What franchises do you think desperately need a reboot?

[Fabulously Olivier]

What franchises could really use a reboot? Any dead/dormant franchises that could really take off if they returned today? Any ongoing franchises that have a lot of baggage and really need a breath of fresh air?

 

 

I've got a few:

 

Infamous

So, Infamous 1 and 2 are very 7/10 games. Just having a superhero sandbox back then was novel, but Cole's power set is limited/one-note, he has the personality of burnt toast, and the games were pretty average-at-best Ubisoft-style open cities. The much needed Second Son followup received flak, and I guess that's because people weren't ready for a change of protagonist. 

 

But I think 3rd times the charm here. Superheroes are big. The superhero sandbox is a well-known quantity now. Sucker Punch's own dev skills have increased quite a bit with Ghost of Tsushima. And this franchise has so much room to grow. I'm imagining one of these games with a custom player hero and a more nuanced/interactive moral choice system, and that concept is exciting.

 

Kingdom Hearts

The story of this franchise is notoriously gibberish, and much of it is tied up in deeply mediocre spinoff games. Basically, a reset of the world with a back-to-basics story feels needed. And you could also take this chance to make the combat deeper, add a dedicated Final Fantasy party member in addition to Donald and Goofy, etc.

 

Shining

Needs a de-boot. This series had some pedigree as an SRPG once with the Shining Force games, and it should go back to its roots. 

[whase]

Megaman Battle Network

Especially with how prevalent AI stories are now, I think Battle Network could shine even more than it already has. I would personally love to see this as an MMO, even if that doesn't really seem to be a thing Nintendo does. I would just love to have my own Navi and send it online to battle virusses. So much they could do with this series.

[Jotari]

Castlevannia is the one that immediately jumps to mind. The franchise is kind of fascinating in how much it manages to simultaneously fail and succeed at the same time. What's a shame is that they've already tried the whole reboot thing and it just sort of didn't work. Not sure why, only played the 3DS game from that series, which...was a game. The series is over 40 years old but has been dormancy for like, the last ten years or something, surviving only on re-releases, pachinko machines and, for a time, the Netflix show. But I played those rereleases! And the games are all really good! The series has accumulated so much lore over the years, but it's never really been cohesive. Hard to imagine the only time two Belmonts have ever met in the original continuity was in the third game in the series and then they never played with that idea again. I'd love a really well planned out Castlevannia series where they know what they're doing and release a series of connected games covering the generations. I guess, what I'm really asking them to do is remake all the games that already exist, only with new gameplay/maps and more actual story content.

[Lightcosmo]

8 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

And you could also take this chance to make the combat deeper

I would say they've probably pinnacled this point with the Secret DLC boss in KH III. Any more complex and the player is going to have to play perfect most of the game instead. XD

Most of the combat's interest comes from learning the enemy patten and playing accordingly. 

And no one wants to see another fight like BBS' extra Hooded Figure ever again, i'm sure. 

[Fabulously Olivier]

4 minutes ago, Lightcosmo said:

I would say they've probably pinnacled this point with the Secret DLC boss in KH III. Any more complex and the player is going to have to play perfect most of the game instead. XD

Most of the combat's interest comes from learning the enemy patten and playing accordingly. 

And no one wants to see another fight like BBS' extra Hooded Figure ever again, i'm sure. 

I'm sure it can be deep in certain fights. But uh, generally, it really is a one button melee system with a rather janky menu navigation for spells, and the occassional contextual finisher/form change/whatever. 

 

I am now obligated to reject discourse that DW is mindless, when KH and Fable both became popular on literal one button melee combos.

[vanguard333]

5 hours ago, whase said:

Megaman Battle Network

Especially with how prevalent AI stories are now, I think Battle Network could shine even more than it already has. I would personally love to see this as an MMO, even if that doesn't really seem to be a thing Nintendo does. I would just love to have my own Navi and send it online to battle virusses. So much they could do with this series.

Megaman is made by Capcom, not Nintendo.

I'm torn on the idea of a reboot of Megaman Battle Network. I would love to see that fantastic combat system return, and you're right that Battle Network's focus on AI and the internet was a bit ahead of its time, but I'm not sure what a reboot could do that the six games didn't already do.

 

@Jotari I think the main reason that there hasn't been a new Castlevania game is Konami; for the longest time, they've just been sitting on their main franchises now that most of the creative leads behind those franchises have long since left the company, and their attempts at making new installments on their own have not been well-received. A new Castlevania title will come along the moment Konami can be convinced to have a different studio make the game for them.

A new Castlevania game would be nice, so long as it is made by a competent studio that has good ideas for a Castlevania game.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I'm sure it can be deep in certain fights. But uh, generally, it really is a one button melee system with a rather janky menu navigation for spells, and the occassional contextual finisher/form change/whatever. 

 

I am now obligated to reject discourse that DW is mindless, when KH and Fable both became popular on literal one button melee combos.

Other games being mindless doesn't really change Dynasty Warriors status (you were talking about Dynasty Warriors, right?).

39 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Megaman is made by Capcom, not Nintendo.

I'm torn on the idea of a reboot of Megaman Battle Network. I would love to see that fantastic combat system return, and you're right that Battle Network's focus on AI and the internet was a bit ahead of its time, but I'm not sure what a reboot could do that the six games didn't already do.

 

@Jotari I think the main reason that there hasn't been a new Castlevania game is Konami; for the longest time, they've just been sitting on their main franchises now that most of the creative leads behind those franchises have long since left the company, and their attempts at making new installments on their own have not been well-received. A new Castlevania title will come along the moment Konami can be convinced to have a different studio make the game for them.

A new Castlevania game would be nice, so long as it is made by a competent studio that has good ideas for a Castlevania game.

And that's always the issue with rebooting a franchise. If a franchise needs rebooting it's probably because something has gone wrong to begin with. Konami are probably right to not make games if they can't do a good job of it. A Metroidvannia style game isn't difficult to make in the technical sense, but they are hard to make well.

[Fabulously Olivier]

13 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Other games being mindless doesn't really change Dynasty Warriors status (you were talking about Dynasty Warriors, right?).

And that's always the issue with rebooting a franchise. If a franchise needs rebooting it's probably because something has gone wrong to begin with. Konami are probably right to not make games if they can't do a good job of it. A Metroidvannia style game isn't difficult to make in the technical sense, but they are hard to make well.

Perhaps I should say that is unfair to call out one series for being mindless, when other series get a total pass. Diablo is also mindless when it comes to the gameplay. Arguably more mindless. No one calls out Diablo for it. No one should call Diablo out for it. It's kinda the point, and it's fun. But some series hold a terrible reputation while others hold a prestigious reputation despite having the same flaw.

 

Anyway, I digress and add another entry.

 

Assassin's Creed... again. Honestly, the franchise is just an excuse to explore history with badass hooded characters. So, drop the modern day stuff, drop all the reincarnations and gods, and everything else, and just make it a historical romp.

[Dark Holy Elf]

1 hour ago, vanguard333 said:

@Jotari I think the main reason that there hasn't been a new Castlevania game is Konami; for the longest time, they've just been sitting on their main franchises now that most of the creative leads behind those franchises have long since left the company, and their attempts at making new installments on their own have not been well-received. A new Castlevania title will come along the moment Konami can be convinced to have a different studio make the game for them.

A new Castlevania game would be nice, so long as it is made by a competent studio that has good ideas for a Castlevania game.

In my opinon, what was good about Castlevania was the design of Koji Igarashi et al. As far as I'm concerned, Bloodstained is Castlevania now; I don't really care about Belmonts or other Castlevania lore, just the excellent game design that his games (and now Bloodstained) is known for. This makes it extremely hard for me to care about future official Castlevania games going forward, when Konami hasn't shown any inclination to use that name to make a game I've found remotely interesting since 2008.

[Fabulously Olivier]

8 hours ago, whase said:

Megaman Battle Network

Especially with how prevalent AI stories are now, I think Battle Network could shine even more than it already has. I would personally love to see this as an MMO, even if that doesn't really seem to be a thing Nintendo does. I would just love to have my own Navi and send it online to battle virusses. So much they could do with this series.

It's prime time for a sequel, honestly now that the collection is out.

 

For those wanting more of this game style, someone recommended One Step From Eden and it looks pretty good.

 

Anyway, I'd like to see Rampage rebooted. Keep the main 3 monsters, take some of the best ones from previous games, add some new ones, and add in some new mechanics so it isn't just the arcade experience. Maybe work in some platforming. And price it accordingly. If Streets of Rage and Double Dragon can command 20 dollars, why not Rampage?

 

And another one would be Jade Cocoon. As a more open-forest Legends Arceus type experience. Use that Ghibli art style for a real Breath of the Wild monster catcher.

[Hrothgar777]

Following up with what everyone's saying about MMBN, I think the most intuitive way to do this would be as a mobile app.

Picture this: running the game, your phone checks all the nearby Wi-Fi networks. It wouldn't have to literally hack into them or whatnot, but it'd read enough data to maybe get a fix on what it is. Like an IoT device (e.g. coffee maker or refrigerator), or a home router, restaurant or coffee shop wi-fi, etc. Then the game presents this as a site for you to "jack in", and then you can bust viruses while supposedly inside the network.

Edited July 18, 2023 by Hrothgar777

[Yexin]

I agree with the statement saying a reboot of KH would make more good than bad to the franchise, but not in the way most might think

essentially, i'd really appreciate it if KH went back to "a few original characters interacting with Disney and Square characters who are all more aware about stuff than them"

i still love how Ariel's father warned Sora about the boy being nothing but bad news if he, as the Keyblade Master, wasn't able to control his powers, or how the Disney villains all agreet to the same evil plan, or how Cloud was deceived by Hades and then helped by Hercules, and so on and so forth, and IMHO that's what made the first KH game so magical, among other things

[Sidereal Wraith]

As much as I’d love to see a reboot of Legacy of Kain, I know that the studio making game would probably screw it up.

[vanguard333]

6 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Assassin's Creed... again. Honestly, the franchise is just an excuse to explore history with badass hooded characters. So, drop the modern day stuff, drop all the reincarnations and gods, and everything else, and just make it a historical romp.

Sadly, much like the biggest the biggest problem with seeing a Castlevania reboot is Konami, the biggest problem with an Assassin's Creed reboot is Ubisoft. I don't see Ubisoft truly rebooting Assassin's Creed at any point; even the game that they advertised as going back to the series' roots looks a lot like yet another dull and dreary Ubisoft game.

Honestly, what Assassin's Creed needs isn't a reboot; it needs an indie game studio to make a "like the old Assassin's Creed games but legally distinct" game; what Bloodstained is to Castlevania, what Bug Fables is to Paper Mario, etc. An indie studio would be far less likely than Ubisoft to, for some examples, glorify an act of proto-colonialism (the Viking invasions of Britain) or depict an at-the-time-period marginalized group almost-solely through harmful and inaccurate stereotypes (the way Assassin's Creed: Valhalla depicts the Celts that still lived in Anglo-Saxon England).

 

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

And that's always the issue with rebooting a franchise. If a franchise needs rebooting it's probably because something has gone wrong to begin with. Konami are probably right to not make games if they can't do a good job of it. A Metroidvania style game isn't difficult to make in the technical sense, but they are hard to make well.

Indeed. Let's not forget Konami's one attempt at continuing the Metal Gear franchise (Metal Gear Survive).

[Capt. Fargus]

5 hours ago, Sidereal Wraith said:

As much as I’d love to see a reboot of Legacy of Kain, I know that the studio making game would probably screw it up.

Yup you beat me to it

Last I looked there were two games planned that were supposed to come after Defiance... Dead Sun and Dark Prophecy

One of em was supposed to be centered around the Elder God but Tony Jay died in ‘06. Still though another voice actor shouldn’t have been too hard come up with. James Earl Jones woulda been a good one but he’s too far on in years now

[Integrity]

On 7/17/2023 at 11:51 PM, Fabulously Olivier said:

Infamous

this just makes me sad for the inevitable fate of prototype 3. now those were some fuckin 7/10 games.

[lenticular]

Fallout: It's not going to happen, but I'd really like to see this go back to being more RNG and less action game. From what I've heard, similar comments probably could apply to Final Fantasy, but I don't know that series well enough to say for sure.

Pokémon: I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned this already. It's hardly a hot take to say that Pokémon games have been growing stale and formulaic. Personally, Gen VIII killed any remaining enthusiasm I had for the series and Gen IX did nothing to get it back. I'd personally love to see a complete reboot of the series, where nothing is sacred. Kick out all the old pokémon, the old type chart, the battle mechanics, everything, and just reimagine the series from the ground up as if it were being made fresh today. Which is the unlikeliest selection on my list of unlikely selections, given just how much money the franchise still makes in its current form.

F-Zero: Another choice that is far from a hot take. It comes up in pretty much every discussion about dormant Nintendo franchises for good reason. I don't even really care what they do with it. They could do basically the same as the old game but with modern graphics, or they could turn it into an RPG, a rhythm game, or a battle royale. Whatever. I don't care. I just want them to use the franchise again.

Sim City: It's now about a decade since the last (disastrous) Sim City game. And yeah, Cities Skylines now occupies a whole lot ofthat particular niche in the market, but I have to believe that there's still a lot of value in the Sim City brand. If I were in charge of making it, I'd aim for something with a little more flash and more focus on graphics and presentation than Cities Skylines has, sacrificing a bit of the depth for a bit more casual appeal. But regardless of what direction they chose to go, it would be great for the health of the genre to have two big name games competing with each other.

[Fabulously Olivier]

4 minutes ago, Integrity said:

this just makes me sad for the inevitable fate of prototype 3. now those were some fuckin 7/10 games.

Yeah, Prototype should also come back. I personally quit the first one because of the helicopter mission, but the actual superhero sandbox was very fun.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Any of the 3 Command and Conquer universe installments.

RA2 and 3 are still bangers, C&C Generals ZH is the childhood favorite (ffs, there´s a mod that throws Generals on the RA3 engine) and C&C Tiberium has had an unfortunate accident of which I will not speak any further.

Kirov reproting, send help, pls

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Fire Emblem tbh. FE6 and Awakening are already reboots in my eyes. and it's been another ten years so the timing feels right. Though to prove those were Reboots, we'd have to interrogate the definition of the word "reboot" that was born on the internet rather than from the mouth of any game developer tasked with making "a new _____ game". I just want a game about dragging and dropping units. Pixel art over 3D graphics. Strategic army building instead of between-chapter-minigame chores. If you want to honor the legacy of Fire Emblem, do so with a really polished strategy rpg rather than a trend chasing life sim game that lets us fight alongside Ghost Marth. We don't need Game #8 of Summoning Fake Marth (seriously, count them up. And I only counted Fates as one game instead of three). 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Etrurian emperor]

On 7/18/2023 at 9:14 PM, Sidereal Wraith said:

As much as I’d love to see a reboot of Legacy of Kain, I know that the studio making game would probably screw it up.

That would indeed be a very welcome reboot. The story of Blood Omen could easily be retold with more modern gameplay and assets. The idea of playing a supremely baddass vampire in a(at that time) relatively simple dark fantasy world should appeal even to people who haven't heard of the original games.  The characters being so strongly tied to their voices could be a little problematic. It be hard to stomach someone other than Simon Templeman of Cain but I think he kinda retired from voice acting. I don't think he did anyone after Loghain. Some voice actors are of course sadly passed away, and I think I recall Raziel's voice actor being kinda old. 

The later games delving so much with time traveling gives the writers plenty to work with in the sense of secretly tying the reboot to the new games. This might then also increase the prominence of Mobius the time streamer who emerged as one of the more iconic parts of the setting. 

19 hours ago, Capt. Fargus said:

One of em was supposed to be centered around the Elder God but Tony Jay died in ‘06. Still though another voice actor shouldn’t have been too hard come up with. James Earl Jones woulda been a good one but he’s too far on in years now

I could see Corey Burnet doing it. He's been doing a lot of deep voiced/Christopher Lee related villains and could probably get something similar to the depiction Jay was going for. 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Etrurian emperor

[PostZordem]

Speaking of Kingdom Hearts, I'm actually playing through Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix right now through the All-In-One Kingdom Hearts package in preparation for Kingdom Hearts 4 (It took like, 14 years for Kingdom Hearts 3 to come out, so I'm pretty sure I'll have enough time to get through the whole series before 4 comes out). The first game's pretty simple to follow since it just seems to boil down to sealing the keyholes throughout the various worlds, most of which are Disney-themed. Not really a fan of the fact that I have to play through 7 different spinoffs (Or 4 spinoffs technically since 3 of the "games" included in the All-In-One package are just movies, really) plus the 3 numbered games in order to understand the complex overarching narrative but so be it. I agree that Kingdom Hearts could use a reboot because, well... sometimes a story should be simple rather than overly complicated, y'know?

Though if you ask me, no other series could use a reboot right now than Assassin's Creed. Now I'm one of the few AC fans who likes both the old & new games in this series (Yeah that's right. I enjoyed ACIII, Odyssey AND Valhalla along with AC1, The Ezio Collection and ACIV:BF). While I do enjoy Odyssey and Valhalla despite not really being "Assassin's Creed Games", I believe a reboot would be perfect in returning the series to the days when it was just Assassins, Templars, and fun parkour that wasn't oversimplified. Mirage may be a "return to form" in a way, but to be honest, an AC1 Remake/Reboot would be far better in returning the series to its roots. 

[Jotari]

8 hours ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Fire Emblem tbh. FE6 and Awakening are already reboots in my eyes. and it's been another ten years so the timing feels right. Though to prove those were Reboots, we'd have to interrogate the definition of the word "reboot" that was born on the internet rather than from the mouth of any game developer tasked with making "a new _____ game". I just want a game about dragging and dropping units. Pixel art over 3D graphics. Strategic army building instead of between-chapter-minigame chores. If you want to honor the legacy of Fire Emblem, do so with a really polished strategy rpg rather than a trend chasing life sim game that lets us fight alongside Ghost Marth. We don't need Game #8 of Summoning Fake Marth (seriously, count them up. And I only counted Fates as one game instead of three). 

Is that a Ghost Marth per game or can we have multiple Marth's? Since there's at least two Einherjar Marth's in Awakening. Then the Amiibo Marths in Fate and Shadows of Valentia (which I never got to use, sad face). TMS kind of has Ghost Marth. Itsuki gets upgraded to Marth or something in the finale, but I don't think we actually see him as a self existing mirage. Still, the idea is certainly there. And then of course Engage is very solidly a ghost Marth (or, eh, tangibly ghost Marth). With Heroes that makes six games with ghost Marths. But like the two in Awakening, there's a bunch of Marths in Heroes. Regular, legendary, wedding, one with a bow. Hell there's probably eight there by itself. Then there's Warriors and Smash Bros. but those feel less like ghost Marth and more like transported Marth. But it's seventh and eighth game that you were probably counting, unless something else is slipping my mind.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

35 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Is that a Ghost Marth per game or can we have multiple Marth's? Since there's at least two Einherjar Marth's in Awakening. Then the Amiibo Marths in Fate and Shadows of Valentia (which I never got to use, sad face). TMS kind of has Ghost Marth. Itsuki gets upgraded to Marth or something in the finale, but I don't think we actually see him as a self existing mirage. Still, the idea is certainly there. And then of course Engage is very solidly a ghost Marth (or, eh, tangibly ghost Marth). With Heroes that makes six games with ghost Marths. But like the two in Awakening, there's a bunch of Marths in Heroes. Regular, legendary, wedding, one with a bow. Hell there's probably eight there by itself. Then there's Warriors and Smash Bros. but those feel less like ghost Marth and more like transported Marth. But it's seventh and eighth game that you were probably counting, unless something else is slipping my mind.

By my count it's

1. Awakening DLC (and I guess spotpass Marth too. I wouldn't double count in a single game, because with Heroes that's an unfair rabbit hole)
2. Fates Amiibo (yes I agree that Fates is three separate games, but the Marth business here is the same in all three, so doesn't feel fair)
3. Echoes Amiibo
4. Heroes
5. TMS
6. Warriors (was there some business about these not being the real characters or forgetting their time here once they leave? Whatever, ghost or no ghost, Marth's inclusion there is as interesting as a man wearing a bed sheet
7. Engage 

Smash Bros I give a pass because IS doesn't make that, or commission some other developer to make that (but yeah Smash Ultimate features Spirit Marth in its campaign mode, what an annoying coincidence). My point with this dumb exercise is that nobody cares about more crossovers. All of these came out in the last ten years, the idea was done to death several times over before Engage was announced. Make a new game and have the courage not to have 'Marth From Smash Bros' appear in it.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

By my count it's

1. Awakening DLC (and I guess spotpass Marth too. I wouldn't double count in a single game, because with Heroes that's an unfair rabbit hole)
2. Fates Amiibo (yes I agree that Fates is three separate games, but the Marth business here is the same in all three, so doesn't feel fair)
3. Echoes Amiibo
4. Heroes
5. TMS
6. Warriors (was there some business about these not being the real characters or forgetting their time here once they leave? Whatever, ghost or no ghost, Marth's inclusion there is as interesting as a man wearing a bed sheet
7. Engage 

Smash Bros I give a pass because IS doesn't make that, or commission some other developer to make that (but yeah Smash Ultimate features Spirit Marth in its campaign mode, what an annoying coincidence). My point with this dumb exercise is that nobody cares about more crossovers. All of these came out in the last ten years, the idea was done to death several times over before Engage was announced. Make a new game and have the courage not to have 'Marth From Smash Bros' appear in it.

While I largely agree with you, I do feel compelled to point out that the only ones that are really reveling in it are the latter ones. Awakening's Einherjar and the Amiibos are rather harmless bonus content.