Hier habe ich einen interressanten Beitrag aus dragon-tear.net herraus gefischt, den ich auch im Forum dort beantwortet habe.
Ace-Of-War schrieb:
I actually went to Capcom's website a few weeks back and searched through the forum history for any sort of news from Capcom Japan about Breath of Fire.
Aside from some Wii Virtual Console love (which is a good sign, especially if it does well) there has been no sort of formal announcement or talks of developing a BoF VI.
What I make of the situation is this, by the industry standards, IV and V sold very poorly in the U.S. and in general both games suffered the fate of just being victims of circumstance. IV, as we all know, was released towards the end of the Playstation's lifespan. This is the absolute worst time to release any game that isn't some budget title, because too often it gets overlooked in the media with all the next generation buzz that is going around. Then we have V, Dragon Quarter, which just really seemed to pick a bad time to try something new. When Dragon Quarter came out, I think that a lot of American RPG fans were longing for a more retrospective/classic feel to their RPGs, and I think everyone can agree that DQ accomplished pretty much the opposite. It featured a completely different battle system and strange game mechanics that turned it into much more obscure title than anything else released around that time. This sort of Action/Active battle system hybrid wasn't in style anymore.
Another problem is the re-releases that just seemed to generate little of anything for Capcom. BoF I and II were both re-released on the GBA, and the PSP too if I'm not mistaken (I'm not sure if that ever made it to the U.S. though) neither of which created any sort of impact that would've raised some eyebrows. Arctic_Slicer was saying that non-Final Fantasy RPGs, in general, just don't do well very well in the United States. Unfortunately that's just the way it seems to be, the easiest way to understand would just be to try and put yourself in Capcom's shoes.
You have a mammoth, multi-million dollar franchise in Resident Evil. A franchise that had two hit movies, and one that is coming out in, like, a month, with several games and two new huge titles scheduled to come out soon (RE:5 and Umbrella Chronicles). This franchise has just come off of a high from RE:4, it has books, merchandise, it is basically a developer's dream to give birth to something like this.
You have the popular Devil May Cry franchise, another newly multi-platform game that is set to generate serious revenue for the company.
You have your Street Fighter fan base, which, I'm sorry to say, overshadows this community considerably.
You have wonderful more indie-type games with the likes of Okami, Phoenix Wright, and Viewful Joe.
Then you have the number 2 guy of the 8-bit era, a character who is standing right behind Mario Mario, Mega Man.
You have Monster Hunter and that other game that is on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite remember the name which are coming out of your RPG department.
If you put yourself in the shoes of a Capcom executive, where would you want your focus to be steered towards? As a Breath of Fire fan, I can say full steam ahead on BoF VI, but as a logical, reasonable business man, I would say the time and effort it would take to develop a solid RPG in this generation that would please both more casual minded RPG fans and the more hardcore among us would be high. When I look at it this way, BoF VI would be low on my list.
Of course, this isn't to rule out the series entirely. You don't throw away something you've built from the ground up over the past fifteen years or so. Just looking at places like Dragon-tear and other fansites is a testament to what sort of popularity the series has. To absolutely say that there will never be another BoF is ridiculous and helps no one. As much as I would love an addition to the franchise, I understand that this wouldn't be a great time to go forward with it. I think they're playing it safe, hopefully the Virtual Console will introduce some new fans to our community. I think BoF II is a great game to show people, to show people the power behind this story. Naturally you'll get more people interested in the other games, and it could build from there.
Anyways, that's my take on the whole thing. I guess I just felt like writing something..
Ich stimme ihn in vielen Punkten zu. Wenn Capcom wirklich an keinem neuen Breath of Fire Titel arbeitet, dann liegt es nur daran, dass sie sich aus rein economischen Gründen erst sich mit deren momentan besten Spielen beschäftigen. In näherer Zukunft mögen wir vielleicht keinen BoF Titel sehen, aber in dieser Zeitspanne kann Capcom viele Sachen ausprobieren, die dann den neuen Titel entweder positiv oder negativ beeinflussen. Aber eines steht für mich fest, es wird einen sechsten Teil geben, da komme was wolle.
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