Konami is a different breed of video game developers. If they aren’t killing off their franchises, they will turn them into pachinkos, no matter how popular. At least my two favorite of them, Castlevania and Yugioh, have some awesome animated series. Thank you, Kai. This is a brilliant episode.
You know It’s depressingly bad when even so many of their flagship franchises haven’t had a new entry in years 🤣 Although hopefully that will change very soon like you said. Things are definitely looking up with recent pushes in certain franchises like Castlevania, Silent Hill, and Metal Gear. But with so many of the original creators gone from them I worry how they’ll fair going in drastically different creative directions. We’ll definitely find out 😅
I am definitely sceptical and not building up any hype. While Konami is reviving some of their big franchises the development teams that they are getting to work on them aren't great and I don't think are up to the task of doing these great games justice.
@@Gatorade69 I recommend 9 years of Shadow, It's like Castlevania. It even has Michiru Yamane as the composer. The creator of Silent Hill is making a Horror game called Slitterhead. There's also Volume, It's based on classic Metal Gear.
I believe they don't have a lot of publishing games, aside from Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, the other games are all developed but published by other companies such as Bandai Namco and Atlus (SEGA)
@@NetBattler Metal Gear Master Collection, Metal Gear Solid Delta, Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Castlevania Advance Collection, Contra Anniversary Collection, Contra Project Galuga, Suikoden I & II HD, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill F, Silent Hill Townfall... We can joke all we want, but gradually they're coming back. Now Castlevania is still waiting on its proper turn, but the collections bode well.
I’m someone who never even grew up with Konami, I only really learned about them through other peoples love of their games. But even so, it pains me to see the low effort path they have gone down, sabotaging the metal gear/silent hill devs while milking the franchise for everything they can. It sucks to be someone that just got into castlevania or metal gear knowing that nothing else will ever come out
I know the "English releases only" rule makes sense for a video in English, but Tokimeki Memorial is so significant to game history (for better or for worse), it's a shame not to see it mentioned.
If not part 2 then I do wonder. Wondering the same for Love Plus (DS, 3DS, arcade pretty sure and DS is eng translatsd 3DS and arcade aren't 3DS started but stopped if remember correctly) as well. Besides no DDR here so Part 2 would have that the biggest dancing game of the time. You'd assume they can't forget it. Besides Lunar Knights and others I just searched up now for something else before returning to this video.
Yeah, and not seeing Power Pros not being in mainline just feels wrong with how big the series is for Konami. It would be like leaving Castlevania out. And I haven't played Tokimeki memorial 1, but TM 2 was pretty interesting that the game would demand from you a whole memory card so that your 2 closest romantic interests could pronounce your name. I went with someone else though, lol. The puyo puyo-like puzzle games were also pretty nice.
The refresh of Boktai IP maybe was because for the Megaman BN Legacy Collection games where, since BN4, there are a lot of cameos of Boktai characters, to the point when in BN6, one of the bosses was from Boktai instead of only use battle chips.
Eiyuden Chronicles is a Rabbit & Bear game, not Konami. the 2012 game is not called Genso Suikoden, it’s called Gensō Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki. Genso Suikoden is the Japanese name of the franchise.
I would love for you to do a western publisher at one point. EA would give Konami a run for its money when it comes to great dead franchises. Ultima, Dungeon Keeper, Wing Commander, Populous, Sim City,...
And you forgot about Konami's dating sim that was popular in Japan, Tokimeki Memorial. I believe this series is going to be either in Flagship or Mainstays, since the last game in 2021.
If there's gonna be the "current state of every Square-Enix franchise", are Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Hitman going to be included even though they aren't the company's ips anymore?
i still miss the yugioh games that just let you run around and duel characters in a overworld as you collect cards. just imagine being able to explore all the cool locations in yugioh in 3d
Regarding Salamander, you forgot to mention an important thing. Salamander in Japan and Europe are the same but in America, Konami changed it to Life Force. Not only the name is different but the gameplay is different too. Life Force plays very similarly to the classic Gradius where you would pick powerups to cycle through the one you wanted in the bar. For Famicom, Konami still retained the Salamander name but the gameplay used the style from Life Force. For Life Force, it remains the same as its arcade counterpart. Btw, you forgot to mention Racing Jam and Thrill Drive.
Uhhh that’s not entirely true Life Force in NA is the same as Salamander but the background is different and that’s it and later Konami Released the Japanese version of Life Force which does retain the Gradius Power Up Bar and doubling down on the organic theme and redrew the bosses. as for the Famicom it was released as Salamander and Life Force to their native regions and only difference is the title screen, ending and able to have 3 options on screen instead of 2 but yes the Famicom port is a mix of Salamander and Life Force using the same power up bar and being original as well.
Weird how not a single new Konami IP has been created since the 2000s, nor even any notable licensed IP. (I still think licensed stuff and Western-only IP should be listed separately to avoid confusion and for the sake of fairness) Show how much work Konami has to do to redeem themselves. Hyped for SNK, Squeenix, and the revised version of Nintendo.
Konami has nothing to do with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, it's a spiritual successor to Suikoden as it's being made by people who worked on the Suikoden games, even Yoshitaka Murayama and Junko Kawano are on the team. It was Kickstarter a campaign.
Hopefully, now that Contra is making a comeback with a new game and Rocket Knight Adventures is getting a remaster, Konami can finally start to become a respectful company once again.
1:12:47 "And to this day, [In The Groove] has been remembered as an inferior B-grade ripoff series." ITG and ITG2 in particular still has one of the most sought-after cabinets of any place-foot-on-arrow-style game. In good condition ITG2 cabs can go for around $10k now. Additionally, it's _sorta_ not dead. StepmaniaX is its replacement. Both ITG/ITG2 and SMX are based off of the open-source Stepmania game. The gameplay is mildly changed - the arrows are now bars kinda like Pop'n or Rock Band, and I think they add in the center panel as well, but the SMX cabs are leaps and bounds better than anything Konami has ever had manufactured. And it's also pretty common to find old DDR cabs converted to run ITG2 or Stepmania (non-X - the base one.) If you ever see a "Simply Love" title screen in an arcade or at a convention, that's running the open-source knockoff of ITG2. And currently, the most up-to-date version of Stepmania is a fork called ITGmania. So much for it being inferior :)
They were _really_ pushing Capsule Monsters as a companion game to Duel Monsters (the card game) early in the franchise, both even began as games in the Season 0 menagerie of different Yu-Gi-Oh! games before the TCG took off as the winning formula that defined the rest of the franchise.
Every few entries I'd be hit by the thought "omg this was just the West-adjacent; imagine the FULL LIST". It'd be so upsetting to see my life work end up being shelved by executives instead of being allowed to exist, let alone be preserved.
And also the Bishi Bashi series, which had a few English releases here and there and lasted from 1996 to 2018, the Thrill Drive series, which was the precursor to Criterion's Burnout and lasted from 1998 to 2007, the Mocap series, which consisted of motion controlled sports games like Mocap Boxing, Mocap Golf and finally Mocap Sports, lasted from 2001 to 2009, and finally the World Combat duology, which had World Combat (Warzaid) and Wartran Troopers, from 2002 to 2004.
I would argue that Suikoden is more likely on Life Support, given that the compilation is likely to be delayed, and it's spiritual successor, Eiyuden, isn't even being developed by Konami, but by 505 Games.
This is such a great series. I just got into Castlevania. Also I might be wrong but was Bayonetta absent from the SEGA franchise? It's newer and still current so it's understandable but she is a big SEGA character
Bayoneta Is a SEGA character but Sega had nothing to do with Bayoneta 2 and 3 Nintendo published those games, with Platinum Games developing all three games, Bayoneta begin to be relevant again because of Nintendo, so is safe to say is a Nintendo IP somewhat
@@piranhaplant8483 Sega still owns both characters and IP(you still see Sega's name on all Bayonetta related things). Nintendo publishes the games only Nintendo platforms, like they did with Fatal Frame.
I opened this specifically to see Ganbare Goemon mentioned. I loved the N64 games as a kid, they seemed so bizarre. When I was older I obtained all the Super Fami games (and system to play them on) as well as the DS game, which I managed to play through most of with little to no understanding of the story due to language. But that one kills me the most, I never understood why they let Goemon slip. The horrible tease is how they had released things on virtual console from NES & SNES, and the GB game but skipped 64, and they continuously release Mr Goemon arcade game. A handful of years ago Goemon was featured in pachislot games in Japan as well. I would suggest it’s maybe a zombie or purgatory type thing rather than flat out dead… but no new entries and I’d be steamrolled flat if they ever did again.
I really hope that Konami collaborated with ArtPlay/Inti Creates to finish off where they started with a 1897 and 1999 game. I have a feeling that we will be getting them just due to the success and popularity of Castlevania and Bloodstained. After that, I don’t need more Castlevania. Also love that you mentioned Tengai Makyo, because it is very unknown in the west due to difficulties in localizing cutscenes. Although it was the first JRPG to have voice acting.
Not the biggest konami fan but I really glad you covered konami. By the way i think you need to do a video on snk or tecmo or arc system works. Edit: i just watch the rumble roses part i think it’s on zombie than death. It’s in the same situation with bloody roar. Also reiko the main character from this franchise was in super bomerman r games.
a heads up, Eiyuden Chronicle isn't a Konami games, all the devs who worked on Suikoden had enough of Konami and left and built their own studio, that game is now being called Eiyuden Chronicle as they don't have the rights to the Suikoden name.
As an MSX and later Turbo-grafx/PC Engine player, these games represent a huge part of my childhood and teenage years... So many many great franchises...
As a Suikoden fan, I'd be surprised if we ever see anything tangible from the series again. Yes, they announced the HD Remaster for 1 and 2, but the only information they've given for that in the last 8 months was, "yeah, it's not coming out this year". I wholly expect it to be canceled and they never speak of it again.
Part 2? No Love Plus (DS, 3DS, Arcade), Thrilldrive (many versions), GTI Club also ma U entries arcade, PS3, PSP, Wii, otherwise or Coded Arms (1, Contagion, Assault ccancelled)
And also Tokimeki Memorial, the Mocap series (Mocap Boxing, Mocap Golf, Mocap Sports), Steel Chronicle (Vanilla, Be, Be Xross Arms, Victroopers), Mahjong Fight Club series, Quiz Magic Academy series, Baseball Heroes series, and finally the World Combat duology (World Combat/Warzaid, Wartran Troopers)
Some of these need a comeback, like Gradius, we need a Gradius VI already, Contra, I don’t count Rogue Corps, Lethal Enforcers, the third game needs a console port, a new Star Soldier title we so need as well, R didn’t feel like a good game to go out on…
Hopefully some of these franchises can come back. Some of these are interesting IPs. Edit: Did you forget about Esper Dream. It was like two games for the Famicom Disk System. Edit 2: Forgot to mention Rengoku as well. And I think one more Hudson Soft IP like Galaxy Fraulein Yuna. I hope this gets noticed. Edit 3 (I wonder when I'm going to run out when it comes to these edits): HOLD UP, YOU FORGOT TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL AND BISHI BASHI. Edit 4: Nvm… only titles released in the west. My bad bro.
We Definitely need one of the Original Devs to Come back and come up with a spiritual Successor to Bloody Roar! Hudson Soft died for all the Wrong Reasons!
After watching this, I realized that Konami made lots of really unique games and had some real interesting ideas. Crazy how they've pretty much fallen away from it.
I can't imagine how big of a nightmare it would be to be to analyze the state of all Microsoft IPs considering how much stuff they have bought, it would have to be like 4 videos in one.
I thought Yume Penguin Monogatari on Famicom was maybe part of the Konami Penguin series. The penguin was in the title/options screen Konami Krazy Racers on GBA
Sorry man but putting Power Pros just because the MLB are no more is unfair. It is a flagship franchise in its own. The whole name Power Pros itself is gigantic.
Yu gi oh its in its peak, both duel links and master duels are very well done games, not to mention rush duels exploded in japan but for some reason they ignored the western audience until now when it finally arrived at duel links
as a PES fan, saying that the franchise is in a good state right now would be an absolute horror, considering ever since they ditched the PES name, they basically left the single player fanbase(aka the Master League players, which are a good chunk of the core PES fanbase) hang out to dry in favour of a barebones Ultimate Team that still lacks some form of meaningful content to this day and the only reason this game can manage some success is due to the mobile playerbase for the most part, KONAMI said they were working on developing a new Master League game mode for eFootball but it still wasn't released after 3 years of the original launch, the only way to play PES in singleplayer nowadays is basically overpriced keys or pirated versions of PES 2021 with mods, either that or buy EAFC, even if the EA counterpart's gameplay isn't the cup of tea for a lot of people
if they make a fast paced old school styled rocket knight game (pizza tower hype) or a true yugioh rpg or something theyd def have something to continue their growth
The first Yu-Gi-Oh video game is something from the manga. It's the game Mokuba Kaiba is an expert in and Yugi is challeneged by him twice. The second time being a part of the Death-T arc.
Seeing how well the recent *R-Type Final 2* has performed and certainly how damn excited people were, as well as how quickly that its Kickstarter succeeded, I gives a me hope this didn't go unnoticed by Konami. Not to mentioned them recently getting back into major installments like Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, and even more recently announcing a new actual Contra game by WayForward coming in 2024. If R-Type can come back after being dormant nearly as long as its rival space shooter series, I'm pretty sure Konami can revive the Gradius games with a new installment or even a collection to test the waters. If such a thing does happen soon, I hope Konami outsources the game to *Treasure* again and they give us that long overdue "Gradius VI". A game that was planned for the PlayStation 3 waaaaaay back but canceled sadly... 😗
Well not only R-Type came back Darius (well Taito re-released Ray’z Arcade Chronology) and Cotton did got some activity as well and speaking of Cotton she did got a solid remake that warrant getting a brand new entry, getting 4 emulated re-releases with some various qualities I think the Saturn one is the worst cuz the input delay problems. Rainbow cotton is getting a remake that will try to fix the game as much as possible later this year and this is a bad game we are talking about they are remaking. Do wish Sega could do something with the Thunder Force Series and be more original than what VI was
WHY DID YOU BRING UP THE HISTORY OF KONAMI WHEN YOU'RE ONLY TALKING ABOUT THE GAMES MAN I DONT NEED TO KNOW WHO MADE KONAMI THIS VIDEO COULD OF BEEN 30 MINUTES
You should split this thing in two videos. One for Hudson and other Konami. And because you inputed so much effort on the Hudson side, you missed sereval IPs in both companies. No mention for Space Manbow, Monkey Academy, Magical Tree, Comic Bakery and many other games from MSX. Many games from NES/Famicom are totally missed too. Momotaru Densetsu was out? Sell a lot in Japan.
Konami is so depressing, but on the bright side, they seem to be eyeing a major comeback... I hope it all works out and isn't just a fad for them. As crazy as a suggestion as this is too, you should do Take Two Interactive. Them owning Rockstar alone makes it quite fun to cover, and Rockstar's history extends past just being Rockstar... Back when they were DMA Design, and some of their older franchises. Not sure what you think of that idea. Also the interesting fact Nintendo was considering acquiring them... Pretty cool.
It always makes me sad to be reminded that the second best Konami franchise, Rumble Roses, has been all but completely abandoned. And that their best franchise, Castlevania, has been relegated to retro collections and the occasional mobile game that may or may not even make it to America.
Good job Kai. I would love to see a Current State Tier Lier for Namco Bandai, Sega, Capcom, Nintendo first party games, Rockstar, and maybe Naughty Dog.
@@danielclemente1253 Revised editions would be nice though. * Move Western-only IPs to an “honorable mentions” list, where Japan-only IP are also included alongside franchises that only have one game aside from ports, crossovers, adaptations, etc. (such as ARMS) * Include newer and missing IP. * Revise some positions.
@@orangeslash1667 I don't know. The last Crash game was released in 2020 I think. They also sent Toys for Bob (who made Crash 4) to the Call of Duty mines.
I’m surprised you haven’t made one for Sony PlayStation they have a deep catalog stuck especially in the PS2/PS3 era especially the games made & co developed by other publishers
