You made it farther than I did, lol. Got worked by Ymir.
Ashtear
IGN's reviewer really didn't like it, scoring 5 out of 10. Probably an outlier, but the overall consensus does seem on the low side for a Mario game.
It's an amazing fit for Takarazuka. I'd absolutely be going if I were still in the area.
I don't think you're necessarily wrong on this. Part of the problem is new IPs are risky, and I'm sure market research is telling the big publishers that you'd better not suddenly downgrade your graphics on an established property. Nintendo's very comfortable in this space because they haven't really gone this route with first party. They've even managed to thread the needle on Mario, Metroid, and Zelda by having both 2D and 3D offerings.
My wishlist is Final Fantasy Tactics, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and Xenogears. A Xenogears remake likely isn't ever happening so I'd be happy with a remaster, and it's practically an open secret at this point that an FFT project is in development. It getting the Tactics Ogre Reborn treatment would be lovely, but what I really want is an orchestrated soundtrack. Here's hoping it doesn't get cancelled. 🤞
As a genre, 4X is still kicking around, but I'm not even sure if SMAC is beloved enough to get the treatment. Good voice acting would be essential.
I'd be happy with a simple remaster with a cleaned-up script. Disc 2 wasn't as bad as I'd remembered on a replay I had earlier this year.
I've heard of Ale Abbey! I think it might have been on the PC Gaming Show or something this past summer. I do like 2D base builders.
Just heard of this guy for the first time in the chatter around reviews for this game (which has been...interesting, to say the least). Similar tastes to mine, so that's promising for me for Veilguard. Speaking of which, sounds like I should be trying Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
Still need market demand. People want these products.
You can't just chase a trend and throw out a game and expect it to print money. Ask Sony how that went for their run at a hero shooter.
A lot of those games are still around, just not in legal distribution channels.
The more at-risk stuff is newer games going forward, such as live-service games or games locked down with DRM that requires authentication to play.
I don't know how anyone has time for two live service games at once. Even in my peak college slacker days, just World of Warcraft alone was a lot. I started playing Honkai: Star Rail this summer and a friend wanted me to start The War Within expansion with her. I've been doing the tourist thing in WoW for a few years now, and even still with that casual pace of play, the combination was far too much for me these days.
My gaming tastes can get mercurial, so I prefer the irregular stuff now. I love that I can just log into Guild Wars 2 any time without even thinking about money, and I've spent a whole $10 on HSR in the six months I've been playing it. Makes it much easier when I suddenly get a few days of light work here and there.