Special Feature: Franchises Capcom Should Revive

Capcom had some rough years in terms of software development, when they struggled to find an identity to carry them forward in the current console generation. This followed their rough experience with outsourcing during the last console gen. Titles like Dead Rising 2 and DmC: Devil May Cry turned out well (though the latter is still extremely divisive), but others like Dark Void, the Bionic Commando reboot, and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City were mediocre at best. Capcom outright admitted that outsourcing resulted in an overall quality reduction, and sought to bolster their internal development studios. It took time, but they’re finally at a point where they’re in optimal shape again.

Resident Evil 7 and Monster Hunter: World turned out well, and they’re currently celebrating the critical and commercial success of the Resident Evil 2 remake and Devil May Cry V. Since they’re on such a roll, Capcom plans on “awaken dormant intellectual properties,” according to their recent financial report. But they may not be sure of which properties to revive. That’s nothing to fear, because I have suggestions for what they could pursue; I’m sure they’re reading this.

Onimusha

The mainline Onimusha series consisted of solid samurai action-adventure games largely developed for PlayStation 2, with central characters based off figures from Japanese history (some loosely, others not). The core games were styled after the Resident Evil titles, though with a bigger focus on action and exploration. The later games unfortunately drifted from what fans liked most about the series; the first two were samurai epics somewhat styled after Japanese TV dramas, but Onimusha 3 switched things up awkwardly by inserting time travelling to modern-day France. The final game was more, let’s say, “anime” than previous games.

Samurai games have been popular lately, with the critical and commercial success of FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Koei Tecmo’s Nioh, and upcoming releases like Sony’s Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh 2. This would be a good time to add another series to that lineup, with a game that takes presentation cues from the first two games. Capcom’s RE Engine titles (the recent RE games and DMC5) feature heavy use of photogrammetry to achieve their sense of realism, and a new Onimusha game with the same approach would look splendid. Three of the four games already used the likenesses of several actors, after all. Several development team members involved with the better games still work at Capcom, so a new installment could turn out well. They clearly still have it on their mind, and recently released a remaster of the first game, so cross your fingers.

Dino Crisis

A new Dino Crisis game would also work well with Capcom’s current approach to development and market conditions. The games were similar in style to the RE games, though with dinosaurs instead of zombies and other grotesque monsters. The recent success of the Jurassic World movies shows how there’s a current audience for dinosaur-involved epics, who might want a game that takes inspiration from them.

It would be better if a new game is more similar in tone to the first survival horror installment rather than actionized level and score-based sequel Dino Crisis 2, though with action comparable to the action-based RE titles. The less said about the dire third installment, which put the series in the grave, the better.

Mega Man X

Capcom recently revived the mainline Mega Man series after a more than eight-year hiatus with Mega Man 11, which was received well and put up good sales for their standards. There are just as many fans of the Mega Man X series around, so a new installment would be good for everyone if it turned out well. The series has been dormant since Mega Man X8 in 2005, a title that ended with unresolved plot threads, further proving the need for a new game. It would also be nice if they used those spiffy new designs and design sensibilities somewhere.

No, mobile title Mega Man X Dive doesn’t count, but it might be a start. They actually put effort into it.

Breath of Fire

A number of recent unashamedly Japanese titles have been successful worldwide in the last few years. NieR: Automata, Persona 5, and the recent Code Vein were all solid B-tier (also known as “AA-tier”) hits, and Mega Man 11 and perhaps the Ace Attorney series show that Capcom is still interested in making them. It would be nice if Breath of Fire could join them.

A new title should have old school Breath of Fire aesthetics reminiscent of the first four games, to show an ailing fanbase that the series they enjoyed has returned. It shouldn’t be a divisive-though-interesting experiment like Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, but it absolutely should wash the bitter taste that was Breath of Fire 6 out of fans’ mouths. I’m less certain of this franchise returning compared to all the others in this post, but it would be nice to see.

Okami

I mean…

Okami is going to be back! We want to make Okami sequel and fans are looking forward to it too. You guys want to see Kamiya’s Okami again, right, everyone? I want to work on it too! 大神をまた作りたい私たちです。🙏😊@CapcomUSA_ @OKAMI_CAP pic.twitter.com/bLwuGnTew1

— Ikumi Nakamura 🪐@unseentokyo (@nakamura193) October 18, 2019

…former members of the development team from Cover Studios clearly want to do it. Most of them work at or with PlatinumGames, like Hideki Kamiya (director) and Ikumi Nakamura (background designer; she recently left Tango Gameworks after a memorable E3 2019 appearance) in the tweet above. Hopefully Capcom lets them do it as a console game that’s a full successor to the original game, rather than a lower-budgeted handheld sequel like Okamiden.

Okami was one of the few 3D Legend of Zelda-style titles around, but it’s easily the best. Its gameplay was accompanied by a pretty cel-shaded watercolor art style that’s aged beautifully, despite the original game being released on PlayStation 2 in 2006. The gaming audience could use another installment.

At least one of the revivals above should happen, though it could take a while considering how much time is required for development teams to make games these days — especially AAA titles. Capcom should ideally make them without their quality suffering as a result of taking too many projects on at once. I have more confidence in Capcom now than I’ve had in a while, though I’m still not completely sure of them, so they might handle them competently.