Konami E3 2012 Character Battle

[ttfii]

Konami needs to diversify in its titles, rather than re-hashing its mainstay titles. The new PES is good example of what Konami can do, and should do to diversify itself in the market.

One needs to look no further than Hollywood's habit of remaking/rebooting absolutely everything that ever made a dime.

[Piisuke]

SH3 was a brilliant game though, I still remember walking into the mannequin room.

But yeah, Konami has been living off MGS and PES, but PES fell off the limelight due to EA stepping up with FIFA. Konami has spend too much time living off the past.

Ooooh!! We're Konami, famous of the Konami code, Contra, Castlevania, Frogger, Twinbee, Gradius and Bomberman. We were really good with PES, we're famous for MGS, even though it was not really us that made the game, but rather a team that is employed by us. We had a RPG series that had a decent following, but poor decisions and bad management buried that franchise.
We also have got no confidence in marketing our games and won't do so. Hey, at least they started doing press conferences now, so one can hope.

[LanceHeart]

I don't think we, as Suikoden fans, can really accuse Konami of clinging to the past when Suikoden itself is now part of it.

[Piisuke]

We're not clinging on the past, though. We're clinging on a franchise as a whole. We even have been open towards Tierkreis and the lastest installment, and unlike Konami, we're actually suggesting to make a new game, as opposed to just living off reputation from older games. I mean, are you really expecting a new Gradius, or Twinbee?

[patapi]

Are we truly that open towards Tierkreis and Tsumuji? I think "tolerance" probably the best reception they had from this fanbase, with lingering thoughts of how we still wished they had never happened.

[LanceHeart]

We're not clinging on the past, though. We're clinging on a franchise as a whole. We even have been open towards Tierkreis and the lastest installment, and unlike Konami, we're actually suggesting to make a new game, as opposed to just living off reputation from older games. I mean, are you really expecting a new Gradius, or Twinbee?

Well, yeah. I definitely want new Gradius and Twinbee games if they can counter the tons of crappy "anime girl" bullet hell games we've seen gain traction in their absence.

Look at Space Invaders: Infinity Gene. It was an awesome evolution of the old series, making it into a stylized white-sprites bullet hell.

Thing is, "old" Suikoden fans (myself included, I'll admit) want to see games that imitate and tie in with games that are sixteen and thirteen years old, respectively. Suikoden 5 was their (admittedly horribly timed) attempt and that backfired heavily, so we shouldn't be wondering too hard as to why we got two spinoffs instead of sequels in the six years since S5.

[Rooks]

Lanceheart is right. I think my main problem with Suikoden V was that -in essence- you told artists to sit down and remake an older game. Different artists have different styles, and even the same artist will change dramatically over time, and telling one artist to copy another is actually somewhat insulting.

Not that I have any major problems with V, I actually really like it, but Suikoden -even if Mr Murayama comes back- needs to grow somewhat. The problem that I have with Tierkreis is simply that they removed many of the series' best gameplay and plot elements, and replaced them with a rather generic gameplay and story.

*Edit, I missed the window for the posting of the percentages. So updating the intial post might be hard, unless Konami releases final results after the MGS characters have had it out.

[Antimatzist]

*Edit, I missed the window for the posting of the percentages. So updating the intial post might be hard, unless Konami releases final results after the MGS characters have had it out.

I haven't seen any percentages after the second round, they just didn't have it.

The problem is: If a series "grows", people still won't like it. Let's take Breath of Fire V: Ok, it's REALLY a drastic change from the normal formula, but imo it's the best game in the series, especially because it takes a lot of risks. Well, most fans hate it.
On the other hand, a series like Dragon Quest has no real drastic change and is still one of the most popular games in Japan (maybe even THE most popular RPG series), even though I think the games lack so much and are pretty boring, especially compared to Suikoden.

[LanceHeart]

Breath of Fire V wasn't "growth" because it completely changed the game rather than build on the previous ones. It did away with the traditional setting (not something I begrudged myself), lost sprites and took on a completely different art style (I didn't like the 3D models at all), changed the battle system from classic turn-based to semi-strategy turn-based...

In short, Dragon Quarter was less Breath of Fire than Tierkreis was Suikoden. It did away with everything immediately recognizable except its two protagonists' names.

[Hirathien]

Well, they took a chance and it didn't work out that well for the fans, I guess. Lots of games tries to change things, but they either need to make it so much better than it was before or people will get mad.

Just look at the differences from Dragon Age: Origins to Dragon Age 2, Wild ARMs to Wild ARMs 4-5. Some changes work for the better, some don't.

[Piisuke]

Well, yeah. I definitely want new Gradius and Twinbee games if they can counter the tons of crappy "anime girl" bullet hell games we've seen gain traction in their absence.

Look at Space Invaders: Infinity Gene. It was an awesome evolution of the old series, making it into a stylized white-sprites bullet hell.

Thing is, "old" Suikoden fans (myself included, I'll admit) want to see games that imitate and tie in with games that are sixteen and thirteen years old, respectively. Suikoden 5 was their (admittedly horribly timed) attempt and that backfired heavily, so we shouldn't be wondering too hard as to why we got two spinoffs instead of sequels in the six years since S5.

Suikoden V was a good game though. Nothing backfired Suikoden V. If anything, it was the sour taste of Suikoden IV, as well as the fact that the release date of Suikoden V couldn't have been any worse.
Still, I thought SV produced. It felt like a Suikoden game, something that Tierkreis failed to do.

What many fans want, arguably everybody, is a continuation of the foundation already known to us. I don't need it to be an exact copy of Suikoden II, but what I would like is for the story to continue. Personally I'd love to see the Succession War make into a game, though many fans would like to see SVI take place after SIII and in Harmonia. Problem with that is that European fans never played SIII (unless they got the game illegally, which entirely Konami's own problem) and thus will be missing out.

I do believe that this is Konami's biggest fear. They're fully aware that all Suikoden games are linked and they're concerned that this throws off new players. I understand that. However, Konami doesn't help its own case here by not re-releasing Suikoden I and II on the PSN for all markets, by not having released SIII in Europe and by not having released the PSP version of I&II outside of Japan. It's just daft, like those people in a restaurant that finish their plate, then complain to the chef it wasn't good enough and want a refund. Just daft.

[KC_MCDOHL]

Yup I pretty much agree with all of that Piisuke