What cancelled game do you still think about?

Koei needs to take a break from their yearly throwaway Mousou games and make(Revive) Kessen IV. I want to see their "art-house" modern cinematic adaption of ROTK proper now that Kessen III has done it for Nobunaga Ambitions.


Shadow Hearts IV to tie up the finale. Omg I'm still heartbroken III was not the direct sequel but an indirect spin-off and with the flop the last 30% of the true story is like freaking lost to the void. Wtf was Azuresoft[ex-square devs] thinking...


Suikoden so they can do Suikoden IV justice with a modern remake. I wanna go sailing in the Island Nations/Kooluk empire/& dukedom of Gaien proper. The region was under-explored and rushed as heck. The ost/especially the OP is smooth as heck too.

 
Megaman Legends 3. I bought a 3DS SOLELY so I could buy the "prototype". I don't know if you guys remember, but this was fairly close to the 3DS launch. Close enough, in fact, that the sluggish post-launch 3DS sales numbers hadn't been fully understood yet. The prevailing argument for a while was that sales were down simply because stores were sold out and Nintendo couldn't manufacture them fast enough. That turned out to be bullshit, of course, but... I didn't realize there was no need to worry about the 3DS being sold out when the prototype released. So I bought one right after I read Capcom's hostage announcement. Capcom said they were going to determine whether or not to continue developing Legends 3 based on how many people bought the prototype, which was meant to launch along with the 3DS "eshop". And then they didn't even bother to do that. Fuck me.

Beyond that, though: Shenmue Saturn, Sonic Xtreme, Air Nights, Geist Force, DC version of Shinobi (which wasn't ever officially announced but still), DC version of Gun Valkyrie, that weird game Treasure was making for DC, that game CAVE said they were making for Vita, Nier for Vita. I also tend to think Jet Set Radio Future and Panzer Dragoon Orta may have started out as DC projects, but I have zero proof of that obviously.

For me, Propeller Arena all day, every day; thankfully I got the fully-working (and professionally-done, even if not official) disc back in 2007.

Still one of my favourite games ever and I rock at it ;)
Man, I really need to give that another go now that I'm more into planes and stuff. Produced by Yu and developed by AM2, too.

Edit: Oh and also a rumored DC port of Planet Harriers, can't believe I forgot that one.
 
Omikron-2.png


Omikron-2.png


Nomad Soul: Exodus starts 200 cycles later. Omikron has been transfigured by technology, a high city has been built above the ancient one, the network is omnipresent and anti-gravitational technology has made tremendous advances leading to the development of flying vehicles. The Techno Religion, the official religion, has a major role in this new society. It preaches fusion of man and machine to free Mankind from its physical limits. Its main goal is to process The Great Migration: the global transfer of mankind to the network.

https://omikron.fandom.com/wiki/Omikron_2

:crying:
 
Virtua Fighter 3 for Saturn.

If it even truly exsisted, was it running on stock Saturn hardware? Or was it enhanced by a plug and play 3D graphics card that was supposedly in the works for the Saturn? Was it enabled by new development kits that were coming along late into the Saturn's life span? There is a tech demo sort of game that AM2 did featuring Namie Amuro which served as a demo for a new engine...and it was capable of rendering some pretty impressive character models...the same engine that was said to be powering Saturn Shenmue, so maybe, just maybe it was possible through new development kits that were truly tapping into the untapped potential of the Saturn.

Is there any playable code of it out there? (at all) Could they have pulled off the side step function?...Could AM2 have pulled it off? I mean the VF2 Saturn port was a phenomenal port that exceeded all expectations. So yeah, I have to wonder what VF3 Saturn could have been if it even existed at all.

I guess the closest we got was Fighters Megamix which did feature a lot of VF3 moves and locations.

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These are supposed screenshots from said version....but I have no idea how true that is. It's right up there with the Sega Saturn version of Shenmue for me (which I still wonder if it even was running on stock Saturn hardware)
 
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^ Those VF3 screenshots are from an old Model 3 emulator. There's a few guys on the AssemblerGames forums who've been discussing the mythical VF3 Saturn for over a decade now. I'm not sure we'll ever know what really happened.
 
^ Those VF3 screenshots are from an old Model 3 emulator. There's a few guys on the AssemblerGames forums who've been discussing the mythical VF3 Saturn for over a decade now. I'm not sure we'll ever know what really happened.


Yeah, I didn't think they were. They looked a bit too good...still, makes me wonder how far along it was (if at all)

I still think Fighters Megamix was probably VF3 retooled. Considering there is VF3 BGM music in it and it does have some VF3 movesets.
 
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TimeSplitters 4. Bought an Xbox 360 just for that, but I did get other use out of it.
 
Mega Man legends 3. Damn, i'm no good at traditional megaman games, but I LOVED the legends games!
 
From what Yu Suzuki said about it, it sounded like it got at least to an advanced testing phase, because he said the issue was that people's fingers got too heated up from the large touchscreen. Surely now it could be adapted to phones and tablets. Plus I think I've seen footage of other touchscreen arcade games in recent years. I think it was just another idea that was slightly ahead of its time.

According to my research (for when I wrote my Gamefaqs Top 10 a few years back), they actually shipped a handful of cabs to Australia for testing purposes, got a negative response (for the control method, indeed, as you mentioned) and that was that.

The man is infinitely ahead of his time.

Man, I really need to give that another go now that I'm more into planes and stuff. Produced by Yu and developed by AM2, too.

Indeed; I cracked it out yesterday for the first time in a while, won 7 of the 10 matches (finished 2nd in 2, 3rd in 1) in 33 minutes; a bit rusty and slow off of my previous time, but not bad at all!

I want to get my capture equipment set back up and do a full-length, in-depth video on the game; haven't checked in the past year or so, but there has never been a fantastic-quality vid of the game on YT.
 
A couple games come to mind:
  • Fez 2: I loved the original Fez for what it was and was quite happy to see a trailer for the sequel. That was before it got abruptly cancelled by the dev. Over some Twitter bickering. Makes me glad this guy was not in charge of Shenmue lol. I still check from time to time if it has risen from the ashes, but no such luck so far.
  • I forget the name, but in the light of the Diablo Immortal debacle it was revealed that Blizzard had been toying with different concepts for Diablo, one of them being a Dark Souls inspired version of Diablo. As someone who is a sucker for all the Miyazaki games and love the Diablo universe, that made me real sad that we'll ever be able to experience something like that.
  • A KS I backed that failed was called Echoes of Eternea. This was supposed to be a homage to the oldschool 2D JRPGs like FF or Chrono Trigger. The artwork looked amazing to me and was right up my alley. I think at some point the lead dev just vanished completely and took all assets with him and didn't pay anyone. There's 1 guy still supposedly working on it, but it is unlikely anything will come out of it, or I will die of old age before.
 
Yeah, I didn't think they were. They looked a bit too good...still, makes me wonder how far along it was (if at all)

I still think Fighters Megamix was probably VF3 retooled. Considering there is VF3 BGM music in it and it does have some VF3 movesets.

There's also Shenmue music in Fighter's Megamix as well.


It's a shame no one has directly asked Yu Suzuki about this. I think it's very possible that Shenmue characters could have been intended to be in Fighter's Megamix. I'm surprised no one has ever confronted Suzuki about the cancelled Saturn port of VF3. From what I've seen, it was looking marvelous. Seems backwards to me that he'd be happy to show concepts of the Saturn version of Shenmue, even documents that reveal the entire story. Yet VF 3 Saturn is taboo, there's definitely more to that story that I hope gets revealed one day.
 
There's also Shenmue music in Fighter's Megamix as well.


It's a shame no one has directly asked Yu Suzuki about this. I think it's very possible that Shenmue characters could have been intended to be in Fighter's Megamix. I'm surprised no one has ever confronted Suzuki about the cancelled Saturn port of VF3. From what I've seen, it was looking marvelous. Seems backwards to me that he'd be happy to show concepts of the Saturn version of Shenmue, even documents that reveal the entire story. Yet VF 3 Saturn is taboo, there's definitely more to that story that I hope gets revealed one day.

Wait, the ending to bosses is from Shenmue? I love the tune and it doesn't fit the game, but where is the tune from in 'mue?

That's a different pic of Dural for the ending than my copy, btw (mine is JP).
 
Wait, the ending to bosses is from Shenmue? I love the tune and it doesn't fit the game, but where is the tune from in 'mue?

That's a different pic of Dural for the ending than my copy, btw (mine is JP).

That exact song isn't in Shenmue. But the similarities are obvious. To me it sounds like something that could've been in Shenmue II. Considering that the game was released in 1996, this would've been during the time when Shenmue was knee deep in development on the Saturn. Like you said, it doesn't fit anywhere in the game. Which leads me to believe that some sort of Shenmue involvement was planned and nixed for Fighter's Megamix. Makes even more sense when you think about the fact that at the time it was still VFRPG. The song sounds like one of the many unreleased tracks for Shenmue that Suzuki has referenced in the past.

In a perfect world, I think Ren, Lan Di, Guizhang, Xiuying and even Shenhua could've very well ended up in the Fighter's Megamix if Shenmue released on the Saturn as intended.

Someone needs to ask Yu Suzuki about this in the next meetup
 
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From what Yu Suzuki said about it, it sounded like it got at least to an advanced testing phase, because he said the issue was that people's fingers got too heated up from the large touchscreen. Surely now it could be adapted to phones and tablets. Plus I think I've seen footage of other touchscreen arcade games in recent years. I think it was just another idea that was slightly ahead of its time.

I do vaguely remember that. It just shows he was ahead of his time (granted touchscreens still existed but mostly used for ATMS). His game could her once again certainly have been a unique first
 
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