First, let me thank you for all the great releases. Sure, it's been a bit of a dry spell for the last year or so, but leading up to that, you were doing great, and then the console refresh caused some fundamental changes to your approach, so you needed some time to figure out what's what before the big releases start up again over the next few weeks. We've got Thief, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and Titanfall, all hitting in successive weeks, so I should be good for a bit.
Second, though some of you are doing some great things, like Pillars of Eternity, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and the sequels for Witcher and Dragon Age, I feel like there are some easy sequel opportunities that are being missed. I'd like to bring these to your attention, explain what needs to happen, and then you're free to make the right decision, and act on my precise instructions.
Let's get the easy stuff out of the way first.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic III
I mean, COME ON. Yeah, I enjoyed SWTOR quite a bit, and for a couple years, but my interest has wained, and I'm flashing back more and more to the great times I had in KotOR. What a spectacularly wonderful game. Even Obsidian's rushed KotOR II, once it's had the restored content mod installed, is really great.
EA, which owns BioWare, has the Star Wars license. BioWare made KotOR. It's a slam dunk, right?
Well, sort of.
A lot's changed since those halcyon KotOR days. BioWare has become a bigger presence in the gaming space, and has thus worked to make their games more accessible to the masses. Having the Star Wars license attached only increases the need to make it appeal to a broader audience. Those of us that have loved a niche property, then seen it explode in popularity, know the pain of what happens when something is 'broadened in appeal.' You end up with things like 'Star Trek: Into Darkness,' the lack of under-the-hood options in Mass Effect 2, PC games receiving console ports instead of vice versa (why is the scroll wheel so fucking hard to implement, anyway?), and Final Fantasy being stripped of its turn-based mechanics. No bueno, my friends.
Really, I'm not that worried, though. This would not be BioWare's first rodeo, and if there is any developer out there that can make the greatest Star Wars game since the greatest Star Wars game, it's these fine folks.
Most of the underpinnings of KotOR could stay intact. I loved the lightsaber customization, so keep that. I loved being able to stack actions in combat, so keep that. Go ahead and throw in the dialogue wheel from every release since Mass Effect, and I'm good with that. Let's make it big, and amazing, and set it some time after SWTOR. Let's get back into Revan's story, post-SWTOR, which means there will need to be a 'canon' ending for Revan in SWTOR, and we're off to the races. Then, let's wrap up Revan's story in this game, as well as set things up for a new protagonist for the next several games.
Maybe even use something akin to Dragon Age Keep for people to enter their choices from KotOR 1&2, as well as SWTOR? Maybe have it access a SWTOR toon, as well? Maybe allow for some interplay between KotOR 3 and SWTOR?
Could be great.
Also, I kinda think this might be BioWare's secret project, but it doesn't jive with 'unannounced new IP,' does it? It's not a new IP, but I can't believe EA/BioWare would pass this up.
Final Fantasy VII-2 and/or Final Fantasy XVI
Squenix, this is an intervention. It's time to make a Nomura-free Final Fantasy. Don't fire the guy, don't send any hate his way, but his style-over-substance approach has slowly driven this once-proud franchise into the ground. Final Fantasy XV is looking like an especially low point.
Here's the deal. For nine games, Final Fantasy 1-9, you did it right. Roughly around the time you showed Sakaguchi the door was about the time things started to come off the rails. Final Fantasy X was mildly embarrassing, and the only core entry in the series since then that's really been great has been the Matsuno-driven XII. And then you let him get away, too.
Here's how to fix it. Stick with all the slick visuals, but please, for the love of god, make it a Final Fantasy game again. Turn-based. ATB. A great story. A world map. Stop making it twitchy. Make it thoughtful.
If you want practice, make Final Fantasy VII-2. Don't get cute with it. Bring in most of the mechanics of FFVII, make it pretty, but make it a core Final Fantasy title, with all the basics of FF1-9 intact.
After that, get back to bringing the franchise out of the twitchy, flashy mess it's become. It's just dumb now, and I'm embarrassed for you. Hell, I'm embarrassed for me.
I love Final Fantasy, and I want to love the new games.
Lost Odyssey 2
I'd almost prefer this to the above, but only if Sakaguchi is running things. You don't need to change much. Just more of the last game. I'm easy. Do it.
Fallout 4
This is another one I'm pretty sure is already in early development, because Zenimax likes money. And the guy that plays Three-Dog said it is. And Todd Howard didn't deny it. E3 2014? PLEASE?
Take your lessons learned from Skyrim, and apply them to the Fallout universe. Bethesda hit a massive homerun with Skyrim, and I think there's a lot in there that would be great in Fallout.
Personally, I'd love to see this set in a different setting. Maybe international? Maybe Midwest? Florida? Mutant gators would be interesting.
Refine VATS. I came to appreciate the system a little more over time, but I think there's some refinement there that could make it great. Or, maybe, just ditch it altogether.
This is a really wide-open universe that I feel like both Bethesda and Obsidian, with their respective releases, just nailed.
Please, just give us something this year. You have nothing else announced, and Skyrim DLC has ceased.
Fallout Online
This one is ripe for the game-changer in the MMO space. ESO is doing some interesting stuff, and I'm eager to get into the full release for that, but ESO still does the same thing that bugs the shit out of me in all MMOs.
YOU are the MOST important man/woman in the land ... just like all these other people running around.
What Fallout could do, and it would work beautifully in this setting, is that you're just some dude/dudette in this crazy wasteland, trying to get by. Strip out the insane tentpole mega-moments, and make it a sandbox MMO. Yeah, you'll still have big moments, but make them all about cooperative play, which would very accurately reflect what life would be like in that situation.
For example, we've got Intel that our guild fort is going to be hit by raiders in a couple days. Have a phone app that shoots that out to all the guildies, so that they know to be logged in and ready to rock that night.
Or maybe they are low on supplies, and might want to raid another guild fort. Have a system in which there's some declaration about that, so that the other guild is notified, and is ready for a knock-down drag-out fight. Or maybe add a siege aspect to it.
Obviously, there would be some kind of single-player 'story' running through the game, but keep it light, and make the game focused on a blended PvP/PvE system.
Add in a fort-construction aspect, wrap some customization and maintenance to it, and you could have the greatest MMO ever.
You're welcome.
Mass Effect: SPECTRE
A Mass Effect game in which you play as a SPECTRE, alone. No companions, play any race, and missions can be completed in numerous ways, whether they be violent, sneaky, peaceful, or technology-based.
Maybe I'm describing what Alpha Protocol was supposed to be, except based in the Mass Effect universe.
Keep it RPG-based, so you have customizable stats, armor, weapons, etc, and you'll still have NPCs you'll talk with quite a bit, and lots of decisions, but make the game more about being a bad-ass SPECTRE, rather than saving the universe from 'thing x.' Maybe you're just saving the Council, or the Citadel, or some planet or something.
The First Taste is Free
So there ya go. That's just a smattering of the games I've been wanting.
What say you? Would any of these appeal to you? What would you add/remove to these ideas? What game sequel ideas do you wanna see?
Side Quests
- here is the latest on Fallout 4. Or not.
- 1 week til Thief!
As always, thanks for reading!
-Blaine
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