15 Cool Things Sega Could Do Even On Hard Times

Right now we all know what is happening to Sega. They recently reported a loss in profits and for all of us long time fans, the phrase "lost profits" spells certain doom to our favorite Sega franchises. Surprisingly, even with the hardships they are going through they decided to make some good things like localizing the new Yakuza game to the west, and coming with remakes of some of their classic games for the Nintendo 3DS. This is all good, but there are some things that Sega could take advantage from especially now that they decided to focus on the digital market rather than the retail one.

Note: There are links in some of the items on this list so you can see what the mentioned games/concepts are about.

1) Include Phantasy Star IV in the 3DS remakes: The 3DS is good with JRPGs and if Bravely Default is to be taken as definite proof of that, then it means that the classic JRPG style thrives on this handheld. This is the reason why releasing a completely remade version of Phantasy Star IV is a good choice for them since it is the most popular one of the whole classic rpg wing of the Phantasy Star series.

2) Remaster all 3 Shinning Force 3 Scenarios and release them as digital only: The original Shinning Force formula ended with the 3 scenarios that composed Shinning Force 3, so releasing a digital only remastered edition of all 3 in one would be a good seller not only for Sega fans, but tactic rpg fans everywhere in the world as 2 of those 3 scenarios never made it out of Japan.

3) The return of Shenmue: Be it on any of the 3 home consoles and with the current trend that favors open world games, Shenmue can make a good comeback if they spice up the formula a bit and give it a little more hand to hand combat action and more stuff to do in the cities Ryo visits.

4) Astal 2 made by an indie studio: Astal was quite a good platformer in its day and seen how some indie developers have made beautiful games like Braid and Dust: An Elysian Tale, Astal can also shine again and become even better if one of these talented studios takes the project.

5) The release of good arcade game ports into this generation of home consoles: Catering once again to the digital only market, some arcade games like Border Break, Initial D Arcade Stage 8 Infinity or Shinning Force Cross Raid can become addictive online experiences for any western player.

6) "Greatest hits" bundles of Sega Saturn/Dreamcast games: Storage media now permits it and because of this, some of the best games for both of these systems (Saturn and Dreamcast) can come back packaged in bundles sort of like they did with the Genesis games not long ago. Packages like these can find a home on any of this generation consoles or even on PC.

7) Skies of Arcadia 2: This one can be pretty much a long shot, but why not? Skies of Arcadia is one of the best JRPG games that Sega has ever made and it could be a hit, considering that the JRPG market has been starving for good epic titles for current-gen home consoles in the west.

8) Sonic Adventure 3: This is not a matter of nostalgia, but a matter of the Sonic Adventure series been the most acclaimed Sonic games since the franchise took a plunge into 3D. It doesn't have to be a AAA production, just make it as good as the previous too and it will be ready to go. I know that there is Sonic Boom to take account of, but this kind of endeavor would be something separate and quite capable of healing Sonic the Hedgehog's reputation as a franchise which would in fact help Sonic Boom.

9) Reboot of The Immortal: The Immortal was one of those hard and gruesome rpg games that captivated Sega Genesis owners in the early 90's and it could make a comeback as an alternative to Dark Souls. The game was dark, challenging and interesting and that is something many rpg gamers appreciate nowadays. Just turn it into an action rpg and it could be a hit. The only hard part here is convincing Electronic Arts to take that franchise out of its grave, but hey... It can happen!

10) Reboot of Eternal Champions: Gore has been in style again for a while now and Eternal Champions provided just that to fighting game fans in the past, even rivaling the all time favorite Mortal Kombat. A reboot of this once great fighting game could be released as a digital only game with an emphasis on competitive play. Give a short single player mode in order to show the character's storylines and let gamers destroy themselves online with all the gruesome moves and fatalities that this franchise can offer.

11) An Anime Series for any of their RPG game series: Going away from gaming a little and getting into anime, a good anime series can be possible with many of Sega's franchises and could even serve to promote a game. Phantasy Star is a very good candidate, but there could be others like Climax Landers, Legend of the Oasis, Skies of Arcadia and Panzer Dragoon Saga. Why a series from an RPG game? Because their stories are richer and would make for quite an interesting anime experience if done right. Sega worked as a publisher for Bleach so it is safe to say that they would know what to do.

12) Bring remastered versions of obscure titles of their popular franchises: When we think about obscure Sega games that most people haven't seen, it means games like Virtual-On Marz and Project Altered Beast which were PS2 games that were... You guessed it, only in Japan. Virtual-On Marz featured a deeper storyline which was a contrast when we compare it to its arcade style only predecessors and Project Altered Beast was a mix between adventure and survival horror that gave it a sci-fi twist to the franchise.

13) Their own game portal: This is an alternative to #7 and can be even better in some ways. If there is one thing that we can't deny is that Sega as a company has a lot of first party games, even surpassing Nintendo in this endeavor. Because of this, a cool thing for them to do is to make a PC game portal, sort of like Steam and pour all of their forgotten games there while letting people play online multiplayer with them. A place where you could find and play all the first and second party Sega games from the Master System to the Dreamcast and even games that appeared on other consoles. They could sell them separately or make it a pay per month service, it doesn't matter as this could become a big hit for them anyways.

14) Get a spokesperson character again: This is something that they tried in the past and had success because of it, so they need to stop been so silent and go make some noise in the industry. A good personality that can move an effective passive-aggressive marketing campaign can make all the difference in the world. If you don't believe me ask Nintendo how well Reggie has worked for them. Just to give you a short trip to the past, back when the Saturn was going head to head against the PS One, Sega managed to keep their console alive and kicking in Japan mostly because of their spokesperson character, which was an exaggerated version of a karate master that was called Segata Sanshiro.

15) Give some love to the west: No matter which of the previous 14 things in this list Sega makes, if it is stuck in Japan it wont serve them. Their current "stay in Japan and sometimes Europe" strategy has proven to be a failure and their financial reports are proof of this. Whatever they do next, they must include the west in it because it is a market that is slowly going old school again, so after its long absence, Sega could return and once again earn the prestige that they used to have. They just need to try and for once hear the fans out, yes those fans that have been left in the dark since the Dreamcast went down.

Wrapping it up:
The bottom line is that even though Sega is having a hard time right now, this doesn't mean that they can't make an effort to bounce from that. This list features some of the cool things they could do that could mend their torn reputation and even though some of them look difficult or even idealistic, they are possible and sometimes it just takes a fair amount of risk taking in order to make it big as real visionaries are a step ahead of everybody all the time. Most gamers have Sega strands on their gamer's DNA so they just have to look for a way to unleash all the hidden potential, especially from the fans.

What is your favorite item of the list? What other cool things you think that Sega could do? If you have any ideas share them with us in the comment section below.

5 games that could turn Sega into the best third party around.

Sega, a former industry leader and one of my favorite game development companies. It is a tragic tale, the one of Sega's fall from grace and how they went from been a world class enterprise to a simple third party company. The really perplexing thing is that even as a third party company, Sega still carries some of the power it had in the past and that power comes in form of games that on the most part are not been used. 

Don't get me wrong, the Sonic games are good, Bayonetta 2 looks great (and it's a must buy for any Wii U owner) and Alien: Isolation has the makings to be an awesome survival horror game, but deep inside we all know that there are some games that really define what Sega is as a game developer and would probably catapult them into gaming stardom again. Here are 5 of those games that would be part of a Sega's newly found awesome-factor if they were released:

1) A fully "AAA" Phantasy Star classic JRPG game.

The saga of Phantasy Star (online) games, born since the first Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast has been going on for more than 10 years and they are all good games with a nice mix of action, exploration and looting, but it also has been more than 20 years since a full blown JRPG Phantasy Star experience has been released. We all know there have been some games attempting to tell a full new story in the series, but it is also very noticeable that they are still using the same style of the online games. Just imagine for a moment a new Phantasy Star game with the JRPG quality of Xenoblade Chronicles. Be it on Wii U or any other console, a game like that could pretty much become a genre leader just on name alone since deep inside, the franchise is still in pristine condition with the online games been clearly seen as spin offs.

2) Shinning Force IV or a bundle of the Shinning Force 3 series.

Shinning Force is another game that hasn't really gotten any love in its original form (which is a very dynamic tactics rpg). One thing Sega could do with the franchise, now that re-hashes and remakes are in style is to bundle the Shinning Force 3 scenarios on one game and sell them as digital on different platforms, they could even sell them separately if they wanted, just clean up the graphics a bit and there you go. Normally I am not a fan of re-hashes, but the Shinning Force 3 saga (which spawned 3 games) had only the first one coming to America because it was one of the last games made at the end of the Sega Saturn lifespan on our shores. They even have the translation work done for them by fans so it would be an even easier task to do.

The other way to deal with this franchise in its original form is to finally make a Shinning Force IV. It really doesn't matter if the game is released on handhelds only as it would compete with games like Fire Emblem, along with other tactic rpg games out in the handheld market and it has a great chance of winning if the game is well advertised.

3) Shenmue Chapters (or something like that).

First of all let's have a healthy dose of realism. A new complete game about a project as ambitious as Shenmue is simply not possible with Sega's current financial prowess, but it doesn't have to become a dead franchise either. One thing that would be cool is to make it a chapter based game. Let's say that when we first get the game, we have a all of the city to explore at our leisure with some storyline content as well as side-quests, mini games and stuff. 

Then, when we have completed a "chapter" the game would basically let us do whatever we want with all the side-quests and character development (practicing your moves), earning money at a job, etc, but leave the storyline at a "to be continued" state (for example let's say that the guy helping Ryo Hazuki (some kind of informant) dissapears for a while looking for information on the whereabouts of Lan-Di) and when he returns (a new chapter is released), giving Ryo new information with new stuff to do so the story continues.

It can even have PVP fighting if for example Ryo gets an apprentice (which would be fully customizable) and you can train him/her and fight with other apprentices online while new chapters are been developed. See? anything is possible with this game. Also throw in some micro-transactions like sets of clothing, pets, stuff for Ryo's room and the typical goodies (without the game becoming a pay to win) and you have a Shenmue game that kept the original formula, but evolved without losing its charm.

4) Revival of forgotten franchises from the Sega Saturn days.

The Sega Saturn was plagued by many things like the war between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, the fact that is was very difficult to develop games for the console and bad business decisions, but it never suffered any lack of games. Sure, most of the popular games were on other platforms, but the Saturn had a very strong library of its own and some of those games could come back from their slumber and still be as good as they were all thanks to the digital age. Besides, not many people got to actually play them, so showing them now would make them to be seen almost as new (unless you were a Saturn fan back in the day).

Many of those Saturn games could be brought up as re-mastered editions and sold as digital only on various networks. Games like Astal for example which is a beautiful platformer that has graphics that resemble many of the good indie platforming games of our times, Burning Rangers which was a short, but intense game with a style that can be used for leaderboards (time attack) and even be awesome with an online cooperative coop and Fighting Vipers which was a very good fighting game that could be revived as a free to play deal (sort of like Namco did with Soul Calibur). Other possible Saturn games that could use some revival are Mr.Bones, Mystaria, Die Hard Arcade, Legend of the Oasis, Dark Savior, Bug, Clockwork Knight and so on.

5) Skies of Arcadia 2

Of all the games mentioned on this article Skies of Arcadia is the most recent (coming from the Dreamcast days to the remake that they later released on Game Cube). This JRPG gem is one of those games that instantly became a respected name in the genre coming from the ground up and without any previous glory to back it up. It combined a great storyline with an interesting turn based fighting that consisted of fighting on the ground and epic airship battles even taking on a giant flying whale in Moby Dick fashion.

The game deserves a sequel in all its right and would be something big to see on next-gen consoles with its colorful visuals, extensive and cleverly designed dungeons/places, fun storyline and challenging battles. The really cool thing is that with the acquisition of Atlus by Sega, a Skies of Arcadia 2 game has never been more possible, so let's just cross our fingers and see what happens.  

To wrap this up

Sega is a company with so much hidden potential that you would be amazed of what they could come up with if they had the will to do it. Nowadays, between Pachinko machines and arcade spin offs, the Sega of old focus on games seems kind of lost, but in this industry anything can happen and who knows if on a near future we find ourselves once again chanting the the classic ♫SEGA♫ a little more often.