This week, with the success of the Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Kickstarter – a project launched by Yoshitaka Murayama, director and writer on the first two Suikoden games, and a bunch of other veteran developers – we got to thinking about the other creators we'd like to see make a comeback with a new project.
This is the latest in a series of big questions we'll be interrogating our writers with, so share your answers and suggestions for topics with us on Twitter.
Team Gravity of SIE Japan for a Gravity Rush successor
Gravity Rush is one of those games that put a weird spin on an established genre to make something wholly unique, and yet its hook somehow hasn't been copied yet. It's the most literal 3D platformer ever made: a game about jumping to platforms in every direction. That's amazing. Somebody, please do that again.
At this point, I can only assume that nobody else has copied Gravity Rush because nobody else is Team Gravity, the internal Sony Interactive Entertainment Japan studio responsible for the game (and also the Siren games, and ain't that a fun fact). Nothing else fills me with joy quite like sailing through the air as Kat, so I desperately want to play another Gravity Rush in my lifetime. I'd prefer if it were a direct sequel – perhaps a time-skip epilogue of sorts – because it would mean seeing more of Kat, but I'll take anything that uses the same gravity shifting mechanic to do cool things. Austin Wood
Kim Swift and other women game devs for literally anything
Just give me a game made entirely by women and women-identifying developers. I don't care if it's something completely out of the realm of my interests, I'll play it. It could be something that drives me absolutely mad with rage because of its difficulty or it could be something incredibly light-hearted and fun - I'm in. I'm there. I'll buy several copies and give them to friends and family members who don't even play games. I'll hand them out on the damn street, I'll throw them off the roof of my apartment at passerby. Just give me more games made by women, starring women. I relinquish my remaining time. Alyssa Mercante
Lionhead Studios because I really, really miss Peter Molyneux’s ridiculous promises
Lionhead Studios was best known for two things: Fable, and Peter Molyneux outlining a wondrous new game mechanic that would inevitably fail to live up to its lofty potential. Remember the acorn thing? That was weird.
But we need more of that. In an industry that can, at times, feel a little sterile and populated with talking heads that tow the PR line, Molyneux’s flawed, maverick genius is something we could all get behind as a new generation approaches.
As Fable makes a belated comeback, there’s reason enough to believe that Molyneux could even return to the series where he made his name and captured headlines. Better still, he could carve out his own little niche in a new world – one where, for once, we might dare to believe that the dreams and desires of the legendary developer could fall in line with Molyneux’s vision. Bradley Russell
Mercury and Bowie? I raise you, er, Paterson and Seabass
Gary Paterson is the greatest developer you’ve never heard of. In the mid-2000s the Scot re-rerouted the course of sports gaming’s biggest rivalry by taking over the FIFA series and prioritizing fundamentals such as ball physics and shooting animations over back-of-box gimmicks. It’s dominated PES in the sales ranks since, although over the last decade that’s mostly down to Ultimate Team.
These days Paterson works at Criterion, but I’d love to see him given free rein on a totally new football game to tear open the Pro Evo-FIFA status quo. The holy grail would be teaming Paterson up with Konami legend Shingo ‘Seabass’ Takatsuka, the man in charge of PES in its PS2 heyday, to see how they’d fare together. No FUT, no master league, no hyperbole: just 11-on-11 matchplay from two true footballing purists. Ben Wilson
Remedy returns to Max Payne with its 2020 attitude
OK, this might be inverting the question a bit since Remedy is still around and it doesn't own the rights to Max Payne anymore. But if Remedy could make a Max Payne game, I'd want the developers to approach it with every bit of the metaphysical awareness and literary inspiration that they've cultivated in their games since then - especially in Control.
My dream is Remedy of 2020 making a Max Payne game that grapples with the questions of how, why, and when he enters bullet-time; not on a boring superhero origin story level, but in a deeper spiritual and metaphorical context. Post-modern Max Payne would enthusiastically contend with whatever shape-shifting nature makes Max look like a completely different dude in three games yet always talk the same. It would include a companion app that scans your selfies and gives you extra ammo if you do the face. It would be great. Connor Sheridan
Ubisoft Montpellier with another horror game
One of the reasons I have such a soft spot for the Wii U is that ones of its very few launch exclusives was a survival horror zombie game by Ubisoft. Zombi U is an incredibly underrated game that made excellent use of the Wii U's gamepad. The horrific tension of looking down at the gamepad to scramble for a heal in your inventory while zombies could be sneaking up is ungodly.
While I'd argue the gamepad-less PC/PS4/Xbox One version makes the game slightly less innovative, Ubisoft Montpellier should still be celebrated for crafting an incredibly tense, atmospheric zombie horror that deserves more recognition. A sequel - or even a Switch port - could do well to bring the series back into the spotlight where it deserves to be. Jordan Gerblick
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