:'(
What's their name? They don't do anything in the console space?
One bright side is that Square seems to be interested in bringing back some of their PS1 library to modern consoles. This year we are getting Legend of Mana and Saga Frontier.
Obviously there are a billion more gems missing but hopefully the sales numbers gives Square and others incentive to bring out their older catalogs.
Wait, someone wants to voluntarily play that game? Even as a horny neckbeard I shelved that PoS so quickly.
There's a ton of stuff on handhelds. GBA, DS, PSP, 3DS and Vita all have loads, with only a comparative handful getting carried forward.
Even if we discount the 3DS/Vita as being relatively recent, and the PSP stuff has been mentioned already, but there's stuff like
GBA: The Golden Sun games
DS: Etrian Odyssey III (which didn't get either an EU release, or a remake on 3DS).
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume
Dragon Quest IX
Phantasy Star Zero.
SMT: Devil Survivor 1/2
Going forward there's going to be a ton of stuff left behind on portables, including almost the whole history of Monster Hunter prior to MHW. Not to mention a huge portion of 3DS RPGs like SMTIV, SMTIV:A, Fantasy Life, Fire Emblem: Awakening/Fates , Persona Q/Q2.
Also the DS RPGs remade for 3DS, like Radiant Historia, Strange Journey, EO Untold 1/2.
At least a lot of the later stuff is still available digitally. DS games in particular will just disappear.
To be fair I think it's less exclusivity deals and more just portables in general. PSP/Vita were also a bit easier to port elsewhere in comparison to the hardware setup of DS/3DS by their dual-screen nature that doesn't exactly make quick ports easy.This makes it seem like it's a recurring phenomenon for games on Nintendo consoles to not getting support, re-releases or ports to other platforms. Is that true? Maybe a case of exclusivity deals and Nintendo sucking with preservation efforts and backwards compatibility (e.g. abandoning Virtual Console)?
The Golden Sun games at least made it to Wii U, but yeah it's frustrating that Nintendo isn't better at thisThere's a ton of stuff on handhelds. GBA, DS, PSP, 3DS and Vita all have loads, with only a comparative handful getting carried forward.
Even if we discount the 3DS/Vita as being relatively recent, and the PSP stuff has been mentioned already, but there's stuff like
GBA: The Golden Sun games
DS: Etrian Odyssey III (which didn't get either an EU release, or a remake on 3DS).
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume
Dragon Quest IX
Phantasy Star Zero.
SMT: Devil Survivor 1/2
Going forward there's going to be a ton of stuff left behind on portables, including almost the whole history of Monster Hunter prior to MHW. Not to mention a huge portion of 3DS RPGs like SMTIV, SMTIV:A, Fantasy Life, Fire Emblem: Awakening/Fates , Persona Q/Q2.
Also the DS RPGs remade for 3DS, like Radiant Historia, Strange Journey, EO Untold 1/2.
At least a lot of the later stuff is still available digitally. DS games in particular will just disappear.
I still haven't played any of the Shadow Hearts games! I've heard some good things about SH3: Covenant. Who owns the IP and games? What's keeping us from getting a modern port of them?
To be fair I think it's less exclusivity deals and more just portables in general. PSP/Vita were also a bit easier to port elsewhere in comparison to the hardware setup of DS/3DS by their dual-screen nature that doesn't exactly make quick ports easy.
All three games have their merits. However, nothing is likely to happen to either of them.
Sacnoth, the OG developers of the series (+ Koudelka, another underrated game) is gone, some staff moved over to Feelplus (who were later merged into AQ Interactive and then into Marvellous, I think?). The IP owner/publisher was Aruze, but they left the game publishing/development business completely and are now called Universal Entertainment, focusing on pachinko, slot machines and resorts.
Sacnoth - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.orgUniversal Entertainment - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
It's all a darned shame, coz both Koudelka and the Shadow Hearts series were kinda fairly good games. D:
Just off the top of my head, some games I'd LOVE revamped ports of any kind for:
Brave Fencer Musashi
Arc the Lad I, II, and III
Okage: Shadow King
Probably missing more but I'm too tired to think too extensively at the moment. They might come to me later lol.
There's probably not much point selling the IP, since no one is going pay huge amounts of money for it anyway and in the long run it's likely more profitable to be able utilize the branding in their other businesses, I would guess. Oddly enough though, a company called Console Classics was supposed to release a slew of old PSX games on Steam some years ago (they were basically just images running on PCSXR), with one of them being Koudelka. They did put out a few games, but seemingly went out of business before Koudelka was released. Maybe that's a sign the IP holder for Koudelka and Shadow Hearts is at least willing license them if someone was interested in doing the legwork to get them rereleased. Or maybe they aren't, and that's the reason why Console Classics failed in the first place, who knows.This is really sad to read. I guess there's no way they'll ever sell of the Shadow Hearts IP?
AFAIK, Breath of Fire, especially IV. That game needs porting like, today. You've named a bunch of good ones.
Honestly, the best reason to keep a vita with a big memory card lying around is when you get the urge to play one of these.
I still haven't played any of the Shadow Hearts games! I've heard some good things about SH3: Covenant. Who owns the IP and games? What's keeping us from getting a modern port of them?
There's a ton of stuff on handhelds. GBA, DS, PSP, 3DS and Vita all have loads, with only a comparative handful getting carried forward.
Even if we discount the 3DS/Vita as being relatively recent, and the PSP stuff has been mentioned already, but there's stuff like
GBA: The Golden Sun games
DS: Etrian Odyssey III (which didn't get either an EU release, or a remake on 3DS).
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume
Dragon Quest IX
Phantasy Star Zero.
SMT: Devil Survivor 1/2
Going forward there's going to be a ton of stuff left behind on portables, including almost the whole history of Monster Hunter prior to MHW. Not to mention a huge portion of 3DS RPGs like SMTIV, SMTIV:A, Fantasy Life, Fire Emblem: Awakening/Fates , Persona Q/Q2.
Also the DS RPGs remade for 3DS, like Radiant Historia, Strange Journey, EO Untold 1/2.
At least a lot of the later stuff is still available digitally. DS games in particular will just disappear.
Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos Origins are stuck on the GameCube (Origins didn't even make it to Europe) which is a SHAME because these games are REALLY GOOD (Eternal Wings has aged a lot but damn Origins is still incredibly fun)
There's also a number of Tales games that have never been re-released or have come to the west, such as Tales of Rebirth forever trapped on the PS2 and Japan only.
I could just say Sega SaturnPanzer Dragoon Saga
Edit: I was actually talking about this with folks on Discord the other day, but that Squeenix didn't do a console/PC port of FFTactics War of the Lions and Tactics Ogre LuCT is just criminal, honestly.
I'd throw all of my money at this... -_-
Me too. My Vita is pretty much my Front Mission 3 machine these days. Still my favourite SRPG ever, and probably the first one I played too. Just blew my mind when I realised there were two almost entirely different campaigns based on one innocuous choice at the start.Picking one that hasn't been mentioned yet, but also a game I truly love.. Front Mission 3
I have to admit, I don't think I'd be interested in playing the original BD again, having just finished BD2 it's a stronger game in every way. The preservation issue is interesting though- there's a ton of 3DS games with spotpass features that won't be reproduced.Playing Bravely Default II made me think about how, even if the 3DS game was ported, it would lack stuff based around the 3DS hardware like the SpotPass features (maybe could be replicated via online friends list) and the use of the camera. Similar to how TWEWY when ported lost some of what made it such a unique experience on DS.
Me too. My Vita is pretty much my Front Mission 3 machine these days. Still my favourite SRPG ever, and probably the first one I played too. Just blew my mind when I realised there were two almost entirely different campaigns based on one innocuous choice at the start.
I liked a lot of the minor world building in a sort of near-future real world setting- stuff like the transporter trucks for carrying a squad of mechs around, or the way special forces mechs tended to look sleeker and more dangerous than 'standard' military and police ones. The huge number of different factions made it a really interesting romp through a changed-up set of geopolitical power blocks too. I remember it so much more clearly than some of the dozens of fantasy SRPGs I've played, not because they are bad, but because they recycle a lot of similar themes.Exactly! I picked the game up because I was thinking "Cool, an rpg with mechs, sounds like fun" And then when I actually played it and the characters and world was so well made and the designs are fantastic... Still one of my favorite uses of mech in a world setting
You're right! My first playthrough of Baten Kaitos 1 was straight after my first playthrough of Chrono Cross, so I was blown away. Then I played the second game and I liked almost everything better than in the first one, so retrospectively I would think the 1st game had aged baaaadly. Booted it again a couple of months ago and loved it. It has aged, but it's still a gem (BKO is a timeless masterpiece though, if you liked the first one, you'll love it)I've started a replay of the first one not too long ago. After 10 hours or so, I consider it to be as good as when it was released!
I've never played the second one so I'm looking forward to that as well.
i wonder if square will do something with xenogears, since even legend of mana is getting a remaster
At least with SquareSoft games there is always a chance they will port or remake them again
Enix stuff where the rights are owned by different parties, some of which don't exist anymore becomes a lot more difficult
All of them. Door Door, Dragon Quest, Portopia, Actraiser, Gaia, 7th Saga, Wonder Project J, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Bust-A-Groove, Mischief Makers, etc. They all have split rights with designers, writers, musicians, developers and other creators. It's just the way they were structured.Which Enix games are owned by different parties or have major legal issues?
All of them. Door Door, Dragon Quest, Portopia, Actraiser, Gaia, 7th Saga, Wonder Project J, Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile, Bust-A-Groove, Mischief Makers, etc. They all have split rights with designers, writers, musicians, developers and other creators.