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[exmachina64]

Guess Phazon and I are the only people on the planet who want a new traditional Metroid.

I do too.

 

[NeonZ]

Xenoblade X was Nintendo's big budget console RPG. I don't think Retro would be able to do it better than Monolith.

Xenoblade X has been described by its own director as not having enough budget for a driven cinematic story...

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

Team Ninja might be doing the next Metroid

Spoiler

#Troll

 

[Roo]

Team Ninja might be doing the next Metroid

Spoiler

#Troll

In all fairness, TN were the least guilty of the whole Other M fiasco. I think they would make a good Metroid game if they had the right direction

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Xenoblade X has been described by its own director as not having enough budget for a driven cinematic story...

I need a link to this

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

What a shame, the "Retro is working on fucking Donkey Kong" thread was hilarious.

 

[Rambler]

In all fairness, TN were the least guilty of the whole Other M fiasco. I think they would make a good Metroid game if they had the right direction

Team Ninja took everything they learned from Other M and applied it to Ninja Gaiden and now that series is dead too.

 

[TDLink]

I disagree. I think they could and I would find it tens times more appealing.

What exactly is that thinking based on? Retro has never made a RPG. Metroid Prime is a great world but it is also not -that- large and very interconnected. And their world design since that game became more and more fragmented. Retro hasn't made a bad game yet but I don't think you could just throw them at an open world RPG ala Skyrim or something and instantly have it turn out well. Their team isn't actually that large.

I'd like a game that is somewhat more influenced by the great Western RPGs, I suppose. But yeah, I actually forgot about Xenoblade X

I think Xenoblad X has a lot of western influence. It's kind of a nice blend of both western and eastern sensibilities. I also think its world is probably the most expansive/interesting out there. Stuff like Witcher 3 or Skyrim tend to be somewhat samey but Xenoblade X does make you feel like you're in alien worlds. And the progression of traversing everything on foot to traversing in a mech to being able to fly feels extremely satisfying and well done.

All that said, Aonuma has talked a lot about making the next Zelda more Skyrim-like in terms of world design so that may be what we get.

Xenoblade X has been described by its own director as not having enough budget for a driven cinematic story...

I haven't seen this before but assuming it's true, I don't think that implies the game didn't have a big budget. It just means that it didn't have an even bigger budget. The world is massive for a single player/not MMO RPG and I honestly believe it's currently unrivaled in that space. FF15 may prove to be a contender though. The story in the game is pretty trash but that seems to be a creative decision rather than a budgetary one. The game does have cinematics, they're just wasted on dumb stuff that isn't particularly good for the most part.

 

[James Scott]

In all fairness, TN were the least guilty of the whole Other M fiasco. I think they would make a good Metroid game if they had the right direction

Team Ninja couldn't even do their own franchise justice with NG3 releasing a few years later suffering from similar issues such as poor cutscenes, story, and gameplay. While Sakamoto likely deserves a large part of the blame, I don't think excusing Team Ninja because they said so is wise either.
I'd honestly rather they didn't touch Nintendo franchises with their recent output.

Xenoblade X has been described by its own director as not having enough budget for a driven cinematic story...

I believe the quote mentioned something along the lines of them not being able to do a game of this scope with expensive cutscenes and a deep narrative so they chose to emphasize world size and gameplay.
Hopefully they can use what they invested in XCX for something deeper next time

I disagree. I think they could and I would find it tens times more appealing.

They haven't made an RPG or a game with a compelling narrative. Not sure how you could be confident in them being able to ace both more than the dedicated RPG studio

 

[Vena]

Retro is totally making Eternally Dark Soulsness.

Xenoblade X was Nintendo's big budget console RPG. I don't think Retro would be able to do it better than Monolith.

Xenobalde was made on a shoestring budget by AAA standards.

 

[NeonZ]

I need a link to this

I haven't seen this before but assuming it's true, I don't think that implies the game didn't have a big budget. It just means that it didn't have an even bigger budget. The world is massive for a single player/not MMO RPG and I honestly believe it's currently unrivaled in that space. FF15 may prove to be a contender though. The story in the game is pretty trash but that seems to be a creative decision rather than a budgetary one. The game does have cinematics, they're just wasted on dumb stuff that isn't particularly good for the most part.

http://www.gamereactor.eu/articles/368023/Tetsuya+Takahashi+Talks+Xenoblade+Chronicles+X/

That's the interview I was referencing.

In RPG development, the sections that cost the most are the cut scenes and events in the main story. Since this is Monolith Soft's first high-definition open world title, we decided to focus less on these and instead shift our resources into improving the quality of the gameplay - which is most important - especially the "hack and slash" combat. This is the reason that we decided to make the player's character an avatar without a real personality. In exchange, we focused on designing lots of quests, and added a lot of supporting characters related to these. Many people in the development team were involved with these supporting characters, and I think we have been able to give them all strong, distinct personalities.

Xenoblade X seems to have less actual full motion cutscenes (rather than just the ones with characters standing around doing preset animations) than the original Xenoblade. So I think the limit of their resources definitely showed there. Of course, it is high budget compared to something like Neptune, but it's clearly not AAA either.

 

[bachikarn]

And what is the logic behind that exactly? They have people still there that worked on the Prime games. Check out Linkedin and you can see the profiles of many Retro employees include games dating back to the first Prime. But somehow it's better to give it to a studio that has no experience with Metroid at all? And then there is the fact that A Western developer working on a Metroid game right now, and look how that is turning out. Personally I'm down with whatever Retro chooses to develop, but I don't think the reason they aren't working on Metroid (if this RUMOR is to be believed) is because they can't, or aren't suited, as you said.

Well, that's why I asked if there were still a lot of staff members from the Prime series still there. Some people made it seem like a lot of them left.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

This was not directed at me, but the poster you quoted was responding to me. And this is kind of the point I was trying to make. No matter how minimal Miyamoto's involvement in a game, it seems he either gets all the credit or blame for a game depending on how it turns out.

I think this is a very outdated thinking of Miyamoto's perception. I don't think anyone gives all the credit to Miyamoto for Metroid Prime or Super Mario Galaxy. In fact the only projects, I've seen people attribute to Miyamoto in recent years has been Paper Mario, Pikmin and Star Fox.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Well, that's why I asked if there were still a lot of staff members from the Prime series still there. Some people made it seem like a lot of them left.

Most of the original Metroid Prime staff, especially the leads, are all gone from Retro Studios. I think only Mark Hutchinson is there from the original staff. But I mean, it doesn't mean much who is there, it's about the team and the vision. I don't think it matters if NLG or Retro Studios was developing MP, Kensuke Tanabe would be calling the shots either way and Federation Force is what he wants.

 

[udivision]

Xenobalde was made on a shoestring budget by AAA standards.

I think you're right, and it was obvious in some areas.

 

[Dark Cloud]

I think you're right, and it was obvious in some areas.

I can't blame Nintendo for not giving them lots of money. Nintendos AAA really isn't every other devs "AAA". Nintendo knew this wasn't going to sell millions and millions anyways.

 

[udivision]

I can't blame Nintendo for not giving them lots of money. Nintendos AAA really isn't every other devs "AAA". Nintendo knew this wasn't going to sell millions and millions anyways.

That's true. Even as someone who likes XCX, I do wonder if it was even worth the budget spent on it.

 

[VLQ]

Most of the original Metroid Prime staff, especially the leads, are all gone from Retro Studios. I think only Mark Hutchinson is there from the original staff. But I mean, it doesn't mean much who is there, it's about the team and the vision. I don't think it matters if NLG or Retro Studios was developing MP, Kensuke Tanabe would be calling the shots either way and Federation Force is what he wants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Haigh-Hutchinson

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

x

 

[mikefrails]

Ya don't say?

 

[plufim]

That's true. Even as someone who likes XCX, I do wonder if it was even worth the budget spent on it.

I'd argue yes as Monolith tech is used in other Nintendo games. I'd wager in this case Zelda WiiU will lean heavily on the XCX engine, making it a worthwhile investment