characters we actually cared about fell by the wayside and the game was left with a bloated and undercooked cast, most of whom have the gameplay depth of a bucket. That's like building a car, but instead of focusing on a handful of features people will actually like, you add a whole bunch of useless widgets that make funny noises or inflate like balloons. It's strange and different, but not satisfying.

If they had to have all that chaff in there, they could at least have made it interesting by sorting them into batches of characters from whom you pull your party in a given segment of the game. For example, when preparing to infiltrate Viper Manor, maybe you can encounter Fun Guy in Shadow Forest en route to the Manor itself. Though to tell you the truth, I really have no idea why two of our guide candidates are a glam rock star and a poncy hero wannabe. Why the hell would these guys know how to enter Viper Manor? Guile's at least a magician, and thus could know of a secret way to sneak us in there. Though I guess Nikki and Marcy do turn out to be siblings, but I don't recall Marcy having any special dialogue if Nikki's in your party, indicating that she at least is too young to remember him. (Which leads me to the question of why one of the Dragoon Devas is a 9-year old girl, though we've already established that Kato is into weird stuff but child soldiers seems a tad too far.)

Really, Chrono Cross just feels like the result of a man on drugs directing a JRPG. It's weird and different, but that doesn't make it good. The core gameplay is fine, though too far removed from Trigger for my liking to call it a true sequel (or at least a direct sequel; Cross would have worked better as a non-continuous sequel in the vein of Final Fantasy where each installment takes place in its own world). The story is a hot mess and the characters, with a few exceptions, are as thin as paper. Cross is everything a sequel shouldn't be, and indicates to me that Kato really is not a good director.

But this topic isn't for ranting about the quality of existing games, it's about our hopes and predictions for 2022, so I'll drop the subject.

Sonic Frontiers will be the biggest piece of news for Sonic this year, but Adventures 1 & 2 remasters/remakes would be appreciated. They have not aged terribly well and could use some fine-tuning and polish.

[vanguard333]

5 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

Wouldn't it be crazy if we got a mashup of Zelda and Fire Emblem? Zelda setting and characters, Fire Emblem-style gameplay?

As far as crossovers between Zelda and an Intelligent Systems series are concerned, I think I'd rather see a Paper Zelda: Zelda characters, gameplay of the old Paper Mario games (but with a bit more exploration and puzzle-solving and a bit less platforming). The Paper Mario games keep refusing to return to the old formula due to a combination of arbitrary restrictions and Kensuke Tanabe's ego; making a Paper Zelda that plays like the old Paper Mario games would sidestep both of those issues.

 

5 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

Speaking of Zelda, I'd love to see remasters of OoT and MM for Switch, though knowing how Furukawa's Nintendo works, they'd be sold as separate games rather than as a 2-in-1 package like they should be.

Remasters of those two games are probably unlikely considering the Switch Online expansion pack. However, if they were to make some, there would then be the question: would these remakes be all-new, or would they be built using the 3DS remakes of those games? For Majora's Mask, whichever choice they went with would be divisive thanks to how divisive the 3DS remake was.

[Lord_Brand]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

As far as crossovers between Zelda and an Intelligent Systems series are concerned, I think I'd rather see a Paper Zelda: Zelda characters, gameplay of the old Paper Mario games (but with a bit more exploration and puzzle-solving and a bit less platforming). The Paper Mario games keep refusing to return to the old formula due to a combination of arbitrary restrictions and Kensuke Tanabe's ego; making a Paper Zelda that plays like the old Paper Mario games would sidestep both of those issues.

Paper Zelda would be fun too. 64 Bits made a neat video showing what such a game could be like:

 

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

Remasters of those two games are probably unlikely considering the Switch Online expansion pack. However, if they were to make some, there would then be the question: would these remakes be all-new, or would they be built using the 3DS remakes of those games? For Majora's Mask, whichever choice they went with would be divisive thanks to how divisive the 3DS remake was.

They'd have new visuals, probably building on the 3DS versions but even better. Majora's Mask could let the player choose which version's boss fights they prefer, or find a happy middle ground.

[vanguard333]

Just now, Lord_Brand said:

Paper Zelda would be fun too. 64 Bits made a neat video showing what such a game could be like:

Yeah, I saw that video a while ago.

 

4 minutes ago, Lord_Brand said:

They'd have new visuals, probably building on the 3DS versions but even better. Majora's Mask could let the player choose which version's boss fights they prefer, or find a happy middle ground.

That could maybe work, though the divisive changes in Majora's Mask 3D were a lot more than just the boss fights; there was also the changes to the save system and the removal of zora swimming, among other things.

[Lord_Brand]

Oh yeah, they altered how dolphin jumping worked. I hated that. I don't mind the change to the save system, I hated how the original game only permanently saved the game when you played the Song of Time. I also like the expanded Bomber's Journal and the addition of fishing, though the latter is dampened by the fact the clock is still ticking while you're in the pond, which defeats the purpose of fishing being a relaxing sidegame. A real pity, as fishing is otherwise much more fleshed out than it ever was in OoT.

But you know, an OoT reimagining with more of what they originally had planned for the game could be interesting too, like the Wind and Ice Temples (remnants of which are still in the game, like the Forest and Water Medallions bearing the symbols that originally went to Wind and Ice, as well as the fans that appear in the Shadow Temple and the Forest room of Ganon's Tower, which suggests the Hover Boots were originally slated for the Wind Temple) or the sword beam.

 

[henrymidfields]

A Persona 5 port onto Switch would be nice. Persona 3 would be better as a remake though, as the default version (MC route) has a lot of stuff that now feels clunky in gameplay terms. At the very least, I'd like a new version of MC's Social Links with Junpei, Ken, and Akihiko as actual SL partners. Also, MC-to-female social links should have a platonic route. And of course, the FeMC route should be portrayed in its full 3D glory, with her version of The Answer.

While I'm cautiously looking forward to a FE4 remake, I just hope they won't make Sigurd another invincible male hero like they did to Alm in the Valentia remake. I'm not too fussed with other changes for this possible remake (and I'd welcome some QoL), but the aforementioned is something FE really needs to get rid of.

[ciphertul]

7 hours ago, henrymidfields said:

Persona 5 port onto Switch would be nice. Persona 3 would be better as a remake though, as the default version (MC route) has a lot of stuff that now feels clunky in gameplay terms. At the very least, I'd like a new version of MC's Social Links with Junpei, Ken, and Akihiko as actual SL partners. Also, MC-to-female social links should have a platonic route. And of course, the FeMC route should be portrayed in its full 3D glory, with her version of The Answer.

While I would love a FES remaster, I’m very much against the changing of the Social Links. The original magician link is better the Junpei and it would be stupid to remove a romantic options for Ken.