r/gaming • u/Calvinball08 • 17h ago
What AAA series’ should have entries by indie devs?
Seeing the rise of indie studios getting to work on big AAA and AA series’ (Cadence of Hyrule, Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, Castlevania Belmont’s Curse), what other specific indie studios would be great fits for what other series’?
I feel like a DMC metroidvania spinoff would be insanely cool but I don’t know which studio should work on it. Maybe Drinkbox, since Guacamelee is kind of character action game-y, but surprisingly enough character action game metroidvanias are super rare. Assuming Crowsworn turns out great Mongoose Rodeo may also be a good fit.
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u/Wandering---_---soul 17h ago
Dragon ageeeeeeee😩
Give that franchise to a decent indie studio! bioware is clearly not capable anymore to create something good with it (probably because all the original people left lol)
Then...
Maybe... Soulcalibur? I don't know, It's my favorite franchise ever and I don't have particular complaints about how bandai namco treated it, ok no, I have some but my disappointment it's nowhere near dragon age ahaha, I don't think bandai namco would ever give one of its original and iconic ip to an indie studio, I respect them but God... Do something with it!! It's been forever and we still don't have the smallest of the teasers or something for soulcalibur VII 😩 at this point I would prefer for the franchise to be sold to a studio that would actually do something with it :/
Another one...
Rogue galaxy!!!
An hidden gem, a masterpiece and much more... Level 5 has gone mad and a sequel is impossible with them, give it to another studio and let's finally continue the story shall we??
I think I'm done ✌️
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u/chanaramil 17h ago edited 11h ago
Idk. I want a new Dragon Age game built on the DNA of Dragon Age Origins and that takes at least AA money and resources. Indi devs would be great for a lot of games lot but for Dragon Age I want a large world to explore that feels like its alive and has 100s of full voice acted npcs.
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u/BadDogSaysMeow 14h ago
EA should give Dragon Age to Larian (Baldur’s Gate 3).
Not an indie studio, but let’s be honest, they are the only studio that wouldn’t fuck it up.5
u/The_Corvair 14h ago edited 14h ago
they are the only studio that wouldn’t fuck it up.
Owlcat?
edit, for those who have not heard the name; They're the devs behind Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, WH40K: Rogue Trader, and are currently working on The Expanse: Osiris Reborn.
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u/Deoxtrys 9h ago
People would still complain about Larian Dragon Age because they don't make that style of game mechanically. If you want proper RTWP, then Owlcat would be the pick.
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u/Lambdafish1 13h ago
It's not a game series, but it's a franchise with many AAA games. I want Lucasfilm Games to start collaborating with Indie studios to give us plenty of great star wars games like back in the day.
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u/henzINNIT 11h ago
The xcom clone and new racing game have gone down well. These seem to be smaller teams, tackling slightly more niche game types. I hope this is a sign of things to come. Games are often my favourite Star Wars these days.
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u/Shadowking78 16h ago
Would love to see Team Reptile (Lethal League Blaze and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk) make the new Jet Set Radio game
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u/Nuthetes 14h ago
I think the Elder Scrolls world could definitely work with some lower-budget, more linear, smaller games. It's a fantastic world, with so much scope for storytelling.
Like some assassionation type game like Hitman set in the Elder Scrolls world or a linear Tomb Raider style treasure hunt in some ancient Dwemer ruins.
Or then there's stuff like deckbuilders, simulation games, strategy games which would all work well with the Elder Scrolls World.
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u/SeraphMax 15h ago
Maybe unpopular opinion, but an extraction shooter (or game in general).
The way they're designed is kind of like roguelikes. You play the same content over and over again, which makes it possible for indie devs to create these types of games.
I also feel like they're not fully "figured out" in the way that battle royales are. I think there's a ton of innovation left to be done in the genre. Just look at the calls for cooperative, PVE, or even standard arena modes in these games.
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u/Siukslinis_acc 14h ago
It would be nice if the companies could allow to make "side games" with their ips. Main story is by the holders of ip. But the game world js big and other games could be set in the ip. They could give other devs the ability to make games set in that it (and they shoukd consult with ip holders about worldbuilding).
Look at warhammer 40 000. They license their ip to other devs that make games set in their ip.
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u/AdSalty5988 13h ago
Is this not already common in ips? Lots of ips have spinoffs on smaller scale.
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u/MadeByTango 10h ago
The Xenopurge folks need a proper AAA Aliens contract
The dev for Xenotilt should be hired to make a new Gradius
Sloclap (Sifu) should be given Sleeping Dogs 2, or Double Dragon
The devs of Drova would make an interesting Legacy of Kain
River End Games (Eriksholm) would make an interesting Syphon Filter
Clifftop Games (Kathy Rain) could bring back King's Quest respectfully
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u/missroot_official 16h ago
Giving established AAA franchises to passionate indie studios injects fresh design philosophies while taking creative risks big publishers rarely allow.
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u/Zurdo-Sheep 17h ago
Honestly, I'd love to see team cherry take a shot at a castlevania game, or the devs behind sifu make a proper ninja gaiden. That combat system would be insane for it.
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u/DeadpoolVII 11h ago
I'd love to see what other studios could do with the Assassin's Creed franchise. Ubisoft has a habit of getting the series into a stellar point and then feature/size-bloating the next games to where it dies off completely.
Shadows, imo, was extremely good. AC2/Origins good? Probably not, but up there for sure.
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u/Babak_Lurker 10h ago
I would love to see what a good indie studio could do with the world of Halo. Not even necessarily shooters, let me play as a beserking Brute, or a stealthy Grunt on a planet that has no Spartans on it. Get weird. Or hell, gimme a shooter in the style of that Warhammer Boltgun boomer shooter.
Or we could just keep getting more shooters starring the same kind of soldier every Halo game has been based on except for ODST (kinda).
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u/namizo88 10h ago
All the BioWare IPs (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, The Old Republic).
Jak and Daxter (The fact that the last game was a goddamn car-racing game was definitely a choice)
Also Tomb Raider (We really didn't need a re-release of the first one a 5th time)
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u/SlackerDao 7h ago
I feel confident that Fallout fans love the series far, far more than anyone at Bethesda ever will. There's plenty of them that can code.
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u/magmafanatic 2h ago
Elder Scrolls.
Sadly if it wants to remain ultra-popular, I don't see Elseweyr or Black Marsh ever becoming the dominant setting for a mainline entry. So it would be neat to see some indies take whatever groundwork ESO laid out for them and do their own spin on things.
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u/Dorian182 1h ago
Tour de Pizza doing Wario Land would be a great fit, especially with Pizza Tower's emphasis on momentum and score chasing carried over to Wario's transformations.
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u/Klutzy_Move3991 15h ago
I'd love a game which finally used the shadow of modor nemisis feature. I honestly can't believe they were ever allowed to patent it.
Games designed around that would be pretty fun. It was honestly the only reason I'd play shadow of mordor
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u/gilkfc 13h ago edited 10h ago
The patent doesn't really stop anyone from doing something similar, there are a couple out there.
The fact that the entire game has to be designed around the system, and also that it takes an enormous amount of resources is what stops people from doing anything like it.
In short, no games like it are being made because nobody wants to make them3
u/Seanspeed 12h ago
Yea, it's a lot of work to build the structure around the system to make it work well at all, and then you have to really lean into it hard to make it an actual meaningful part of the gameplay design that players are forced to engage with. And of course you still need to make everything else outside of this fun and fleshed out as well.
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u/Siukslinis_acc 14h ago
From what i've read, the nemesis system also requires a lot of resources as the game has to keep records of all the individual npcs. The enemies aren't generic characters, but start to become unique ones.
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u/Buschilol 14h ago
i dunno which studio but we should take final fantasy away from square and give it to anyone else.
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u/Lambdafish1 13h ago
FF in 2026 is the best it's been since 2006. The mobile era is solidly behind the franchise and within the next year we have Resonance, Evercold and Revelation, three highly anticipated games.
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u/Seanspeed 12h ago
FF7 Remake series and FFXIV are really the only things they're really doing right. So a retread of something they've already done, and a long running MMO.
Maybe the series is in the best place since 2006, but beating the past 20 years is a low bar to clear.
Resonance seems like it could be a good game, but is also clearly very fan-servicey and does not feel like it has the love of a classic Final Fantasy like they're trying to invoke. It's basically Octopath without that same structure, and with Final Fantasy skin slapped on. I liked Octopath games but it's not assuaging my desire for a true turn-based Final Fantasy game.
What a lot of us still want is to see new ORIGINAL MAINLINE titles with the full production values of the AAA studios that show they've still got what it takes. I think FFVII Remake does show they can make a 'good JRPG', but I'd rather have had two new great mainline games instead of a decade of remaking the one game in that same timespan.
Still a long way to go before I'm claiming that Final Fantasy is back.
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u/Buschilol 13h ago
resonance could be a good game and ff xiv is always great. revelation is probably not gonna sell well though. rebirth turned off a lot of people with it's cringe, content bloat, horrible pacing, multiverse/multiworld story and character assassinations. rebirth didn't even crack 5 million sales. they say the sales were going great but square always officially announces when a game hits 4 and 5 million sales. the fact that their flagship games rebirth and ff 16 never got an announcement like that speaks volumes.
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u/Soulsliken 17h ago
Are you sure these are indie devs at work?
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u/GapKey6398 17h ago
A few of them are, some are smaller studios working under a big publisher which gets fuzzy, but the line's pretty blurry these days anyway
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u/Calvinball08 17h ago
Yes? Brace Yourself, Game Bakers, and Evil Empire are all indie devs and the developers of the games I listed
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u/WearingFin 17h ago
Ragebound was Game Kitchen, not Game Bakers, who are the Furi & Cairn devs.
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u/Calvinball08 17h ago
Oh right, always get them mixed up given they’re both named after the concept of cooking games
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u/nsnsjdjaknd 17h ago
Wouldn’t they no longer be indie when they get hired by the larger studios? Unless indie just means devs you like.
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u/Calvinball08 16h ago
The devs themselves are indie studios but the games they make in these scenarios aren’t indie games. They aren’t becoming a part of the AAA studio that owns the ip, they’re just giving that ip to the indie studio as a one-time thing, then the studio goes back to doing indie games again afterward
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u/LittleBox8202 16h ago
none of those are AAA franchises
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u/Seanspeed 12h ago
Zelda, Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania were(or are) all AAA franchises at some point in their life, at least by the standards of the day.
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u/Accomplished_Many917 15h ago
Final Fantasy series is in desperate need of rescue;
its owners are completely clueless on how to manage the brand, turning it into a showcase for animation and graphics, filled with tons of low-quality content
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u/creamed_itsol 13h ago
Fallout. I would love another isometric RPG fallout game or even another Fallout Tactics. Bethesda might never do this is justice again after F3.