Lately, I've been ruminating on some of the more recent SEGA releases and announcements and I feel there has been a pretty huge shift within the company in the last few years.
I think this shift may have begun with Haruki Satomi, who became president of SEGA in 2015 and expressed a desire to get SEGA back on track. Since then I have noticed a change within the company. A willingness to greenlight more classic IPs, to accept outside developers who can do justice to their unused IPs and they themselves bringing back classics, quality over quantity and SEGA West stepping up on the localisation front.
I'd first like to discuss legacy IPs being worked on by indie devs:
I believe the first evidence we saw of a tone shift within the company towards their older ways was the greenlighting of Sonic Mania. I thought the days of Sonic games like Sonic Mania were long gone. While I did enjoy the odd few Sonic games like Colours and Generations they never captured the pure joy that I associated with the Sonic games of my youth...
I also want to mention one of the best games I have played in many years, a spiritual successor to Wonderboy, 'Monsterboy' - It's phenomenal! it plays like a dream... If you love Metroidvania, of you love Zelda... Certainly if you love Wonderboy I beg you to give this game a go, the developers deserve it!
Another classic SEGA game I thought I would never see again was Streets of Rage... And again, I think the right team are bringing Streets of Rage 4. I personally love the design, it plays like classic Streets of Rage and, importantly, they have managed to get a load of great composers on the soundtrack, including Yuzo Koshiro... Incredible news.
PanzerDragoon, too! Panzer Dragoon Remake and Panzer Dragoon Zwei Remake are both in development. And of course, we can't forget Shenmue 3!
Now for classic IP's being resurrected within the company:
Let's begin with the series that spent the shortest time looking like it had been resigned to the annals of history, Valkyria Chronicles. Unfortunately, because of poor sales, I would not be surprised if Valkyria Chronicles 4 is the final game in this series. It's an excellent strategy game and well worth your time if strategy RPGs are your bag.
Another series revival that was announced quite recently was Shin Sakura Wars. It looks to have quite a high budget and all-round looks very good. The move from turn-based strategy to action RPG is a bit jarring, but battles take aback seat in this series anyway. It's not a series I know a whole lot about but it is one I am interested in:
Super Monkey Ball! Is returning with a HD remaster. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Biltz is admittedly not the game I would've chosen for a reboot, but I can understand why they went with this one for a Switch exclusive:
Announced today, Project Diva is coming to Switch! Admittedly I don't know much about this series but I know it is quite beloved and had not seen a new game for a few years now leading many to suspect SEGA was finished with the IP:
Furthermore, some really exciting news:
www.videogameschronicle.com
Localisation:
It wasn't long ago that I felt we would never see another Yakuza game in the West again... Thank God SEGA gave it another go, and thank God SEGA fans rallied pushed hard to get this game noticed because now we have every mainline Yakuza game available on the PS4, many of them coming to the PC, excellent Spin-offs like Fist of the North Star and Judgement! I no longer worry about localisation, the SEGA of America guys are timely and great at what they do, often going above and beyond with their localisation efforts. Judgement was particularly noteworthy! Even Yakuza Ishin is under consideration!
Furthermore, according to a recent interview, SEGA of Japan was very happy with Judgements sales in the West and are considering turning it into a series... Which would be great considering Yakuza 7's departure from brawler combat.
There was a dark time, not that long ago when we had not seen a Puyo Puyo game released in the west since Puyo Pop Fever in 2005... Then this absolute gem, Puyo Puoy Tetris dropped!
Phantasy Star Online 2, now there's a ship I thought had long sailed... A relic from the dark days and is finally coming West thanks to Microsoft! I love PSO2, or I did when I played it years back but the amount of faffing just to play on the Japanese server made it a ballache, so when I changed laptop I never went through the process again.
The Megadrive Mini/Classic Games:
It's 2019, SEGA is releasing a new console and it comes with 42 games! What a time to be alive! Not just that, this may be the best 'mini console' of the lot... The build quality is great and they have the excellent M2 on emulation duty.
Speaking of SEGA Classics and M2, often the definitive version of MANY SEGA classics are slowly but surely releasing on the Switch under the SEGA AGES brand... Plenty worth checking out for classic SEGA fans.
SEGA Europe:
It would be a crime not to mention SEGA Europe. They may not make the kind of games that old school SEGA fans associate with the SEGA brand. But they are nonetheless excellent games. Creative Assemblies Alien Isolation and Total War series. Relics Company of Heroes and Dawn of war, Amplitudes Endless series, Sports Interactives Football Manager and Two Point Studios Two Point Hospital...
Friendly reminder that Alien Isolation is coming to Switch this year!
Atlus:
Lastly, we can't forget to talk about Atlus, they're under the SEGA umbrella and they've made some excellent games that I believe resonate with classic SEGA fans. Persona and Catherine especially remind of the wacky kind of games that were at home on the SEGA Dreamcast. Both companies are now intwined and have benefitted from each other. SEGA has benefitted from Atlus' excellent localisation know-how and Atlus has benefitted from SEGA of Europe... With new Atlus games now coming out in a more timely manner in Europe.
With Persona 5: Royal, Persona 5: Scramble, Catherine Full Body, 13 Sentinal, Shin Megami Tensai Switch, Etrain Odyssey Next and a mysterious game known as Project Re: Fantasy all in the works Atlus fans have a lot to look forward too!
Conclusion:
So all in all, as an old school SEGA fan... I got to say I am really quite happy with the company. I think they're one of the best 3rd party publishers this generation, too. They've released a lot of great quality games at bargain prices and have not strayed into the seedy realm of gambling, micro-transactions or loot boxes. So, yeah... I'm pretty happy!
I think this shift may have begun with Haruki Satomi, who became president of SEGA in 2015 and expressed a desire to get SEGA back on track. Since then I have noticed a change within the company. A willingness to greenlight more classic IPs, to accept outside developers who can do justice to their unused IPs and they themselves bringing back classics, quality over quantity and SEGA West stepping up on the localisation front.
I'd first like to discuss legacy IPs being worked on by indie devs:
I believe the first evidence we saw of a tone shift within the company towards their older ways was the greenlighting of Sonic Mania. I thought the days of Sonic games like Sonic Mania were long gone. While I did enjoy the odd few Sonic games like Colours and Generations they never captured the pure joy that I associated with the Sonic games of my youth...
I also want to mention one of the best games I have played in many years, a spiritual successor to Wonderboy, 'Monsterboy' - It's phenomenal! it plays like a dream... If you love Metroidvania, of you love Zelda... Certainly if you love Wonderboy I beg you to give this game a go, the developers deserve it!
Another classic SEGA game I thought I would never see again was Streets of Rage... And again, I think the right team are bringing Streets of Rage 4. I personally love the design, it plays like classic Streets of Rage and, importantly, they have managed to get a load of great composers on the soundtrack, including Yuzo Koshiro... Incredible news.
PanzerDragoon, too! Panzer Dragoon Remake and Panzer Dragoon Zwei Remake are both in development. And of course, we can't forget Shenmue 3!
Now for classic IP's being resurrected within the company:
Let's begin with the series that spent the shortest time looking like it had been resigned to the annals of history, Valkyria Chronicles. Unfortunately, because of poor sales, I would not be surprised if Valkyria Chronicles 4 is the final game in this series. It's an excellent strategy game and well worth your time if strategy RPGs are your bag.
Another series revival that was announced quite recently was Shin Sakura Wars. It looks to have quite a high budget and all-round looks very good. The move from turn-based strategy to action RPG is a bit jarring, but battles take aback seat in this series anyway. It's not a series I know a whole lot about but it is one I am interested in:
Super Monkey Ball! Is returning with a HD remaster. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Biltz is admittedly not the game I would've chosen for a reboot, but I can understand why they went with this one for a Switch exclusive:
Announced today, Project Diva is coming to Switch! Admittedly I don't know much about this series but I know it is quite beloved and had not seen a new game for a few years now leading many to suspect SEGA was finished with the IP:
Furthermore, some really exciting news:
Yu Suzuki says he could return to Virtua Fighter and Out Run | VGC
“There might be something”…
www.videogameschronicle.com
Localisation:
It wasn't long ago that I felt we would never see another Yakuza game in the West again... Thank God SEGA gave it another go, and thank God SEGA fans rallied pushed hard to get this game noticed because now we have every mainline Yakuza game available on the PS4, many of them coming to the PC, excellent Spin-offs like Fist of the North Star and Judgement! I no longer worry about localisation, the SEGA of America guys are timely and great at what they do, often going above and beyond with their localisation efforts. Judgement was particularly noteworthy! Even Yakuza Ishin is under consideration!
Furthermore, according to a recent interview, SEGA of Japan was very happy with Judgements sales in the West and are considering turning it into a series... Which would be great considering Yakuza 7's departure from brawler combat.
There was a dark time, not that long ago when we had not seen a Puyo Puyo game released in the west since Puyo Pop Fever in 2005... Then this absolute gem, Puyo Puoy Tetris dropped!
Phantasy Star Online 2, now there's a ship I thought had long sailed... A relic from the dark days and is finally coming West thanks to Microsoft! I love PSO2, or I did when I played it years back but the amount of faffing just to play on the Japanese server made it a ballache, so when I changed laptop I never went through the process again.
The Megadrive Mini/Classic Games:
It's 2019, SEGA is releasing a new console and it comes with 42 games! What a time to be alive! Not just that, this may be the best 'mini console' of the lot... The build quality is great and they have the excellent M2 on emulation duty.
Speaking of SEGA Classics and M2, often the definitive version of MANY SEGA classics are slowly but surely releasing on the Switch under the SEGA AGES brand... Plenty worth checking out for classic SEGA fans.
SEGA Europe:
It would be a crime not to mention SEGA Europe. They may not make the kind of games that old school SEGA fans associate with the SEGA brand. But they are nonetheless excellent games. Creative Assemblies Alien Isolation and Total War series. Relics Company of Heroes and Dawn of war, Amplitudes Endless series, Sports Interactives Football Manager and Two Point Studios Two Point Hospital...
Friendly reminder that Alien Isolation is coming to Switch this year!
Atlus:
Lastly, we can't forget to talk about Atlus, they're under the SEGA umbrella and they've made some excellent games that I believe resonate with classic SEGA fans. Persona and Catherine especially remind of the wacky kind of games that were at home on the SEGA Dreamcast. Both companies are now intwined and have benefitted from each other. SEGA has benefitted from Atlus' excellent localisation know-how and Atlus has benefitted from SEGA of Europe... With new Atlus games now coming out in a more timely manner in Europe.
With Persona 5: Royal, Persona 5: Scramble, Catherine Full Body, 13 Sentinal, Shin Megami Tensai Switch, Etrain Odyssey Next and a mysterious game known as Project Re: Fantasy all in the works Atlus fans have a lot to look forward too!
Conclusion:
So all in all, as an old school SEGA fan... I got to say I am really quite happy with the company. I think they're one of the best 3rd party publishers this generation, too. They've released a lot of great quality games at bargain prices and have not strayed into the seedy realm of gambling, micro-transactions or loot boxes. So, yeah... I'm pretty happy!
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