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Aww, come on people. One poll addict in 2 weeks, and not even an explanation post? Well, do you want to know why I chose SquareEnix?

Well, it's for more reason than the fact that I am a Final Fantasy fan (and Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts...). The other reasons are these (the 1st reason being that I am a fanboy, of course):

2) Money. They are a big enough company that they both have the resources to do it right, and they can afford to take the risk of putting out another game in a series that isn't doing too well, despite having plenty of fans.

3) Experienced staff. they have been making great playing and great selling games for a very long time. All of the companies that they have bought have been making great games for a long time. (Merging with Enix was a coup.) They have been translating their own stuff and stuff for other people for a very long time. They also know how to run an advertising campaign. They also recognize a good thing when they see it. They also recognize a rabid fan base when they see that too. wink

4) One stop shopping. They are in a unique position of being able to have a Japanese crew work with ESP/JAM Studio Alex et al. to make the game, publish it in Japan, translate it into English, and publish it in America, all without going to any other company. They are one of the few game companies out there big enough and diverse enough to do it all themselves.

So, if the Sega voter would please chime in with their reasons (if they have any spelled out already) I would appreciate it. And everybody else needs to put in their opinion.

idea Well, I put together the rest of the list from companies that have made RPGs before, and have published games made by other development teams before. I felt that each of them had a unique quality that made them a good candidate to take over. I hinted at those qualities in the comments that I put in parentheses after each name. Obviously, Ubisoft and ESP/JAM topped the list as having previous experience with the Lunar universe, and the rest were ordered by the number of successful RPGs that each company had accumulated. (I admit that I do like Ubisoft other than what they did to Lunar, though. I love both Rayman and the Prince of Persia Sands of Time games.)

cool Now, as for Square Enix, I agree that most hardcore RPG gamers have been unhappy with the last few Final Fantasy games (until XII that is), but every one of them sold well to the general public, and were not actually bad games by any stretch of the imagination. They merely did not live up to some gamers' expectations. The latest iterations of the Dragon Quest series, released after the merger, were not disappointments, as far as I know.

ninja As for every other company, I can spell out my feelings there, too. I love Metal gear Solid, and Hideo Kojima 's storytelling ability, much less the Castlevania teams that prove over and over that they have some of the best artists in the industry and finally, Suikoden proves that they know how to pack in the extras and craft a truly epic RPG, so Konami was an obvious choice. I love Resident Evil, and Street Fighter and Mega Man and a lot of other Capcom properties, and both the Breath of Fire series and Okami prove that Capcom can do RPGs, and do them well. Sega, again is the source of a lot of my favorite franchises from Sonic to Ecco to Panzer Dragoon, and series like Shemue, Skies of Arcadia, and Phantasy Star prove their RPG prowess. Nintendo. Well, between the Legend of Zelda and Paper Mario, it could be said that their RPG experience is limited, but by the same token, both games have been highly praised in all their incarnations, and when you throw the behemoth that is Pokemon into the mix, their ability to bring quality RPGs to the market cannot be denied, even if it is to a relatively small market, and at an excruciatingly slow pace...

question As for the platforms, I think I will start another thread for that question, but I see no reason why Lunar 3 can't be full 3D (and probably cell shaded) and released on all current generation console systems (WII, PS3, XB360, or even PS2, XB, GCN). I think other side stories (like a reissue of Magic School) could happen on the DS, but I don't think that a main episode should be on that platform. The reason for that is the fact that 2D gameplay, while it has found an enthusiastic home on the DS, has been a very hard sell everywhere else, and the DS would be hard put to keep up with the 3D prowess of versions that would appear on the consoles.

I have not had an overall fun experience with Ubisoft. gonk
My first impression of them was Jade Coccoon II. Jade Coccoon I is my favorite game, hands-down, of all time. I've loved it since I first played it when I was nine years old.
Needless to say, I was so freaking obsessed with the first one that I nearly had a heart attack when I got the second.
It totally blew.
I mean, it didn't line up very well with the first game's story (Levant? Evil? WTF? And didn't he purify EVERYTHING? Where the HELL did Kalma come from if the world's already been purified?!), got rid of the merging system (which was what made the game truly unique), and gave the main character a voice that made you want to stab him in the eyes until some brains came out. I went through the whole thing waiting for it to get better, and it never did. Sure, I haven't unlocked -everything-, but I've beaten it, and that's farther than I get with most games I don't like.
Then, I see Lunar DS online. Because it was a Lunar game I didn't own yet (DAMN YOU, MAGIC SCHOOL, FOR BEING JAPAN ONLY!), the first thing I did was hit the local Game Crazy and get me a copy. I was so stoked. It came with the original case and manual, and it was even used! That's pretty rare over here.
Then Ubisoft shot down my dreams again. gonk

My brother and I were talking about this when he played my copy of Lunar DS and got bored with it in ten minutes flat. He said, "I don't know what it is about Ubisoft, but I'm beginning to think that they just hate happiness."

GAHH. My grammar and sentence fluency is in the shitter tonight. So sorry. D}X

I say Square Enix! Why?

1) They made my fav games! (KH, KH2, FF, ect.)

2) they can make Lunar even more badass!

(First, woo, I need to check this forum more often...)

Well, for one thing, there are technically three questions here. The first two are the clearly stated ones. Who do you want as the developer, which means who do you want to make the game, and who do you want as a publisher, which means who do you want to be the one in charge of putting it on the shelves.

I lumped the two questions together because I figured that enough of the people involved could perform both jobs that it could very easily amount to deciding on one company. These dual role companies range from the small ones, like the now defunct Working Designs (may they rest in peace), to the medium like Ubisoft, to the very large like SquareEnix and Electronic Arts.

The unwritten third question, which underlies the first two, is who do you want doing the translation on the game, assuming it is developed in Japanese first. This assumes that the effort will be a coordinated one between multiple companies, which, as I just explained, may not be the case. This also brings into question whether or not the localization should be done by the publisher or the developer or a third party.

As for Ubisoft, I do not know to what extent Ubisoft was involved in the localization. Their name on the box as publisher, merely means that they paid for it being mass printed onto disc and put on the shelves. The level of interaction beyond that is between the publisher and the developer, and any possible third parties they may want to bring into the equation. Being as I have not beaten the game myself, and the information I have does not list anyone as being in charge of localization, I cannot in good conscience point my finger at anyone at this time, especially considering that Ubisoft is only listed as publisher. There are exceptions to every situation, but arguing that requires facts that I do not have access to right now.

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Semantics aside, firstly, I understand that GameArts is the developer, and should rightly stay so, but Working Designs did a decent amount of work on SSSC and EBC on the developer end, going just a bit further than localization, and did manage to put a lot of love into those releases, so it is not unimaginable that the right team, even one new to the series, can carry on the torch. Secondly, as previously mentioned, GameArts is only the developer, and does not publish games themselves, not even in Japan (that's where JAM and Kadokawa Shoten come in), so even if GameArts does the development, the questions remain of who will publish it, and whether or not American localization will fall to the publisher, or a team supplied by GameArts, or someone else entirely.

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So, ultimately, to answer your question:

Yes, I am considering the process as a whole, including development, translation/localization, and final publishing.

No, I do not mind another company taking a stab at the franchise. It is not the first time a major or successful franchise has been passed from one developer to another. Nintendo has done it several times to great success, with giving Donkey Kong to Rare, and giving Metroid to Take5. I would prefer to keep the unwritten insight of GameArts that only they can really provide, but I am confident in the storytelling ability of others in the industry, and I love the series enough to want it to continue, in whatever form that may take. The Star Wars universe has expressed itself in myriad forms in many different kinds of media under many different companies, yet they fit together, and enhance each other from books to games to movies. There is no reason why a good universe, once created, cannot outlive its creators. Look at Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, or Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. There are people like Victor Ireland and Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi that are phenomenal artists, and can create amazing things when they find a universe that they can fall in love with, and use their creativity to make it bloom for all to see. Never underestimate the power of a fan.

The bottom line is GameArts said point blank that they want to make more, but they can't afford to. My question remains. Who else will take up the gauntlet? Develop? Publish? Translate? Finance? Take your pick. And, if we can all agree on a direction to take, then maybe, possibly, something can be done. Letters can be written. Petitions can be started. Never underestimate your own power either.