That is how shit like this actually happens... Microsoft will never just greenlight a sequel to a little niche CRPG that no one has ever heard of. They might be convinced to greenlight an "Enhanced Edition" of the original... Now if that "Enhanced Edition" does shockingly well, financially then an actual sequel becomes at least possible. As mort says though, this all depends on the original creators still having some interest in the project, cuz if they aren't the ones to pitch it, no one will. This is never going to happen, I REALLY wish it would, I love Arcanum, maybe my favorite game of all time, but I will start to consider this a remote possibility when Microsoft announces that the "Arcanum Enhanced Edition" has sold it 1,000,000 copy, that is the only way Microsoft will ever believe that there is an audience for this game big enough to make it worth their $.
I bought a new computer to play it and my graphic whore friend ridiculed me how ugly it looks. He didn't understand, it's the gameplay where it's at. To this day Arcanum has one of the most realized, fleshed out and believable worlds ever created.
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura is the best RPG I ever played. I still have the demo on a demo CD disk from a gaming magazine, and I played that thing to death before the game even released. I found exploits, ways out of the demo area and into areas that weren't supposed to be in the demo. I played every build I could think of, did every quest differently, failed them deliberatly. And every time, I was greeted with a new path forward. Arcanum had a level of depth to everything that I haven't really seen in games since, until maybe BG3. And then there's the setting. Oh my god the setting... It's nerdvana. And the soundtrack blew my mind and sparked a love affair with classical music. It's nothing short of criminal that Troika Games both made this game and Vampire Bloodlines and still went out of business.
Arcanum is the answer to what if you didn’t say no to any ideas. It turned out as a bit of a mess, but one of the best potentials for an idea I’ve ever played. After watching Tim Caine RU-vid channel the past 6 months I would love to see him get it back to see where it could go.
An enhanced edition could be a stepping stone for a true sequel. I am just so curious to see such a project take shape. Arcanum is truly e product of its time, one can only wonder what it would look like done today.
What was best about Arcanum was the world, story and lore - in short the writing. What was worst was the gameplay. A sequel with the same amazing writing but updated gameplay would be on the top of many peoples wishlists.
I've heard Swen at Larian talk a lot about Arcanum in interviews in the last year. Arcanum 2 was one of those things like BG3 that I would hear discussed when I worked on games. It's very much something the industry is pursuing. I would be shocked to find out a design doc isn't being worked on right now
I like BG 1 & 2. Larian's game felt very far removed from those two for me. The last I'm looking for is another D:OS game, so I'd rather not see them approach this and try their usual with Arcanum's setting.
@FretboardToAsh I wouldn't worry too much. I highly doubt Larian will take on Arcanum. It's more that if it's being mentioned at all, it's on the radar. With the success of bg3, there is little to no chance we won't see every large crpg property revived to varying degrees of quality. Larian will either do dlc, a divinity game, or another famous D&D property like ice wind Dale or planescape. Activision was sitting on IP like Arcanum for this exact reason
@@FretboardToAsh @FretboardToAsh What's better, that every Fallout game since Fallout 3 had to become an FPS instead of a turn based game or if there were never any more Fallout games at all after Fallput Tactics? Better to have a somehwat different sequel that still tries to be spiritually faithful to its predecessor then to have no sequel at all
Troika Games are in my list of favorite games ever. I bought ToEE and Arcanum when they launched. These were the days where for me, PC gaming was the best. I miss this era of gaming goodness. It seemed s though games were made by those with passion for games. I understand that money is always a major factor in games, but these people seemed to love what they do and it shows in the gameplay. I hope there is a way for Arcanum to make another appearance, either remake and/or prequel/sequel. Thank you for shedding light on this game and for showing us there may be a chance of more to come in the steam punk magic world of Arcanum.
I'd be cool with a remaster of the first one. Always had an interest in this type of thing, its why I ended up watching Bright. I like to think that's a viable future of the Arcanum world.
A new Arcanum....wow, I could so go for that! I've been engrossed in BG3, and just loving how some of the content made me think of childhood again, back when I was playing the first two. Arcanum would no doubt do the same thing. I still occasionally think back on Arcanum, and it wasn't perfect, but it was completely engrossing.
Have you seen the trailer for New Arc Line game? It is so reminiscent of Arcanum, even the title is like a nudge/wink to Arcanum. I am actually interested to see that game. I guess a good game to monitor if you like Arcanum. Also, kinda odd that a lot of classic JRPG getting remaster to 3D or HD2D, but there's seem no same interest in making 3D remasters to classic Western CRPGs like Baldur's Gate 1-2, Icewind Dale, Arcanum. Would be nice to play almost the actual same game (with a lil bit of balancing maybe and QOL additions), but using now the modern 3D graphics (it doesn't even need to be photo-realistic 3D), and make it easily playable now in modern hardwares/consoles.
Someone could tell Microsoft "this could become YOUR Baldur's Gate 3!" Also BG3 was an example of how a sequel doesn't necessarily need to have many or even any of the O.G. creators working on the sequel for it to be great.
Microsoft has obtained a LOT of juicy IPs and Studios known for their pedigree in RPGs. If they play their hand right and develop sequels to beloved franchises such as another Obsidian Fallout game (New vegas 2 or something else), Arcanum sequel, and somehow getting Troika folks to make a Vampire the Masquerade Sequel amongst other possibilities: they would probably dominate the RPG genre for the foreseeable future
Even if they do just an EE for Arcanum it would be amazing. A sequel would be trickier, mainly because I think they wouldn't have the scope of the original game. One of the greatest things about Arcanum was that you could literally kill everyone and still finish the main quest because there were a lot of considerations for player choice. I think games these days tend to focus more on showy graphics etc. rather than putting time and effort into creating that opportunity for different choices. Even BG3 for all of its success really narrows down what the player can actually do once you leave act I.
I can appreciate that BG3 proves that sequels to long "dead", cult classic game can work, I find myself more appealed by a ground up remake of the original Arcanum. That would be amazing and possibly garner more attention from a wider audience.
This would be amazing. Even an official Arcanum "HD edition" type revamp, with bug fixes, native widescreen support and higher-res textures would be wonderful.
This would be amazing, I am using arcanum as an inspiration for my own game but seeing a proper remake or sequal would be better than anything I can make.
maaan Id give my life for a modern next-genish/UE5 Arcanum remake or Arcanum 2 (sticking strictly to Arcanum setting and lore) the possibilites of that world are endless... what a freaking amazing game that was!
It would be neat to see. I don't see it happening, but I do like the Arcanum setting and think it's a shame it never became more than 1 game. Hope I'm wrong.
I loved this game and I would still play this from time to time. It would be awesome to get a remaster or a true sequel, but i think I'd only would approve of it if it could get the "Larian treatment" :)
I’d love a remaster, even with patches I never managed to get arcanum working so I’d love a chance to play through the original arcanum world. Obviously I wouldn’t complain about a sequel either, just would love to play the OG before I play a sequel.
After the mass market success of BG3 there is a good chance CRPGs might come back as a genre for the big publishers. And even a remake would be fantastic.
I love the concepts contained in Arcanum. Magic vs Tech. I love the way that they did stamina damage to knock you out. I would love to see more in this world. Personally, I would also be fine with either 2D or 3D. I would be ecstatic if they did one of each. I also don't think that it's a major problem that the original developers are involved in other projects. They could have another team develop it, hopefully with some input from the original crew, kind of like how Obsidian did Fallout New Vegas. I just hope that they do the IP justice.
Glad for this video. Made me laugh given my comment on your just prior video where I wished the same. This is a golden time for things to pick up for the series, if there ever was one. Microsoft doesn't need to reinvent the wheel or even create something to compete in ideas and depth as BG3, they now have something that isn't as good as BG3, but could easily sell well enough in this climate if they just fix some of the under lying problems, and make the game more accessible. If thus fervor continues for CRPGs, and this is released timely, I think ti could get enough support for a fullscale remaster or sequel. Hope this is a self fulfilling prophecy!
This game brings back so many memories... i still have the game cd in the original box just for the love of it. For sure i would buy an enhanced version or a second game. PLEASE DO IT!
Interesting setting, would be great if there was at least some enhanced edition released. Not sure if they are really going to resurrect such niche and old IP, but one can hope.
@Mortismal - just a note, Vivendi owned Activition and owned Blizzard. They decided to divest themselves of their games companies and they forced Blizzard (and others) to merge with Activision (so that's why Sierra is under AVB). Vivendi still exists under other entertainment areas (mostly media - so TV, movies).
I'm aware, I try to make videos involving a lot of legal & corporate posturing as simple as possible for people. More specifically Activision merged with Vivendi Games, because they owned Blizzard with Sierra being mostly just an after thought, to make Activision Blizzard with Vivendi continuing to be the majority shareholder until 2013 when AB essentially paid Vivendi to go away by buying out most of their shares thus becoming independent.
I would love a direct sequel, and a remaster for sure… To be honest, the world building for this game was so incredible that I would welcome the Steamworld treatment of this IP. Make a dozen games and a bunch of different genres… There’s so much to explore with this world.
I'd bet we do see more cRPG's in the coming future as a consequence of BG3's success. Hopefully this game gets it's sequel but I would really be surprised if it did. Pleasantly surprised.
I feel lucky that I am old enough to have played this game. It is one of a kind thing. The music plays a great part too. I am not sure if I want a remake. Sometimes a fond memory is better than a disappointed sequel....
The biggest weakness of classic isometric RPGs: DOORS. This was such a great game. I'd completely forgotten about it until your recent videos mentioned it, and now I'm very excited about the potential!
There are so many "dead" IPs they could bring back. I really want to see something done with all of the Infocom properties. I could also see Pitfall coming back if the new Prince of Persia game does well.
Still one of my all-time faves, despite being janky as hell with a ridiculously uneven latter third. It just did so much that was new, and took the rest of the industry a long time to catch up with. Getting the Troika-trio band back together again would be awesome, and especially for this, the only truly original IP that Troika created. But given Microsoft's dismissal of BG3 as revealed in those leaked docs recently, I'm still not sure they understand that there's a market out there for CRPGs. Look at what Obsidian and inXile are both working on at the moment: real-time, first-person action RPGs. To me, that indicates that there's still an old-fashioned executive-level belief that only FPS and third-person games sell. It's an opinion on par with the belief that Nintendo games are only for kids.
Chad Moore, who also worked on Arcanum, is also working with Jason Anderson on Clockwork Revolution. I also think Clockwork Revolution might sort of be a spiritual successor to Arcanum.
Come on, bro, Clockwork Revolution has barely got anything in common with Arcanum. Almost everyone, myself included, are expecting a shoddily made Bioshock Infinite clone.
Would love to see a sequel or even a remaster of this game with everything cleaned up and updated. Other games using this universe would be cool too. Just love the whole steampunk vibe and world they created.
An interesting side effect of Gamepass is that there are definitely games being made that wouldn't otherwise. Im thinking of Pentiment, which is fantastic, and its been stated by the director that it was explicitly only green lighted because of it.
It would be cool but considering MS also bought Obsidian and Pillars 3 hasn't been tried after Pillars 2 kind of did badly I'm not holding out hope. (Avowed looks kind of interesting but not as much as a PIllars game for me).
Josh Sawyer not being involved in Avowed tells me all I needed to know in that the game isn't going to be great - he even publically noted that he wasn't a part of Avowed when someone tagged him on Twitter regarding that latest (might I say, awful in my opinion) gameplay trailer. Unfortunately for Josh, other than perhaps New Vegas, his games have always been on the unfortunate end of... something - either bad release window, bad marketing, or simply just doing poorly for god knows what reason (looking at Pillars of Eternity 2).
@@MaityistIt's really disrespectful to dismiss the talent at obsidian like that. Just cause josh isn't working on it doesn't mean it won't be great. People said the same when Avellone left.
@@rsotuyo15 I am not discrediting them, and did not mean to if it came out that way - but having good project lead and leadership overall can help ground floor devs TREMENDOUSLY, especially if said leadership has a clear vision. With that being said as well, Sawyer and a lot of old school devs seem to look more at home being 'ground floor devs'.
@@Maityist Just about every game Obsidian has made has been good, from Grounded and Pentiment to Fallout New Vegas and The Outer Worlds. There's no reason to believe Avowed won't be, especially considering it's not a game that strays away from the Obsidian formula
@@rsotuyo15Josh said that after Pillars 2, he feels discouraged for making big budget AAA games, thats why he makes Pentiment last year, hope after that he is ready for another big games.
I agree. An enhanced edition of the original could be used to gauge audience interest in the title and could pave way for a sequel. I'd love for that to happen. Arcanum is kind of on the same level as Baldur's Gate (1) for me, although BA is far more polished. I had no idea that one of the devs had a yt channel - will give it a look! Thanks for the info! ;)
Fascinating stuff. I'm more of a Fallout head (FO1 and FO2 mainly) and didn't experience Arcanum at the time. However, I'm very interested in the work of that team from that hallowed time
I'd say take my money now. Seriously, this game holds a very special place in my heart and bring a tear to my eyes when I recall all the good times I had playing it during my yesteryears.
Even Arcanum HD Remaster would be awesome. I would buy it for sure. But the rework or sequel by Obsidian or inXile would be even greater. Amazing addition to Game Pass.
The combo of magic and technology was so damn cool, I couldn't make up my mind which to use so I just wound up with a 50/50 tech/magic character and it worked surprisingly well. Fantastic game, as weird as Planescape Torment was.
I see this news as an absolute win, but like you say in the video, this is completely different from a BG-type situation. Your idea of a MS-backed re-release seems much more realistic (though the kludgy mechanics of the game would still limit its appeal by modern standards). In the month leading up to BG3's release we had indie devs pearl-clutching over whether BG3 was setting the CRPG benchmark too high. Now, on the other side of BG3's release, we have studio leads musing about what they'd do if given a BG3-sized budget. Spoilers: Neither of those things are going to happen.
You know, one way for Microsoft to gain a LOT of goodwill is to scoop up or cultivate all of these flailing RPG devs like Harebrained and the like to develop more RPGs off of the success of BG3, developing old IPs like Arcanum and Shadowrun/Battletech for people to enjoy.
Virgil gets murked in this playthrough and guy doesn't reload for him😢 I've been replaying this lately. Best game of my childhood and it still holds up. I'm keeping the dream alive for a remaster and sequel.
Ok, Arcanum 2, in 2 years, no bugs? (I'm a dreamer, but maybe in 3 years with quite a bag of bugs, and/or in some early access of some sort...?) Thanks for your videos!
Never clicked a video so fast before. :) Hopefully, with the enormous critical and commercial success of BG3, publishers will be more inclined to greenlight new CRPG projects. Fingers crossed!
This never made it on my radar, so this was valuable. Hear of Troika at least. Corporate action wise I'm more interested in what IP HBS exited with during the recent separation from Paradox following the disappointing release of Lamplighters. Particularly what, if anything, of Weisman's stuff they retained. Activision Blizzard...makes what? They were historical curiosities only...to me.
Interesting thought - I actually bought Arcanum back in the day but got distracted with other things and never got far in. I don't think every game needs to be BG3 - something along the lines of what Owlcat produces would be just fine by me [counting days until Rogue Trader releases...]
It's a pretty cool universe, one I feel is worthy of exploring. But of course if enough people aren't interested, it may not make any money a 2nd time around. I also liked the music in this game, really sounded 19th century-ish. Good game, just needed more work on combat to spice it up and bug fixing.
Considering the monumental success of Baldur's Gate 3 recently I think it's pretty likely big publishers will stop looking down on CRPGs like they have for so long and hopefully we'll see an even bigger resurgence in the genre
There might be something to your optimism. It was shortly after Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda, that FO3 became playable on Steam. Onward to 300k. All glory to the algorithm.
I remember being so hyped about this game before it's original release( yeah I'm old). It was good though it was definitely not my favorite isometric RPG of the day. I think the premise and story grabbed me the most. The steampunk/ fantasy world was pretty unique. I would definitely be interested in a remake with updated graphics, mechanics etc
