Could you elaborate?
I only have some familiarity with the series but it seems there should be potential for modernisation similar to what IntSys did with Fire Emblem.
The core mechanics of a modern Fire Emblem game are:
- A wide list of characters and options that lend to a wide variety of strategical options
- A Support system that lets players learn more about characters, how they relate to each other and play matchmaker
At its fundamental core, it is a tile based turn based strategy RPG with a heavy resource management mechanic. That alone inherently makes the game almost infinitely repayable, see games like XCOM and the Jagged Alliance series. Some games in the series are stronger in that department:
- Fire Emblem 4 has a lot of replay value due to the whole two generations aspect (aka Eugenics Simulator)
- Fire Emblem 5 has some truly wacky gameplay mechanics that really, really force item management and the use of some crazy galaxy brained thinking
- Fire Emblem 7 had a pretty good difficulty curve and a good inbuilt ranking system that forced you to plan and document everything
- Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem, especially on higher difficulties, is all about class and resource management as well as unit positioning. It is one of the best in the series from a strategy standpoint.
At every Fire Emblem game's core are some pretty strong game design elements that allow for constant replayability even if you don't care about the characters at all. The game can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be. Remove the story and characters and you're still given a decent enough turn based strategy game. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest is the poster child for a really good strategy game with incredibly shockingly bad characters and story.
The series started declining because Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance was stuck on Gamecube, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn was a sequel with some really troubled gameplay decisions (jumping between different factions, completely uneven difficulty curve, no true support mechanic) and the first DS remake was a super ugly bare bones remake of the very first Fire Emblem game which was never really that good. The US never got New Mystery of the Emblem, which was a substantial update to the original Mystery of the Emblem, which never sold well probably due to its seemingly simplistic gameplay (unless you ramp the difficulty way up) and honestly pretty ugly graphics.
Awakening saved the series in two ways. One, it was considerably higher budget with very attractive character designs. It also pushed the Support system extremely hard - all Supports were full voice acted, every character could marry everyone, there were children involved - which is incredibly attractive to more casual players who enjoy the whole storyline and relationship aspects of the games. The game practically sold itself thanks to the fan community. It widened the market considerably.
Sakura Taisen's problem is that its basically dating simulator/visual novel with some gameplay. This already introduces many problems:
- You have to be very careful about introducing game mechanics that are overly complex or run into the risk of putting the player in a place where they cannot complete the game. The end result is that the Sakura Taisen strategy elements are incredibly simplistic for a game that consists of mechs...this isn't MechCommander. The gameplay is pretty much a chore in every game, the depth is incredibly low.
- The major selling point of Sakura Taisen is the female cast (let's face it) and you're seriously banking of them doing heavy lifting here. Its honestly a pretty antiquated piece of game design honestly, the concept itself is already a fairly hard sell in the West and that's compounded by some of the character designs they've gone with.
I think in 2020 you have to make your mind up what you want to be and do it well. I'm not buying Sakura Taisen for a strategy game (well, action game now apparently). Any future Sakura Taisen game had to be a really good visual novel first and SEGA better pray to God that the community pushes the game as hard as 13 Sentinels or Yakuza.
