I haven't write anything serious in this forum for months and this thread is my own personal response to Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries release, which fans waited for 18 years since the fourth game, Vengeance which came out in 2001. Last year we also got to see the release of its turn-based tactics spin-off, Battletech which spent many years of crowdfunding. We also got to see the release of Shenmue 3 which also went hiatus for very long time, almost two decades apart from previous game. Some other games won't be so lucky as they still went missing for long time and might not coming back anytime soon. This thread won't be mentioning the obviously dead franchises such as Grandia which its original creator died and Square-Enix wants the entire franchise to die with him. Don't expect to see some of my childhood favorites such as Bloody Roar and Mercenaries(Pandemic Studios) as their developers no longer exists. Other than that here's my list of game sequels that won't be coming despite how long I waited for them:
1. Front Mission 6
With the poor sales of the fourth game and the fifth game which came out 14 years ago without official English translation, the chances to see the proper sequel of Front Mission is zero. I deliberately not to bring Left Alive in this discussion because it is not a "proper" FM game but rather a shitty Metal Gear Solid clone takes place in FM universe and designed to cash-in MGS fans. The game itself is a huge, glorified advertisement for World of Tanks than anything else. FM game as an original, unadulterated turn-based SRPG like it previous entry will never see light of day due to lack of demand from consumers and lack of interest from Square-Enix itself. Its sad to know that some of the indie developers of Battletech and upcoming Phantom Brigade played FM games when they were kids and those probably the closest we can get to an original FM game. Perhaps there is no place for FM games anyway as its gap already filled with Super Robot Wars, SD Gundam G Generation, Battletech and someday Phantom Brigade today. Without FM, SRW and G Gen might stuck in Japan forever and Battletech might never existed.
2. Suikoden 6
Another game won't be coming in this generation despite its developer Konami still around. The last Suikoden game come out in 2006 and the most recent game bearing Suikoden game was its spin-off in 2008 for Nintendo DS. After 2006, most JRPG fans would rather play Final Fantasy and Persona games instead, leaving no room for Suikoden anymore. More importantly Konami decided to kill the entire franchise to make way for Metal Gear Solid and Winning Eleven games. In this generation, it safe to say that Suikoden is dead but its spirit lives in other games, especially indie ones.
3. Any more turn-based Final Fantasy
Why I decided to put FF in this article? We might not going to play the "good old" FF games anymore thanks to FFXV and FFVII Remake which features real-time hack-and-slash gameplay instead of classic turn-based with menu one which Square-Enix itself especially Tetsuya Nomura claiming it no longer fits to "modern graphics" anymore. At this point I'm not expecting FFXVI to be turn-based either given SE's own attitude towards it and lack of demand from consumers themselves. From what I heard from most other places the next FF game will feature a female protagonist and some permanent female party members as apposed to an all-male party of XV. It also will feature an actual romance instead of "bromance" of XV and other words, it is FFXIII "done right". If these rumors were true and I can expect one thing from it: It will no longer feature turn-based gameplay anymore. Perhaps most FF fans doesn't seems to care anymore if they still want to play classic turn-based JRPGs, they can play SE's own Dragon Quest series(although its real-time hack-and-slash spinoffs such as Heroes and Builders were aggressively marketed and hyped in the west better) as well as those made by other companies such as Persona and Trails of Cold Steel series instead. Some might said "hey, FFVII Remake will feature a turn-based mode!" but let's be realistic. It turns out to be an afterthought and most people will switch back to "original" hack-and-slash gameplay after few minutes trying the turn-based mode and will find "incredibly boring" in comparison, and this is what SE and Tetsuya Nomura himself wants.
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