Let's Save Capcom: Make a Case for their games

[Bells]

So, i just heard that Capcom's Profits are down 90% for April to June quarter.

That's pretty harsh for a Company that sells some of the leading brands on the market. Sure, nothing they can't get around with the next Street Fighter or Megaman Game...

But i wanted to make a case for the forgotten IP's... I mean, today, all companies seem to be driving the same direction with their games and re-using the same Franchises and characters. I'm not even talking about the over saturation of Zombies and World War 2 and Nazis... heck, Even Harry Potter went "Gears"!

When was the last time a big company pitched a new concept instead of a new feature for an old idea? Sure, safe bets and brand name equals money... can't deny a company it's right to make profit... but they are not.

So, i bring 3 examples of how Capcom could be Making money right now.

1- New Rival Schools / Project Justice game.

Really. I'm yet to see someone who doesn't think this is a good idea. People want it. The Fighting games market is clogged with the same very few franchises being resold and nothing new (and good) has popped around in Ages. At least with Rival Schools you are bringing back that still has room to grow. A lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjfFw4NwqmQ

Plus, the game is just awesome, what the hell is wrong with you!? making me explain the obvious... sheesh.

2- New Breath of Fire.

Rght up to Breath of Fire 4, Capcom had one of the Best names in Classic RPG's with it's own Unique Twist, nice characters and storytelling. 5 (dragon Quarter) seems to have almost killed the whole franchise, because it wasn't very well praised and that was the last we heard of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pd2ewENyPs

Unlike several other genres, new Franchises try to pop on RPG ground every now and then. And there is always room for something like Breath of Fire. Specially if it kepts the same ideas it had going on for 3 and 4.

3- New Dino Crisis Game.

C'mon. You want to go Camp on me? You need a quick cash and you want to enjoy the fact that people will pay up for a Resident Evil clone where you are running from god damn dinosaurs... this -IS- the franchise waiting to come back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNw58nU-p1Q


So, yeah... Megaman, Viewtifull Joe, Street Fighter... all of those Sell. But what about a little change for once?

[Aerozord]

Isn't Dead Rising 2 coming out soon? That should help

[Bells]

Yeah. Actually Dead Rising falls in a grey area between "New stuff that needs to be out there" and "more of the same", my only experience with the franchise is the Wii version. Which to be honest felt a lot like "awesome by concept, bland by execution".

I mean, i got the same drive i had with Madworld (maybe a "lite" version of it) but the Plot in Dead Rising was much more interesting to me than Madworld's.

In the end i just really want to see Capcom bringing back some of these old names.

[Kim]

Yeah. Actually Dead Rising falls in a grey area between "New stuff that needs to be out there" and "more of the same", my only experience with the franchise is the Wii version. Which to be honest felt a lot like "awesome by concept, bland by execution".

IIRC everyone said the Xbox version was great but the Wii version sucked, so if your only experience with the game is the Wii version that's not a good basis to judge it by.

[Bells]

Is the only real difference the number of Zombies on the screen? Because, it was graphically okay, sound was decent, controls work, the content of a full game is in there... i can't judge it by what is not there, but it works just fine... the only difference is that 15 zombies on the screen is "a lot" in this version

[Jagos]

1) Strider needs a new game

2) Bring back a balance Tohshinden - You now are the master of 2D. Work on 3D and compete with Namco!

3) Power Stone - Party games are still popular. Maybe make this one a Wii title

4) Rival Schools (personal request)

5) Breath of Fire - YES, we want a new one. NO, we don't want a friggin randomized dungeon! GET IT RIGHT, Capcom!

6) Auto Modelista - Yes, Cel Shaded Car Racing. NO, we don't need to hit the darn guard rail to go faster than normal! >_<

7) Dead Phoenix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Phoenix) needs resurrection

8) Shooters. NEED MORE

9) Mecha RPG. Just throwin that out there...

10) Ok... Either let the Blue Bomber go or finish his story and move on. Make up your damn mind. Rock and X need to meet up or the newest one needs to be about how Zero destroys the world.

[Kim]

the only difference is that 15 zombies on the screen is "a lot" in this version

That's actually a pretty big deal considering that the selling point of the game was murdering lots of zombies in fun ways, and it's just not the same without the "lot" in there.

Oh yeah and they cut out the photography.

[Bells]

3) Power Stone - Party games are still popular. Maybe make this one a Wii title


OH! Hell yeah! Totally forgot! Imagine 4 vs 4 or 8 man rumble online matches... bring the Power Stone crew and put in a buttload of Capcom cameos and this would easily become Capcom's Smash Bros, and be good at it!

Oh yeah and they cut out the photography.

Yeah, that one i have to give... my Inner Pokemon Snap fan was pissed off with that one.

[bluestarultor]

10) Ok... Either let the Blue Bomber go or finish his story and move on. Make up your damn mind. Rock and X need to meet up or the newest one needs to be about how Zero destroys the world.

I disagree with this. Mega Man is pretty much a symbol of Capcom's ability to innovate and evolve. Every game of the main series added something new (in my limited experience (much of which comes from seeing a run-through of the Anniversary Collection and reading the wiki)). It changed as technology changed, and while the merits of that are often debated in the main line, for the most part, a look at X says they were capable of doing it well.

Heck, even when the series is failing, it's still doing good things. Legends was such a failure that they couldn't afford to keep making them, but if it's anything like The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, it couldn't have been that bad.

I just don't see the point of ending the main series for the sake of appeasing fans who want it finally connected with X. Especially when they now offer very different styles of play for different audiences. The two series have a massive time lapse between them. Enough you can fill in your own blanks. Honestly, I think the imagination can provide you with a much more satisfying link than anything Capcom could ever write, because the canon link is never going to please everyone.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I want to see a new Demon's Crest, which was part of the Gargoyle's Quest series. Which was a spin-off of Ghouls n' Goblins. Okay, the Gargoyle games weren't very successful, to my knowledge, even though the last one was pretty awesome, but I think the time for a new game where you control a fire breathing demon who headbutts statues and can transform into different versions of himself is here.
Hell, Capcom could make whatever they wanted out of that and could just sell it as something new. Make the jump from 2D Metroadvania to 3D whatever.

[mauve]

Devil May Cry 5. Because odd-numbered DMC games have been sixty times more awesome than the even-numbered ones thus far, so DMC 5 should, statistically speaking, be awesome enough to save the entire company AND the universe from demise.

[mudah.swf]

I doubt we'll see another Rival Schools or Power Stone game, considering that some of the key staff behind those two, including the mastermind of Street Fighter 2 himself, Noritaka Funamizu, are no longer at Capcom, and Capcom themselves have shown no interest in either brand, with RS getting a few cameo appearances and that's it. Another one would be pretty great though. And the lack of key staff didn't stop them continuing with Street Fighter or Mega Man, so maybe.

Fighting games are clogged with the same releases because until recently, there were a fair few fighting games that were of new franchises that didn't get released outside of Japan.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Except the Megaman Franchise died. The only Megamans being made were the classic series with 9 and 10 and those were only because the creator wanted to make'em for nestalgic reason and Capcom said "go for it".

There is no word on a new megaman game in the works and Starforce nearly killed the MMBN time line (the MMBN 1 remake/cross over sold horrible over in japan, JAPAN! the country who's obsesses over MMBN so much it killed any chance of there being a MM,MHX2.)

We'll see a collection be made and maybe a remake or 2 every now and then. But yeah Megaman's as good as dead now.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Devil May Cry 5. Because odd-numbered DMC games have been sixty times more awesome than the even-numbered ones thus far, so DMC 5 should, statistically speaking, be awesome enough to save the entire company AND the universe from demise.


Yeah I'd agree with that, although 4 wasn't that bad really. The combat was still awesome, even if the story was a bit meh.


I'm not so sure about bringing back Dino Crisis though, as much as I loved the first 2 (well, up to that really stupid ending on 2). The last 2 games we had on that series were an on rails lightgun game and what basically amounted to HOLY SHIT DINOSAURS IN SPACE!, lunacy.

[Jagos]

I disagree with this. Mega Man is pretty much a symbol of Capcom's ability to innovate and evolve. Every game of the main series added something new (in my limited experience (much of which comes from seeing a run-through of the Anniversary Collection and reading the wiki)). It changed as technology changed, and while the merits of that are often debated in the main line, for the most part, a look at X says they were capable of doing it well.

Heck, even when the series is failing, it's still doing good things. Legends was such a failure that they couldn't afford to keep making them, but if it's anything like The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, it couldn't have been that bad.

I just don't see the point of ending the main series for the sake of appeasing fans who want it finally connected with X. Especially when they now offer very different styles of play for different audiences. The two series have a massive time lapse between them. Enough you can fill in your own blanks. Honestly, I think the imagination can provide you with a much more satisfying link than anything Capcom could ever write, because the canon link is never going to please everyone.


It's more to do with the "Mega Man" route of gaming that this has caused. When I look at Capcom's games, there's really few if any original titles. It's either Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Mega Man, or part of a select few games that becomes very endearing to people. I would love to see them branch out into newer territories. Killer7 was a good start. Dino Crisis was interesting. If anything, they could do much more with their franchises than letting them stagnate (looking at YOU MM6!)

[h4x.m4g3]

Didn't they just announce reveal Megaman Universe, which looks to be a Megaman Capcom crossover.

I say bring back the Resident Evil Outbreak games, they were released too early, back when Online Play required buying an additional network adapter, but I enjoyed the games despite disliking the original core Resident Evil games up to that point (I was young and hated having to run away from enemies). I'd say add in a bit of character customization, classes based on traditional jobs/archetypes (cop, college student, soldier, construction worker, reporter etc), and possibly competing factions/goals on a semi-permanent servers. Basically if a mission is designed to take 45 minutes to complete, servers would exists for about an hour, allowing players to drop-in drop-out. Depending on the level you might have multiple sides, say one team of 4 being the traditional survivors who stumble into one of Umbrella's labs and another team of 4 being the Umbrella team sent to destroy evidence.

More Onimusha, or a new series in the same vein. Those games were great, but I'm wondering if they need to continue with the story, the 3rd one was a great ending to the series, and the 4th was good but didn't have the same magic.

Steel Battalion, if I had money back when the game was released I would've brought it just for the ridiculous controller. And I mean high people are spending plenty of money these days on plastic guitars and turntables so why not a full mech controller. Possibly license use of the controller for other games, make it break away/collapsible so you can use one or two sections for a game but not the others.

Armored Warriors/Cyberbots, one giant mechs (also see above), two being able to rip pieces off your enemy and equip them to yourself. Now we update all that with more modern graphics and a bigger roster of mechs/parts and bam I'll take two.

Cannon Spike, the game was a fun title I didn't find out the name of till years later when looking it up on Wikipedia to remind myself of which games of my childhood Capcom made for a post on a forum on games that need a sequel.

God Hand 2.

[Julford Hajime]

Steel Battalion, if I had money back when the game was released I would've brought it just for the ridiculous controller. And I mean high people are spending plenty of money these days on plastic guitars and turntables so why not a full mech controller. Possibly license use of the controller for other games, make it break away/collapsible so you can use one or two sections for a game but not the others.

Actually, I think the controller DID break into three parts, plus a seperate fourth part for the pedals. A friend of mine had it back in high school, and we played the shit out of that game. We were both terrible at it, but we played it until we could do any of the levels with ease. Practice makes perfect I guess.

As for the rest of this... Wow. A 90% profit loss? I'm kinda hoping that it's because they didn't have anything big in the second quarter, and first quarter saw somee massively successful games come out, because otherwise... Damn.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Didn't they just announce reveal Megaman Universe, which looks to be a Megaman Capcom crossover.


Oh yeah they did didn't they. I didn't see that coming. I didn't see Capcom debating on a MML3 coming either. So then it's back to the classics that started it all it seems. I'm cool with that. :) And MML3 being possible is a nice bit of info (nice to see they are still teasing us with it at least).

[ZAKtheGeek]

Except the Megaman Franchise died. The only Megamans being made were the classic series with 9 and 10 and those were only because the creator wanted to make'em for nestalgic reason and Capcom said "go for it".

There is no word on a new megaman game in the works and Starforce nearly killed the MMBN time line (the MMBN 1 remake/cross over sold horrible over in japan, JAPAN! the country who's obsesses over MMBN so much it killed any chance of there being a MM,MHX2.)

We'll see a collection be made and maybe a remake or 2 every now and then. But yeah Megaman's as good as dead now.
I've never cared to find out if this was anything more than a rumor, but ZX Extremus seems to have been in development for a while now. Or has it been TOO long and we're assuming vaporware?

[Specterbane]

I'm with Jagos and Bells in that I'd love to see some more Classic BoF action going on. I hated the way they made so many changes to the series to try and reinvent it for Dragon quarter. That is until I played it, and while I can't say it feel like a tried and true BoF it's not actually a bad game. That being said I still want to see Ryu as a real damn dragon in game play. But sadly this won't happen because and RPG is never ever going to draw the kind of money they want from the casual gamer crowd.

When it comes to MegaMan I haven't played any of the newer styles since X6 disappointed me like...well like this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W23LKD9Z1hw) But even so I great up with it so I still try to keep tabs on it when I can, 9 was amazing and 10 was entertaining.

Honestly though I think a new Veutiful Joe on the Wii is their best bet to recoup some profits on the quick.

EDIT: Oh, and there's always my very guilty pleasure of Devil Kings. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZGHuvM9UCI&feature=fvst) But we all know that's not happening.

[Azisien]

Capcom is still technically the main honcho behind Dead Rising right?

Right. I think that's pretty much their only game franchise I can get behind solidly. More malls please!

[Kyanbu The Legend]

I've never cared to find out if this was anything more than a rumor, but ZX Extremus seems to have been in development for a while now. Or has it been TOO long and we're assuming vaporware?

It was rumored and later proven by a Capcom rep that there was no new ZX game in the works due to ZX Advents low sales. There was also some evidence and rumors that ZX Extremus was a fake title some fan posted on one of the popular megaman forums to gain some attention. (forgot which one it was on though).

Though there is ideas for a ZX3 floating around and Capcom's idea bin. And Inticreates does want to make another one.

[Inbred Chocobo]

You guys are going all on about Capcom and forget to mention the Monster Hunter series? Every one of you should be ashamed. Its an Action-RPG paced excellently well, and its on either the PSP or Wii, and I know there is a lot of people out there on the Wii.

Oh, and Wii has online play. Oh, and you know what else? It does the online play thing fucking right. And the final thing? Free online play. What the hell are you reading this post still for? Go buy the game and start killing monsters.

Well if you want a review, anything you read on the internet about it from actual review sites don't get the meaning of the game. See the thing about monster hunter is that the point of the game is learning how to place hits, be in the right places, and knowing where and when to be running, blocking, attacking, defending, or eat a potion. Its all about becoming a better hunter, reading a monster 10 times your size and easily capable of tearing you limb from limb. It takes so much skill, and can drain so many hours, but once you are online, you won't stop hunting rathalos till you and all your buddies have 200 under your belt, and wicked awesome armor on your back.

[Magus]

No one liked Breath of Fire V because instead of having the exact same battle system as every other RPG ever, it had THE BEST ONE EVER MADE.

What killed BoF 5 was the weird-ass saving system that depended on tokens you find in the plot and the whole SOL system of returning to a past save point but with all your experience intact, which no one understood and was basically required to level and beat the game. Once you understood how the saving and leveling system worked, Breath of Fire V was an awesome game and I highly recommend making a Breath of Fire 6 with a similar battle system at the very least.

I fail to see why bad Q2 results are going to make Capcom go under, I'm sure they'll make that up when their next Resident Evil game or whatever comes out.

[Jagos]

I'm sure SF IV and the new C vs N games are going to put them back in black.