Japanese developer Cygames confirmed today it has acquired the Metal Max IP from Kadokawa Games, gearing up to create the best console game based on it.
While the developer is still evaluating future developments for the series, it is fully committed to creating a new future for the Metal Max series, which is one of the longest-running JRPG franchises that is still active today.
Series creator Hiroshi Miyaoka has also joined Cygames to continue working on the series as a director. In a new statement, he confirmed that they are still in the “wild ideas” stage, but he hopes that the series will be reborn in a way that it will be enjoyable for both fans of the series and newcomers.
Despite plans still being evaluated, it seems like Cygames is very serious about the Metal Max series. Commenting on the acquisition, producer Kenichiro Takaki said he is honored to be involved with a series that he has loved since his student days and that the project to create the best console game in the series has now started.
As already mentioned, the Metal Max series is one of the longest-running JRPG series that is still active today. The latest entry in the series, Metal Max Xeno Reborn, is the remake of the original PlayStation 4 game released 4 years ago, which Kai did not find particularly exciting:
If I had to pick just one word to describe Metal max Xeno, it would be ‘familiar’. There are some really interesting ideas in play with having both tank and ground combat for an RPG, but neither particularly stand out as innovative or even fun. When you add in a story and characters that neither engage nor make the player think about the greater world, you’re left with a landscape as desolate as the sands that have overtaken it. Metal Max Xeno could have been great but very rarely did this JRPG neither wow nor disappoint me, instead feeling so similar to the decades of JRPG’s that have come before it. Yet, despite how uneventful the Tokio wasteland had been, I still found myself sticking through nearly a hundred hours and five full playthroughs to earn that platinum trophy.
More information on Cygames’ Metal Max IP acquisition can be found on a recently launched teaser website.
