The Current State of Every Koei Tecmo Franchise 

Fatal Frame is extremely underappreciated. This series needs really some love. It sells poorly for the quality. But I would put it in 'it exists' because of the 2023 remake of "Mask of the Lunar Eclipse".

Deception & Fatal Frame seriously deserve to be revived. I don't think that Deception has ever been given a fair shot due to the glacial pacing of its gameplay. Fatal Frame has actually been incredibly well executed - but ghosts aren't as hype as zombies. I seriously adore how the game goes from Survival Horror to Arcade Shooter once you get a hang of its Camera Obscura.

Dynasty Warriors Gundam is so underrated, I wish they brought it back...

Koei Tecmo is my golden underdog when it comes to gaming developers. I even tried to get a torrent of night life at some point.

I'm mostly a fan of their historical based stuff. Really wish they would revive the kessen franchise. Those were great games.

If Kai was ranked as a franchise he would be a flagship

Going to point out: The reason Koei Tecmo are 'one of the most overshadowed' is because they CONSTANTLY drop the ball. When they aren't over-monetizing, they are completely screwing the pooch with VERY shoddy ports, leaving too many of their franchises as region-exclusives, or not porting them to platforms where they would thrive. There is also the issue of them leaving franchises that have massive sales potential in present markets MIA. They've also recently had some problems with buying into the 'modern audiences' schtick and restricting/altering their games to follow the fail trend. DOA in particular got effected by this, I'll bring DOA up later, as it and Soul Calibur were the only fighting games I really got into back in the day. Tam Ninja seem to be the only one of their umbrella teams that actually has their crap together and bothers with trying to get good PC ports out, as well as trying to actually improve their games between sequels. They are closely followed by the team doing the Atelier franchise, although that does tend to be more stagnant. Koei Tecmo makes niche ames, yes, but hey don't do enough to keep those niche games reaching the audience. Mind you, I come from the perspective of having been a PC player since the latter half of the PS3/360 era. DOA as a good example: It got RUINED by the level of microtransactions it was flooded with, using DOA6 (DOA5 is NEARLY as bad)as an example: 2-4 dollar costumes for INDIVIDUAL costumes, some of the season passes being 90 bucks a whack, and generally just racked up over 1k dollars worth of DLC, with even buying as season passes and collections leaving you at 500 dollars plus in the hole. Yes, it's mostly cosmetics, but that doesn't change the disgusting monetization practices and the utterly abysmal support, especially with regards to PC versions. It wasn't helped by the story stuff completely losing it's footing. DOA wound up an example of most of Koei Tecmos problems sitting in one package, between 5 and 6. They also got shafted by EVO (and other major tournaments afterward) jumping on the social messaging train and not allowing it, which is basically a death blow to a fighting game franchise. That one, at least, was outside KT's control, although in the aftermath of it, they seem to have taken that to mean they should 'tone down' the series or generally pretend it doesn't exist. There's also concerns with DOA related stuff in particular due to Sony's current censorious approach.

Honestly a Star Wars: Dynasty Warriors game would be sick

Really glad you did the koei-tecmo franchises ranking video. Didn’t even knew they have a lot of franchises. I only knew tecmo bowl (because ScrewAttack talked about it a lot back then), monster rancher, dead or alive, ninja gaiden, project zero (fatal frame in europe), nioh and all those dynasty warriors games and spin-offs. Really enjoyed the video. Also i still think you need to do a video on snk or arc system works or ubisoft.

One franchise you missed was the Warship Gunner series. These were action games where you built up a fleet of ships but could only use one at a time (the other ships stay docked). Your ships initially used World War 2 technology but through research and item capture, you could end up with lasers, wave motion guns and other sci-fi tech.

Honestly im surprised we haven't gotten a Ninja Giaden Warriors game. They could bring in so many of their characters for it.

Hey i saw all your videos i love this series... Subscribed!

Awesome video. Had to subscribe

Have you done a video like this about either the Spike Chunsoft and Level-5 franchises? Because I think it would be interesting to see how some of their wackier franchises are faring.

Awesome video, Subbed!

warrior genre games are just stupid fun simply due to the fact you can mow down a ton of enemys. its always satisfying to me

Ah……Ninja Gaiden. The only game that kicks more ass than the kickass ninja himself. Great job with this video, friend. :)

12:18 I really like the Deception games. They're like Home Alone if it was set in a fantasy RPG world, with quite a bit of humor in some of the traps that you can set. There's not enough funny/slapstick RPGs out there. Hopefully the franchise isn't dead, and we get a Deception 5 someday. An N Sane Trilogy/Reignighted style remake/compilation of some of the earlier titles with updated graphics and more traps would be fine as well.

Im still hoping they make a Final Fantasy Warriors game oneday

I wish they'd make a modern Tecmo Bowl, even without the NFL license

22:45 Small mistake here. Omega Force is responsible for the action versions of Nobunaga's Ambition and ROTk, ie: Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors and other ARPG games. Nobunaga's Ambition and ROTK are developed by the Shibusawa Kou brand.

Thank you for this trip down memory lane. I remember playing some of the R3K games on the Super Nintendo, along with Aerobiz. I would really love to see some new entries in the Monster Rancher and Deception franchises, but trying to ask for anything from KT is like talking to a brick wall. Heck, if we're talking about dream game/franchise revivals, the Ar Tonelico/Ar Nosurge franchises both rest with KT and Gust, and i would be thrilled to see another entry in that world.

I was waiting for this one

Koei Tecmo has been doing well with the warriors spin offs the bast few years, I'm also interested in games like Nights of Azure, Blue Reflaction and Toukiden.

I'm currently playing Dead Or Alive 5 and I'm having a lot of fun. I didn't appreciate it enough back at the day.

Great, I was wondering when you would make a new one of this. Hope you can make either SNK, Microsoft or Level 5 next. 😄👍

Thanks RU-vid for recommending me this video. This is very well done and it's an interesting video, some series I didn't know until now are here. Being someone obsessed with Blue Reflection and with how much I love the characters, the graphics and the music, I can't help but wonder if we'll get more Blue Reflection content after Blue Reflection Sun.

Atelier I hope we can get another Blue Reflection, Night of the Azure and Fatal Frame somewhere in the future.

It’s not surprising that KT is so overshadowed; KT is notoriously known for communicating as minimally as possible to anyone outside japan, even their own CMs in their official discord (because those are from the NA office)

I love the Gust and DOA line of games from KT! Blue Reflection and Atelier games need to keep coming out!

They own some of my fav franchises, ninja gaiden and doa, i pray they come back. Love atelier and fatal frame too.

Really enjoyed both Blue Reflection games, hope the series continues

I love Kessen! I prefer the first game's historical and realistic style and atmosphere. But I also love Kessen 3's more engaging and interactive gameplay. I liked Kessen 2 and its fantasy take on Romance of the three kingdoms. But Kessen 3's middle ground take on the Sengoku Jidai period and the departure from Kessen 1's style also rubbed me the wrong way at first. But the depth of leveling up your officers, and classes, abilities and equipment combined with units almost like an RPG was great. And it still kept enough of the DNA from the first game in its storytelling and cutscenes. Its a shame that there never was a Kessen 4. I would have loved a more grounded experience like the first game with gameplay elements from the 3rd game focusing on Toyotomi's consolidation of Japan after Nobunagas death (which should have been the last part of kessen 3 instead of the "what if Nobunaga lived" scenario). And the Imjin war and rivalry between Toyotomi and Tokugawa, leading up to Kessen 1. We got the spiritual successor Bladestorm. But it was even more rediculous and the anime style which Kessen slowly adopted and which worked in Kessen 3 just didn't lend itself very well to the medieval setting of the 100 years war.

Missing Ar Tonelico, but it was a great video. 😁

I wasn't expecting a tier list

The Atelier series is originally developed by Gust. Koei Tecmo supports publishing

I'm a big warriors fan. Made guides for steam versions of SW4 and 5. So happy to see PC versions, even with the problems. SW2 was the first game that made me cry and the first intro to the warring states. I spent days making weapon codes on the codemasters forum for the codebreaker/gameshark. It was slow, sluggish, and fun as hell. I'd love to see SW3 and SW4empires on the PC. Long shot, but maybe one day we'll get like a pack of SW1-3 on a collection release. Kessen and Toukiden was great too. I dunno about how fans in general felt, but I spent a lot of hours on Kessen. Replaying it over and over. That last battle was always cool at that big open area. And I remember thinking the armor costumes were so cool. Especially Masamune's.

starting off with some toukiden music, this vids gonna be good

From Wikipedia: Since its debut in 2001, the Fatal Frame series has sold 1.3 million copies worldwide.[75] The article this number is from is from 2014. No way this is accurate now.

Ninja Gaiden was originally a beat'em up arcade game that was extremely hard. Ryu had a punch combo and a leaping throw, that's about it. He can temporarily get a sword as a power-up but damn he was frail. If I remember correctly, he didn't have a health gauge instead he had a few health blocks that disappears when he gets knocked down.

This is so specific. But this is specifically directed at me. Pretty neat.

I learned Koei Tecmo because back when I got a PS 2 it had DW 2 with it. After that I was hooked. I played all DW and SW and Orochi and PW games and some of the expansions too...

quick note that a month ago, the director of wo long masakazu hirayama said that there are no plans for a new ninja gaiden at the moment. i'd probably put the series into the life support category, tbh

Warriors Orochi got me into the mosou type games, and Samurai Warriors made me stay.

Thanks for the vid... I am one of those who is still mad about the lack of a Toukiden 3. Heck, I'm still mad about all the untranslated banter from 1 and 2! 🤣

Fate koei techmo seems great. I might going to buy it in the future.

doa will forever be the most underated fighter of all times 6 flopped but up to 5 ultimate it deserves way more respect its great

I love this series! You should consider covering Atari or Ubisoft next.

Rygar is in nioh...kinda. there's an npc you can fight called reboot rygar. He even has dialogue when you beat him. Oh and you can play a ryu In nioh 2 as a collaboration for the ninja gaiden master collection

Monster Rancher, my series above all others, brought me here. To me, that's KT.

Hell yeah! 😊

Ahh Rygar. What a classic. I say it's time to revisit making a new one. The PS2 release was pretty good too.

Nice, I bet the Microsoft video is going to be a three part, and IDK what's left you got Ubisoft, EA, 2K for outside of Japan video game publishers as for Japanese publisher you can do SNK, Level 5 and Nihon Falcom/NIS America are big enough companies to do a video

This is so crazy how this video recently came out. I was literally just talking about how big koei tecmo probably is cause of all those warriors games

35:49 The inverted Nioh logo irks me to no avail... HOIN!

Dead or alive is my most wanted game to make come back anytime sooon the better (although second surely would be ninja gaiden series) both deserve so high for me

Nioh 2 is my favorite game of this company. As for my wishlist, a new Ninja Gaiden, Toukiden and DOA.

Would you like to see you tackle SNK sometime. They got some interesting IPs too.

Blue Reflection Sun just announced EOS for May 29 reminder that this was the "last piece" to come out as part of that Blue Reflection super project back in 2021 sooo what's in store for this series now?...

Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors and DRAGON QUEST HEROES as well. There have been 2 games of each.

Un video que no pedi pero que necesitaba

I honestly did not know Nobunaga's Ambition was one of Koei Tecmo's biggest franchise. I guess that explains why Pokemon Conquest exists.

God I loved Mystic Heroes, I remember playing with a friend and from time to time I quote to him, "Mystic Heroes!" like the title screen, lol.

One piece's warrior series for me is the definitive one piece experience since the attacks in one piece are usually massive anyway

As someone who plays fighting games, Nioh is the only ARPG out there with combat mechanics anywhere near those of a fighting game. The potential of builds, combos, cancels, techs etc. completely overshadows any ARPGs out there.

I'm still waiting for Ninja Gaiden 4 and Night of Azure 3.

I really really hope they can do another Kessen game as that series was so unique. I love the squad tactical combat with different unit types, kinda like Fire Emblem but real time. Blade Storm was an attempt to continue the series under another name but I don't think it did too good. The only thing comparable that I found was Kingdom Under Fire but that series was leaning a bit too much into action combat and ultimately disappeared as well.

I love Monster Rancher! I hope they continue making new MR games.

damn, watching this video really made me miss dynasty warrior games. dynasty warriors 9 was the biggest let down for me in the histroy of gaming and i really wish we get the good ol style of map based warrioirs instead of open world

Reminder that this list is for game series with more than one entry. That being said, one series that Koei made that wasn't on the list, that has 2 entries published, was Crimson Sea. TBF the first game was an Xbox exclusive while the second was a PS2 exclusive. And like a child from a broken home, it was thoroughly neglected by both fathers (Sony and Microsoft) until it was abandoned by the mother (Koei), firmly landing it in the "Dead or Finished" category.

I only know about Tecmo for those Random NES sports games.

Soooo... am i the only one who recognized pangya instantly at the beginning of the vid? Not gonna lie, that brought back memories and i miss it so

My favorite part about Koei Tecmo is how they'll sell the exact same game over and over that hasn't improved mechanically since the PS2 and charge 60 bucks for it for forever. And give me my warship gunner 3!

I think it would have been fair to put Dynasty Tactics into Zombie at least. Godseekers that came out in 2016 is for all intents and purposes a Dynasty Tactics spinoff.

Can you actually imagine they do that star wars crossover you mentioned earlier for DW vader in middle of a battle 1 v 1 guan yu ?

Super swing golf was co-developed with Korean studio Ntreev, which is the developer of Pangya. Ntreev usually made online games, but they were bought by NC soft at 2015. NC soft is infamous in South Korea, like EA or Activision. So, IP itself belongs to NC soft, and of course, they shut down the Ntreev studio and made a mobile version of old games, which means the down-graded & hell of micro-transaction. So... Super swing golf is technically not a KoeiTechmo`s franchise. But who cares, it is dead, you are correct. I was not crying while writing this.

I showed my wife monster rancher. When the monster died of old age she got upset and quit.

You missed out on Winning Post, would belong on the Mainstay tier with over a dozen releases including one here in the west on the Saturn. Unlike the other two horse racing games, WP was about the business side of horse racing. At least it was back in the day.

Taishi Ci in DW2 will always be my antagonist 😅

Kessen gameplay is one of my favorite back then it's sad that they did't continue it, And Why Dinasty Tactic is not mentioned here are they not koei?

Saying the average gamer wouldn't know the studio behind the numerous hack-and-slash spinoffs of popular franchises is a highkey insult to intelligence.

I'd place ninja gaiden higher up on that tier list. that game series was fire as a kid. it was on some dark souls level of difficulty

Actually that horse game has had region locked games since 2020. And 2021 international version but not steam. Currently a new horse games coming out next week. Steam demo already out.

They should focusing more on the "Big Three" warriors franchise instead of the licensed games tbh.

Man im waiting for years for Ninja Gaiden 4 or a Reboot 😢

You'd think with all these games, they wouldn't fucking mess up Dynasty Warriors 9 and Empires. Truth to be told I never even heard of Koei Tecmo until Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires as well. It scratches that "1 vs. 1000" itch like no other game has, but now everything has to be quasi souls-like. Great. Just fantastic.

I wonder if now is the appropriate time for Koei Tecmo to tackle an Atelier Warriors entry. Given they've amassed quite the source material for it by now, and their Ryza trilogy really put(and is still putting) a lot of eyes not just on the Atelier franchise. But Koei Tecmo overall! Given I keep noticing a lot of their modern titles mentioned here are getting a lot of reprint support as of late. Over their big Nioh & Ryza exposure boom.

The things I would do to get a new kessen game 😢 the amount of hours I spend on Kessen 2 is crazy

Ahh winback now I haven’t heard that name in long time in long time. But I hope get winback revived someday

I love the DOA series, and my girlfiend loves the Atlier series. Pretty funny to think they come from the same publisher.

I love PTO IV, still playing it for time to time, shame the franchise is dead

Funny enough, Winning Post is ANOTHER KOEI horse series, but a horse-raising and racing simulation made in 1993. Latest one came out as recent as 2023!

Can we please get a new Nights of Azure Arnice was such a great character, and the servan system was cool

The thought occurred to me. How many devs wish their most popular product was something else they made instead of what actually put them on the map irl? Cuz I know there’s some devs who are probably slapping themselves in the face seeing as fan made “spiritual successors” expanded upon something else than what they expected us to fall in love with

Blue Refection was OK, but the music is GOD TIER! Highly recommended listening it separately

You forgot Bladestorm The Hundred Years' War (2007) and Bladestorm Nightmare (2015) by Omega-Force.

omg i loved monster racer i didnt know there was more than just the ds game. i wish they made a new game it was so fun

Hm, what is the point of declaring rules and promtly deciding not to follow them? Oh well. At least I see somebody who probably played more Koei game than myself, it's pretty rare. Maybe I should try all that horse games just for bragging rights. Dynasty Warriors Tactics techically ended with Dynasty Warriors Godseekers. It's not a part of the serries officially, but it is the same for it as a Bladestorm is for Kessen. Intended successor that flopped way too hard to continue. Nobunaga Ambitions and it's spinnoff series Romance of the Three Kingdoms (okay, they both influencing enough to be counted as separate) also have other spinoffs, Genghis Han, Bandit Kings of Ancient China (Suikoden but not the one everyone loves) and L'Empereur. About Attack on Titan. I remember devs once talked how The Final Battle dlc for Attack on Titan 2 going to be last time they are working on the frachise. And honestly, this DLC make the game much much better and different than Attack on Titan 2. Edit: By the way, you forgot about Captain Tsubasa, which originally was Tecmo series.

Aot and aot2 is the most diverse koei tecmo gameplay I've experienced. I wish they'd continue it.

Kagero deception 2 was one of my favorite ps1 games