What franchise's potential is held back the most by its budget?

Shenmue. 1 and 2 held back 3 from happening back in the early 2000s by being too high budget to justify making more. And the 3 that's currently in development seems to be held back by being too low budget (not that there was any other choice). I really hope it still turns out good, though.

Its got to be Yakuza, the re-used assets and cheap animations are a niggling thing amongst the top-tier writing and addictive gameplay

Ni no Kuni. Especially 2. The lack of voice-acting really made it feel like the game ran out of budget.

Yakuza, drakengard, and Nier in a way. I can kind of understand the people saying pokemon, but it's based on many assumptions, like they aren't being given a larger budget, that it's issues aren't of design decisions (this is a big one), and that the series can do more with 3ds or prior hardware. We will have to see with that 2019 new pokemon game.

Edit: I might add dragon quest to that too, kind of want to see what that would be like with an ff budget.

Cybersai said:

Pokemon, easily.

The games still look like they haven't gone beyond Gamecube level graphics.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Probably because the hardware they're on is Gamcube level. Let's Go definitely is an improvement though especially in lighting and textures.

Atelier is a really cool rpg series hamstrung by zero budget and yearly releases.

Yakuza

Beartruck said:

Atelier is a really cool rpg series hamstrung by zero budget and yearly releases.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

GUST games suffer from especially poor animation. I'm playing blue refraction at the momebt and the poor animation actively hampers the atmosphere.

To be honest id say most modern jrpgs suffer badly from having small budgets.

Master Chuuster said:

First of all, the team that worked on the game consisted of just 40 people. Secondly, they only worked on it for two years to push it out for release within the Switch's first year on the market, as per Nintendo's wishes. It's also a known fact that Monolith never has the kind of full fledged budget that, say, the Zelda team does.

The game is obviously limited by these constraints. The game launched with a clearly distinct lack of polish and QOL, it's clearly not optimized for handheld play (or wasn't), it has bugs, lip syncing and voice acting issues. I love XC2, which is why I feel even more strongly that if Monolith had more time and money to work with, it could have been an even better game.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Monolith Soft was limited with the budget at first, and Takahashi clearly said that affected the first Xenoblade Chronicles.

With XB2 is not a budget issue but more that they were so busy on helping Nintendo with their big IPs, they had to rush the development of the game and even outsource things.

They opened a third studio recently, so it's obvious that Nintendo is now investing more on them.

zMiiChy- said:

Pokemon is still a very valid answer, why are people pretending that is isn't?
The franchise is a resounding success as is, but it still falls short of the greatness it could achieve.

A lot of developers are knocking it out the park with the Switch, while Gamefreak is content delivering two clearly half-assed cashgrabs during the platforms second year.

I also don't see how it's acceptable for some of the mainline entries to literally run at sub-10fps at times while being full of bugs at launch.
Pokemon X and Y are terribly optimized for being two of the bestselling software titles on the 3DS.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Because developers literally said that they want to keep Pokémon relatively small as they are, they don't want to turn GF into a giant company and they don't ask for help (besides other stuffs like obviously marketing or peripherals like the Poké Ball Plus), so with a team of 100-120 people, it's hard to expect more than what they are already doing.

Nier and Nioh really need a larger budget. Too few enemy varieties.

Pokemon doesnt need a higher budget, they just need a 2 year break before they release their next game.

Neptunia. I love the games but Rebirth1 may be the most budget game I've ever played, constant reusing of absolutely tiny areas, and it barely gets better further into the series. Like Tales and Ys feel big budget by comparison

808s & Villainy said:

P O K E M O N


Gamefreak's team size is comparable to Monolith Soft's (maybe like ~10 fewer employees). I don't know who's to blame

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Game Freak releases games every year. While Monolith has a 3 year dev cycle.

Team Cherry. If they did what they did with Hollow Knight for $60k, imagine if you give them a proper budget.

It was Monster Hunter until World. Congratulations Monster Hunter!

K.Jack said:

Armored Core in UE4 with a legitimately large AAA budget would make me sweat.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Star Fox Zero was a major recent one I can remember.

I think State of Decay is a great series but I'd love to see their ultimate vision for a State of Decay game.

StallionDan said:

Any Capcom Fighter.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Facts only.

Not a franchise, but I'd say PSASBR.

All of the game's legitimate complaints were tied to budget (mediocre presentation, lack of iconic 3rd party characters like Crash), and could easily be remedied with a PS4 sequel.

zMiiChy- said:

Pokemon is still a very valid answer, why are people pretending that is isn't?
The franchise is a resounding success as is, but it still falls short of the greatness it could achieve.

A lot of developers are knocking it out the park with the Switch, while Gamefreak is content delivering two clearly half-assed cashgrabs during the platforms second year.

I also don't see how it's acceptable for some of the mainline entries to literally run at sub-10fps at times while being full of bugs at launch.
Pokemon X and Y are terribly optimized for being two of the bestselling software titles on the 3DS.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

But it's very likely that the budget is not the actual issue here.

Woah, surprised to see so many suggestions for Pokémon on the first page. Maybe for games like USUM, but for their new (or significantly revamped) main series entries, I've gotta believe Game Freak is pouring as much as needed into the budget. The hardware combined with GF laziness is what I've always believed resulted in the subpar fidelity of the 3DS games and the limited scope I attribute to indifference/arrogance.

My pick would have to be Chibi-Robo. As much as I enjoy the first game, it definitely could have done with a larger budget and a bit more time in the oven. Seemed like every title after that decreased in budget and scope even further (with perhapes the exception of Okaeri) until they got to the point of having to advertise real-life candy in their game...

I think the correct answer here is SMT.

Star Ocean and tales are the first that come to mind.

Pokemon, so much could be done. Have high hopes for 2019 game.

Yakuza should have a lot more money pumped into it. Stuff like open world driving and smuggling would be neat additions. Plus a more seamless fighting system with variety in moves and environmental animations.

Basically I'd like it to be more Sleeping Dogs without the guns.

Cybersai said:

Pokemon, easily.

The games still look like they haven't gone beyond Gamecube level graphics.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

That has absolutely nothing to do with budget.

Pokemon could be so much more if they let it fly.

Dreamwriter said:

Totally disagree. They obviously have plenty of time and money, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has over 100 hours of content, lots and lots of voice-acted cutscenes including voiced scenes for each and every unique blade, many great environments with a beautiful style, and a lot of great orchestrated and vocal music by one of the great video game composers, Yasunori Mitsuda. I didn't see anything in the game that seemed like it suffered from budget issues, aside from maybe spending more time/money on the voice acting. They weren't held up by budget as much as the hardware limitations of the platform.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Actually, I can see what they mean with Xenoblade Chronicles. Xenoblade 2 put so much budget into high quality anime-like cutscenes that the world design and side content was lacking compared to Xenoblade X which had a much better designed world, better side content but had lower quality and less story cutscenes. So maybe it's more about how they allocate their budget rather than the budget itself.

Falchion said:

Pokemon could be so much more if they let it fly.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

They don't have HM02 yet.

If anything, Pokemon is held back by the laziness of its devs more so than its budget.

As many others have mentioned, Yakuza would benefit greatly from an increased budget. They have gotten the most out of it, though.

Also Fatal Frame, especially recently when they've been Nintendo-published. Nintendo didn't give two shits about FF4, and FF5 reuses and recycles so much content to reach an adequate game length. What a shame.

Master Chuuster said:

Xenoblade Chronicles. Those games are already so good, imagine what Monolith could do given enough time and money.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Actually, I think their games would be even better if they trimmed the fat a bit. They need to remove padding and cut down on the amount of systems in the games.

Harald23 said:

Because developers literally said that they want to keep Pokémon relatively small as they are, they don't want to turn GF into a giant company and they don't ask for help (besides other stuffs like obviously marketing or peripherals like the Poké Ball Plus), so with a team of 100-120 people, it's hard to expect more than what they are already doing.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Again, Gamefreak is comparable in size to Monolith and they regularly have tons of contractors employed during their projects. I don't know why people are so weirdly defensive when it comes to them. The idea that a company would intentionally want to stay small and stunted, despite it obviously affecting their ability to do more, is an absurd thing to justify

RockmanBN said:

Behold the power of the Switch! $60(+ $40 if you want that Mew).

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

In fact, this is the best graphics a mainline game have had since the beginning of the franchise, but people might not be buying it because it doesn't hold up to the standards of a Nintendo console game. Maybe they wanted to make a chibi cartoony artstyle that reminisces past pokemon games and Pokemon GO, but who looks way off for a console game.

Nier Automata was perfect as is.

Would you have preferred it to have a huge team and budget and end up a mismanaged mess like FFXV ? Maybe that's an extreme example, but the idea is that not every game needs to be triple A, Nier works fine like this. Maybe a little more budget would help it, but I hope it doesn't become a huge production.

Earth Defense Force

2D Mario. Virtually every game since the Wii one has been mostly an asset flip, which is insane for a franchise that used to be Nintendo's bread and butter and generally introduced almost all-new assets (esp. music but also core gameplay mechanics) every time.

EDIT :
Wow ok, I'm completly off topic...

Whiskeyjack said:

Actually, I think their games would be even better if they trimmed the fat a bit. They need to remove padding and cut down on the amount of systems in the games.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I see what you mean. The way I see it, going in either direction could do wonders.

Destiny is held back by having too big of a budget.

Yakuza, probably. I mean, the game series is incredible, but they always feel like just a touch more money and hollywood polish would make them into giant hits.

ILikeFeet said:

Tales of series. always felt like the games should be bigger given its history. but I guess sales don't match it

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Exactly my thought as the thread title came into view!

I'm not entirely sure if this is true but... Dwarf Fortress perhaps?

Dwarf Fortress' concept and gameplay is so immensely engrossing but its interface is very difficult to understand/parse and though I've tried to come to grips with it, I just couldn't, despite having read many great stories about it.

I feel that if it had a modern interface it would appeal to a much greater number of people, including myself.

Mafia 3

I really enjoyed a lot of it but it definitely seemed like it could have done with more money being spent on it to make it the game it could have been.

Star Ocean series, or any Tri-Ace game for that matter. Tri-Ace always has such fun and snappy combat and quirky ideas held back by a lack of budget.

Also I'd love to see what Falcom can do with an FF level budget. Or most rpg devs, for that matter.