Cult Classic Franchises That May Never Be Revived

[racketboy]

So we recently started talking about F-Zero and how there is a demand for it, but perhaps not enough to drive sales to justify development costs of a new installemtent
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=51797

After seeing the announcement of the Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack being re-issued
https://twitter.com/racketboy/status/940667299912192002
I was reminded of how that game is so highly regarded (and rare), but the franchise just never saw enough commercial success to warrant a remake or sequel.
It also doesn't help that the source code for that 4-disc game was rumored to be lost forever.

We also recently had a thread about Skies of Arcadia
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=51795

I know I'm in love with Jet Set Radio, but at least we saw an HD remaster of that recently, but probably will never see a sequel.

Shenmue fit under this situation for a while, but we've see progress on a third installment.

What games/franchises most deserve a remaster or sequel from an artistic and gameplay perspective but probably have the least likely chance of commercial investment?

[Jmustang1968]

I have a few series here, mostly RPGs...

To start off with a franchise I talk about most often:

Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre series
We received a surprise remake for the PSP of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, but sadly I don't foresee any new entries into this series.

Suikoden
We had a DS title that was an offshoot, and we haven't seen a main entry since Suikoden V. I believe there is a greater chance we get another Suikoden before another Ogre game, but I feel it is unlikely.

Lunar
Another classic JRPG series, we had a fairly poor entry on the DS, and a remake/port on the PSP for the first game, but with how poorly the DS game was received, I would be shocked to see us get another Lunar title any time soon.

Strike series (ie Desert Strike)
These isometric attack chopper games were a blast on 16 bit machines and an entry on Saturn/PS1 wasn't as well received. I don't foresee this style of game from this series getting another title.

[ElkinFencer10]

Army Men. It's definitely a cult classic - no one else really likes it - but it's as dead as Al Franken's political career.

[isiolia]

Uniracers/Unirally - At least as Arstechnica's writeup years back indicates, Pixar pretty much killed this dead. When it originally came out though, this was decently hyped and I remember playing it a bunch. Maybe ahead of its time, as later generations really brought in plenty of the trick-focused stuff, whether Tony Hawk or SSX or whatever. Given that, it's really less of a game that needs a sequel, and more something that really should be on Virtual Console. Seems like one that's very often under the radar, and the original cart is still fairly inexpensive.

No One Lives Forever - This series is probably pretty well known as one that people have tried to get the rights to redistribute - the same folks that succeeded in getting System Shock and Wizardry available weren't able to manage it.

[racketboy]

Ha I just remembered I wrote this blog posts a long time ago:
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/10-games ... eed-sequel

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/classic- ... ually-need

Interesting to see which ones actually did get a follow-up and that many of them still remain as still needing one...

[marurun]

The last unique (non-remake) entry in the Tactics Ogre franchise was on the GBA, if I'm not mistaken. That series has been on ice for a while. Also, as to Lunar, there seem to be only a few unique titles in that franchise, as they prefer to keep remaking the first or second title in varied ways. Jet Set Radio did indeed get a sequel of sorts: Jet Set Radio Future. But that, too, was some time ago.

I'm hoping that Sonic Mania has reignited Sega fans' interest in new classic Sega titles or series. I would love to see similar treatment of Golden Axe or Phantasy Star (not Universe), or especially Streets of Rage. The way to bring back 16-bit series is to treat them as indie projects. But for newer stuff that began in, or existed comfortably in 3D, that's more complicated, I suspect. I'm less knowledgeable about what it would take to rekindle a company's interest in more complex 3D series.

[racketboy]

Also found this old post
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/classic- ... we-may-see

Ones that had news/rumors of resurrection-- most of which never materialized....

[BoneSnapDeez]

Tons of 'em. Look for defunct developers and publishers who have moved on and don't give a shit.

In the RPG realm, these are dead and buried:
Xak
Mystic Ark
Heaven and Earth
Hydlide
ActRaiser
Far East of Eden
Skies of Arcadia
Chrono Trigger

I could be, and hope I am, wrong. If you asked me a few years ago I would have said Langrisser, but now we have one on the 3DS.

Oh, and I wouldn't be shocked to see another Lunar..... but it'd likely be iOS/Android slop (remember Breath of Fire 6?).

[Ack]

Well, Silent Hill is pretty much dead as a legitimate video game series. I realize it's not really cult at all, but I don't foresee Konami going back to this any time soon.

I was surprised to learn Fatal Frame had received an entry as late as 2014/2015 (depending on your region), as I had assumed that this was pretty much done after the fourth release. Looking into it, the game was limited in the US to an eShop release, and only it and a spin-off release for the Nintendo DS have been put out in this market in the last decade. Unfortunately, I think this series is pretty much done in the US.

Clock Tower hasn't had a release in 15 years. The closest we have come is the release of Haunting Ground in the mid-2000s and a "spiritual successor" that was funded via Kickstarter and got a PC release, NightCry. I believe this series is done.

Considering Kenji Eno has died, I doubt we'll ever see a third D game.

Oh, and then there are series like Echo Night, OverBlood, Dino Crisis, and so on. I question if we'll ever see a return to any of these games.

And to go in a completely different route, it's been a decade since World Heroes Anthology came out for PS2 and over 20 years since World Heroes Perfect. Yeah, I'm calling it. It's dead.

[Segata]

^ Fatal Frame was on 3DS, not NDS. It used the Augmented reality of the camera on 3DS.