What ifFinal Fantasywas a one-off like Square had imagined all those years ago? What would the RPG landscape be like? What ifDungeons & Dragonsnever took off as a board game? That’s the bigger question because the mechanics within the pen-and-paper version influenced RPGs in video games completely.
The point is, it’s hard to predict what games will go on and become a franchise and which ones will be one-offs. It could be intentional or non-intentional but there’s no way of knowing if these exampleswill or will not get sequels. For example, it took twelve years to get a sequel toEarthBound. So, whether these examples are right or not, they’re just predictions and ones that hopefully won’t be right for all of the fans out there wishing.
Indivisibleis a turn-based RPG that was going for a Valkyrie Profile vibe. Players could recruit a wide cast of characters and assign them to the four face buttons in battle. It was developed by Lab Zero Games and released in 2019 with fairly positive responses from critics. Unfortunately plans for DLC were canceled by the publisher, 505 Games, and Lab Zero Games was shut down in 2020. It’s hard to make a sequel to a game without a studio so it looks like Indivisible will join hundreds of other one-off RPGs released over time.
Marvel’s Avengersdid not go the way Square Enix had hoped. Everyone was chasing that games as service mentality thatDestinypopularized in the 2010s and the effects can still be felt today. The idea forMarvel’s Avengerswas to create a platform wherein Crystal Dynamics, the lead developer, could drop in new characterswith accompanying storylines. The starting roster was already impressive but the trouble was fans didn’t think there was enough content to keep them coming back quickly enough. While Crystal Dynamics gave it the old college try, they stopped updating the game in March 2023 and it looks like this action RPG experiment is done or at least it is done being supported by Square Enix’s pocketbooks.
Maneaterwas one of the wildest RPGs to launch in 2020. It was released by Tripwire Interactive who are most known for their Killing Floor shooter franchise. Those games are praised for their excessive blood andManeaterdelivers on that promise as well.
Players begin asa baby sharkwho has to grow strong by eating other fish and battling them. There’s even a point where players can go on land to terrorize humans. It was a wild ride that didn’t capture the attention of a lot of people meaning this shark is dead in the water.
Neo: The World Ends With Youwas released in 2021 and even though Neo is in the title, the main character’s name is Rindo. This was a sequel no one saw coming becauseThe World Ends With Youwas such a niche hit on the DS in 2008 in North America. After some mobile ports, it was eventually ported to the Switch too, and then three years later a full-blown sequel emerged. It wasn’t the exact vibe fans were expecting but it still had the makings for another cool action RPGset in Japan. The question is, can lightning strike twice to get a third sequel whenNeo: The World Ends With Youdidn’t hit as hotly as the original? Hard to say.
2021 was a big year for Bandai Namco RPGs, especially from theTales ofside of the studio. In the summer, parts of that team had branched off to work on the newScarlet Nexusproject and then the nextTales oftitle,Tales of Arise, was released a few months later. There will undoubtedly be a new Tales of game soon as it has been a few years now and that’s not counting remasters.Scarlet Nexushas less of a chance to survive though since it mostly ended on a good note despite some questions. Also, it wasn’t as widely praised asTales of Arisedespite it being the more ambitious RPG of the two.
Sea of Starswas released in 2023 and it was Sabotage Studio’s second major game release.Sea of Starsis set to have abig DLC packrelease in 2025, following the same path as Sabotage Studio’s other game, The Messenger which also got one major post-release pack.
Based on these two releases, it could deduced that Sabotage Studio is interested in creating a world for their games and expanding retro game norms beyond nostalgia instead of going into direct sequels. Saying anything more might spoilSea of Starsbut a betting man would put his cards on the table and guess that the developer is going to tackle another genre next.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FEfirst hit the Wii U in 2016 followed by a 2020 launch on the Switch with an improved version. The concept was a bit high-minded as a few high school students get roped into being pop idols all to defeat an encroaching world that is trying to fuse with their reality in Japan. These teens fight back by summoningwarrior ghosts of the past fromFire Emblem. So, it’s basically a turn-based RPG crossing over ideas fromPersonaandFire Emblem. Unlike many other Atlus titles, this one didn’t quite take off on any of the supporting platforms. The game did review generally well but the idol business might have been a bit too much to handle for some RPG fans.
Vanillaware is a bigger example of Sabotage Studio as they’ve been in the business for decades. They have never made a sequel to any of their games. The only things coming close are remasters like the stellar ones forMuramasa: The Demon BladeandOdin Sphere. So, even though their latest game,Unicorn Overlord, got a lot of praise in 2024, it’s unlikely THIS will be the game to break Vanillaware’s cycle. When that day comes, it will be a big deal but fans of Vanillaware will continue to wait and debate on which game will be that chosen sequel.
