You Take Control...

[DiscipleofBob]

There's a knock at your door. Curious, you answer it. Outside is a dishevelled looking individual who looks like they've recently seen a ghost. You may or may not recognize them right away, but after some introductions you realize that they are the author of one of your favorite movie/tv show/video game/book/etcetera franchises.

They say that you appeared to them in a vision. That their work has become stagnant and bitter and that they are no longer qualified to work on their title. That they are lost and no longer know which direction to go with their story. That's where you come in. They're giving you free reign over their title for you to try and make better.

What changes would you make to any particular movie/tv show/video game/book/etcetera franchise? How would you do things? How can you do it better?

[Tenno Seremel]

One ship will ascend to canon status. And the story will actually move somewhere for once and stop reusing old episodes over and over again. I can't write it all but I can provide a "skeleton".

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Also, this will never happen as Pokemon seems to enjoy its course.

Other than than… I don't need much changes in other things I like and they don't usually last as loooong storywise.

[Whiffet]

Well, in this particular scenario I would be freaking out too much over this person being at my house. I mean, wow. So not worthy.

When it comes to changes, I wouldn't know what to do. If the person really doesn't know where to go and wants me to make a decision, I would just end it. I can guarantee the work would be much worse if I was in charge. I don't have the talent that goes behind this. If the person is out of ideas, then the work is about to start sucking really, really hard. It's better for things to end before they do that.

Bill Watterson had the foresight to end Calvin and Hobbes before he completely ran out of ideas and the strip starting sucking, and I think others should be able to make that same decision.

[Traab]

Well, im going to go with final fantasy. Now, keep in mind, this is after having to suffer through leon and sin games.

1) Go back to pure fantasy, with magitek type stuff as the only sort of technology around.

2) NO *(^&%( ALIENS OR SPACESHIPS!

3) 9-12 playable characters, depending on group size. Putting together a world big enough to support that many separate characters who all have their own reasons for joining you and kicking evil ass means your world is big enough, and hopefully diverse enough to be really exciting.

4) No button mashing or timing tricks to boost the power of abilities or make them work, (I hated tifas limit break in ff7, and hated the ff8 summons boosting) i dont like the idea of unleashing a limit break and sneezing, causing me to screw it up horribly. Nor do I enjoy carpal tunnel from hitting a button 50 times in 15 seconds to do max damage from a spell.

5) The option to skip lengthy summon cinematics would be nice. While watching the 30-60 second long video of some mythical creature appearing at my call and laying waste to my enemies is cool, its only cool the first few times, then it becomes an obnoxious method of time wasting.

[Jan Mattys]

That day, would be the day when the greatest D&D movie EVER would come to life.
Built over the burial ground of Jeremy Irons.

And I would enlist half the playground as consultants.

[Aotrs Commander]

Undo One More Day, repower and de-vampire Jubilee, give her her own series (and this time, with a good selection of existing supporting characters and somewhere to go) and splifflicate M-Day's effects via having the Scarlet B... Witch erase herself from Reality. And resurrect all the pointless killed-off X-Men (e.g. Nightcrawler, Bashee, Synch, Skin etc etc).

Alternatively, reboot the DC reboot so as not to eliminate half the characters I like and character-rape several of the ones left (*cough*Starfire*cough*) (with suitable consultation, since Teen Titans and the DCAU are my only major forays into DC.) Oh, and, on principle, give Arsenal back his arm and most certainly his daughter, dammit!

In Naruto, kill the crap out of Sasuke, not forget about Hinata's confession (unless something happened with that since I last checked, which was admittedly, a while back) and flesh out the rest of the major cast. (And more filler arcs with said cast, only good fillar arcs - not that I didn't like the majority of the ones in the anime anyway).

In Star Wars, recon the entire storyline, starting from just before the New Jedi Order. Thrawn had more than one cloning vat...

(Yeah, that last one might be a bit more subjective.)

[Yora]

I would remake the entire Star Wars movies.

- More Aliens in the first movie.
- Luke is not named Skywalker.
- Make the Death Stars A LOT smaller.
- Replace Endor with Kashyyk as it was meant to be.
- Make it clear that there are "hundreds" of inhbaited planets instead of millions".
- Cut Jarjar completely.
- Make Anakin 10 years older.
- Give Anakin a father, maybe he's just dead for years.
- Anakin is not from Tatooine.
- Cut the whole "Chosen One" nonsense.
- Darth Maul dies not that stupidly.
- Completely rewrite Episode II, that movie is pure boring filler.
- Palpatine does not mutate from fighting Mace Windu.
- Completely rewrite all scenes of Anakin and Amidala.
- Completely remake the parts where Vader is saved and cyborgized.
- Amidala survives in hiding for three more years, than Organa gets the child.

[Emmerask]

Star Wars... ditch the whole thing and instead do the Yuuzhan Vong war...
hmm or maybe the time directly after the second death star was blown up
pretty much anything would have been better then what we got :-/

Harry Potter... actually stick to the books

d&d movie... instead of the 2 things we got I would actually do an adaption of either the cormyr saga, drizzt books or maybe the elminster series

[Karoht]

3 words:
Captain. Crunch. Movie.

[Traab]

In Naruto, kill the crap out of Sasuke, not forget about Hinata's confession (unless something happened with that since I last checked, which was admittedly, a while back) and flesh out the rest of the major cast. (And more filler arcs with said cast, only good fillar arcs - not that I didn't like the majority of the ones in the anime anyway).

I say let sasuke keep his hax eyes, but to balance things out, naruto reads the description of the shadow clone jutsu and understands what it means for his training from the start. I read a story once where they compared the two, the basic gist of it was,

"The sharingan lets you copy a single jutsu right away. This is incredibly powerful. But narutos ability to create hundreds of clones, means he can learn hundreds of things at the same time!"

We could have a real escalating arms race between the two of them, and have THAT be what chases sasuke off instead of some whiny angst ridden bit where he sees naruto actually improving, and suddenly that means he is being held back somehow. Stupidest thing ever. Naruto learns two jutsus, summoning and a rasengan he cant even use properly yet, and he has the ability he always had, to swarm his enemy until he gets tired from slaughtering 600 clones and naruto can land a solid hit, and suddenly thats a sign that sasuke is being held back? Pfft.

I mean, what was his line of thought? "Hmm, even though all the strongest people to ever exist seem to have been born and trained in konoha, I think ill abandon the village to learn from a traitor who got his summons ass kicked by the dobe and lost his arms fighting a 70 year old man even though he had the help of two immortal zombie hokages to back him up."

Meh, anyways, with the shadow clone training from the start, naruto would be a credible threat as a ninja instead of some loser who never stops getting up until his enemy collapses from exhaustion and he can land a single knockout hit. Also, with that acting as an early spur to sasuke, he would be pushed to become stronger just to keep up with the dobe, and even sakura might not be a totally useless twit when she sees how fast her teammates are growing stronger while she stands back to "guard the client"

Then, even if we keep the shadow clone training fairly low key for the start, when naruto goes on his training trip, he will have no choice but to come back insanely strong! I mean, this is the guy who taught the 4th to be kage level, imagine what he can do with a naruto thats capable of training with thousands of clones a day all day for three years? Even if he still cant hit 4 tails without losing it for some reason, (Not likely since he will be way stronger and so should be able to handle more) he wont NEED to go 4 tails much, since he will be insanely stronger than he was in canon. Maybe not enough to outright beat orochimaru in a straight up fight without using kyuubi power, but enough to smash kabuto like the bug he is.

[Psyren]

I'd tell the Giant to stop being silly and get back to work

[Jerthanis]

Assuming direct control...

...Uh, Mass Effect: make a movie or TV series so I can introduce your awesome story and universe to my friends who don't play videogames. Don't make novels to sell to people who want to know more about David Friggin' Anderson, make novels about Garrus in C-Sec or Seth Green's academy days... or better yet, the Geth/Quarian wars.

Also, make a freaking Tabletop RPG already! We don't need another Generic Western Fantasy RPG on the tabletop market, we need a Sci Fi game with really unique technology, species, and culture to it. Also a book with a complete codex of all three games, plus as much extra information as can be found.

I do not trust myself to write Mass Effect 3 (and besides, it's probably just about done anyway) because I'd just have Shepard personally smashing Reapers together with the raw power of her awesome. And her exquisite taste in shops on the citadel.

[Siosilvar]

Assuming direct control...

...Uh, Mass Effect: make a movie or TV series so I can introduce your awesome story and universe to my friends who don't play videogames. Don't make novels to sell to people who want to know more about David Friggin' Anderson, make novels about Garrus in C-Sec or Seth Green's academy days... or better yet, the Geth/Quarian wars.

Also, make a freaking Tabletop RPG already! We don't need another Generic Western Fantasy RPG on the tabletop market, we need a Sci Fi game with really unique technology, species, and culture to it. Also a book with a complete codex of all three games, plus as much extra information as can be found.

I do not trust myself to write Mass Effect 3 (and besides, it's probably just about done anyway) because I'd just have Shepard personally smashing Reapers together with the raw power of her awesome. And her exquisite taste in shops on the citadel.

This.

And ME2 would get a patch to make New Game+ give you some of your paragon/renegade points back, to make "renegon" an option after the first playthrough. Really, that was a stupid decision. ME1 gave you up to 4 points of Charm/Intimidate per play, and that made mixing up the paths a whole lot easier on the additional playthroughs.

I've heard some bad excuses for it, too, like "oh, you're just spoiled because you had choices in the first game." Since when is taking away options I had before (on an ME1->2 import cf. an ME2->2 NG+) a feature? At least I can re-import the character.

[dragonsamurai77]

Remake Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days on the PS3/360/Wii, to take advantage of the superior combat engines available, and so that the different characters are actually different beyond just attack animations and stats.

[GolemsVoice]

Make a sequel to the video game Warhammer 40k Space Marine, since the ending of the first one really leaves you hanging, and apparently, a sequel is not planned.

Keep the character and the basic philosophy (hack through hordes of enemies) but have more diverse enemies and locations, and have some proper boss fights, perhaps ala Prince of Persia or other games in this vein, where you have to defeat bosses by clever combinations of strikes and attacking weak points (for massive damage). Also, the plot of the first one was ok, but they could do a lot better. Perhaps Titus could be inducted in the Deathwatch, which would be a good reason for him to see more of the galaxy! Also a Coop mode for the campaign.

[Ravens_cry]

I would stop Star Trek from being Beverly Hills 90210 . . .IN SPACE! and have it be about ideas and questions again, but returning them to being interesting, even controversial questions, questions for our times.
The idea of a black woman on the bridge in the middle of the Civil Rights movement and Russian in the middle of the Cold War was a pretty intense idea at the time.

[Flickerdart]

Is this assuming that executive meddling has somehow become a nonfactor?

[Traab]

I would stop Star Trek from being Beverly Hills 90210 . . .IN SPACE! and have it be about ideas and questions again, but returning them to being interesting, even controversial questions, questions for our times.
The idea of a black woman on the bridge in the middle of the Civil Rights movement and Russian in the middle of the Cold War was a pretty intense idea at the time.

At this point they would have to have the captain get involved with his first officer who is transgendered or something to be controversial. I mean, all of the series had those moralistic questions, but the problem is, most of those questions have been asked, repeatedly, over the course of 5 separate series. So it loses its impact a bit.

[Ravens_cry]

At this point they would have to have the captain get involved with his first officer who is transgendered or something to be controversial. I mean, all of the series had those moralistic questions, but the problem is, most of those questions have been asked, repeatedly, over the course of 5 separate series. So it loses its impact a bit.

Oh, we still have controversial questions. You mention one, it could probably tuned to work in a less clumsy manner.
The use of torture as a means of gathering information, for example. I do not want to go into it here, I am almost certain it is against Da Rules but I put it there as an example, one pertinent to our times.
In Star Trek there is very few, if any, openly gay characters. Now I don't want a clumsy "Have I mentioned I am gay today' Very Special Episode, I want it to flow naturally, and not just a lesbian relationship.
They don't even all have to be moral or ethical questions, they can also be Science Fiction questions, like what are the implications of such and such a society with such and such physiology/psychology.
"Darmok" was a personal favourite for this.
The use of CGI been much cheaper means we can have much more creative aliens. Lets explore this, the way the animated series did. If it is still too expensive, why not go animated again?
That doesn't mean it has to be for kids mind.

[Eldan]

The Oblivion crisis happened quite differently. The Ayleids built aztec ruins between the rice fields and jungles of Cyrodiil. The Nerevarine is building an army in Morrowind that's actually threatening the Empire.

[DiscipleofBob]

Some of the ones on my mind...

Super Mario Series

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Return it to the world-style of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine (the water gun can stay scrapped however). My biggest problem with the Super Mario Galaxies was that, besides a few welcome exceptions, all the levels felt too linear for a series that has in the past allowed for full exploration of huge worlds.

Maybe Luigi can get his own game where he's not just a Mario clone, give him the water cannon from Super Mario Sunshine and the vacuum from Luigi's Mansion, make him a sort of techie engineer type person.

Also, some game starring Geno, Mallow, and all those other awesome one-shot characters we got from Super Mario RPG.

Final Fantasy Series

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• Make next-gen fully rendered remakes of Final Fantasies 1 through 9, but don't add any ridiculous new system aspects like in Final Fantasy 4 DS.
• The only one that needs a system overhaul is the original 2. Its original mechanics make it unplayable IMO.
• Make an After Years style sequel to FF6. All the FF7 spinoffs when FF6 gets no love.
• With FF9, redo the graphics and ditch the chibi style. It doesn't work, and if the art book is any indication, the full character designs for FF9 are badass.
• Remake FF11 and FF14 into regular RPG's, none if this MMO crap.
• Add at least the following characters to Dissidia: Red Mage for FF1, Leon for FF2, Xande for FF3, One of several characters could represent FF6 but I'm going to say Shadow, Vincent for FF7, Vivi or Beatrix for FF9, Auron and Seymour for FFX, Balthier for FF12, Sora from KH, and Crono and Magus from Chrono Trigger.

Legend of Zelda

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I don't think the LoZ series is doing anything wrong right now, but here's an idea for a possible future game: one that spans multiple eras, and that you not only control Link, but Shiek and some sort of pre-evil Ganondorf as playable characters as well.

[Traab]

I actually liked the art style for ff9. I do like the idea of redoing the earlier games, as id really like to see not just graphical upgrades, but a few tweaks here and there to the play systems. They worked back then, but could be better now. And ravens, im pretty sure torture used to gather information was used at the very least in both tng and voyager, both giving and receiving for the good guys.

As for no openly gay characters, i actually like it that way, as it would honestly feel too forced no matter what they did, since their personal life is pretty immaterial to their starship careers. Voyager was really the main series that shoved relationships in our face. Most of the rest referenced that they existed and had a few minor episodes were relationship woes were a secondary story. You almost never saw riker and troi in a romantic setting. Yeah it happened sometimes, but compare it to paris/torres in voyager. So similarly, unless relationships were made into a running theme of whatever new series is made, having a gay guy or girl in it would seem like it was only done specifically to push the envelope. Especially with the timing since dont ask dont tell was recently repealed.

[Ravens_cry]

DS9 had more than its share of relationships, romantic and otherwise.
Jadzia Dax and Worf, Kira Nerys and Odo, Quark and Odo,The Dax and Benjamin Sisko, Rom and Leeta, Julian Bashir and Miles O'Brien, Bashir and Elim Garak, Sisko and Garak are but a partial list.
It shouldn't have to feel forced, I think with competent writing, it could feel as natural as any other kind of relationship in fiction.
One of the best examples in my opinion of a gay relationship was Gus and Wally from the short lived animated series, Mission Hill.
They argued like an old married couple, which is what they were in every sense but legal, but the affection they had for each other felt genuine and, in my opinion, not forced.
Surely Star Trek could do as well.

[comicshorse]

Lord of the Rings (films): The wraiths simply kill the Black Corsairs and depart there. Arragon loads the ship with Gondor allies and it is them who turn up to releive the siege.Thus not rendering the Rohirim and Gondorian losses totally meaningless.
The time taken to fully explain this plot change is taken from Hobbits bouncing on the bed, skull traps and Hobbits singing.
Tactical mistakes so huge they make a complete amateur like me wince are removed.

Star Wars prequel movies: If we keep Darth Maul but nothing else from the first.
Lose all the cringeworthy Padme romance and platform fights from the second.
And merge it with a third with no more romance ( and a decent reason for Annakin to fall) we might have a decent film.

Anita Blake: You know just stop reading at the fifth book, some things aren't salvageable

[Lord Seth]

There's a knock at your door. Curious, you answer it. Outside is a dishevelled looking individual who looks like they've recently seen a ghost. You may or may not recognize them right away, but after some introductions you realize that they are the author of one of your favorite movie/tv show/video game/book/etcetera franchises.

They say that you appeared to them in a vision. That their work has become stagnant and bitter and that they are no longer qualified to work on their title. That they are lost and no longer know which direction to go with their story. That's where you come in. They're giving you free reign over their title for you to try and make better.

What changes would you make to any particular movie/tv show/video game/book/etcetera franchise? How would you do things? How can you do it better?

I'd tell them to go back to work and keep up with what they've been doing. After all, it wouldn't be my favorite if I had issues big enough that I'd want to intercede and change things, right?

I guess I'd have BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo brought back and at least finish the arc it was in the middle of before being canceled, but that's not a decision the writers made, so...

[Flickerdart]

and not just a lesbian relationship.

Like...two lesbian relationships?

[Ravens_cry]

Like...two lesbian relationships?

Please don't make me hate you.

[Hopeless]

Okay:

D&D Series: Its convention day and whilst some people are enjoying playing, watching or shopping for their favourite pasttime someone isn't. Using an ancient grimoire and coaxed by an unseen figure these people invoke a ritual that causes a rift in space and many of the people present at the convention and outside are pulled in.

We see a newsflash about an unexplained explosion as a sort of preview to the actual series but we get a group waking up in a glade only to be confonted by an old man in very old clothing.

He explains they have been sent from another world to counter the actions of other travellers who are seeking to conquer the Realms at the behest of an ancient evil he will only call "Venger"!

Leading them to an overgrown keep he makes sure their safe for the night but they're beset by bad dreams and one by one he gest to speak with them and he explains their dream by saying its their subconscious telling them what to do.

By morning however he's gone but each person has new gear next to them which they feel fits them perfectly even though they don't understand why.
BUT what they find out is that whilst some are good, some would rather go home others however are most definitely EVIL and in the process they split the party with some going one way the other going their own and a third staying put to look for a missing fellow traveller.

They discover the bodies of TWO of their fellows unaware that the visitor who met them was their nemesis who is now with one of the two parties seeking to corrupt them into becoming his new pupils and eventually slaying the others so he can regain his lost powers which have been infused with these travellers...

So we can switch between the three parties during the course of the season where one falls prey to the larceny present another is being led down a very dark path whilst the third aware things are seriously wrong are being coaxed to find the others before its too late!

This is not your eighties animated cartoon... this is a tv series for the 21st century where literally anything can happen and probably will depending on who your dungeon master is!

Legacy of Armistice: Set in the future humanity has spread out to the stars but have fallen on dark times the result of a disaster that left them far from home and very little resources to call upon to survive as the one key to safety and survival requires some brave people to man spaceships and travel between the settled star systems providing hope and potentially money to those present and those travelling allowing vital resources to be delivered and picked up as there are many dangers in this era where man preys on man and other things lurk out there in the dark.

As humanities past rears its ugly head this focuse on the crew of a small ship and its crew looking to rebuild their lives and stay one step ahead of the closest thing they have to authorities out here and by authorities I mean Empire who look upon any armed ship as a threat to their authority and any unarmed ship is preyed upon by those who have the means to pillage them.

Two barbarian raised crew one a former Marine the other a former Scout who join forces with an entrepreneur and former scientist allied with his personal lawyer and accountant find themselves in possession of a dangerous secret that imperils both their lives and the lives of those around them, their only hope lies in solving this secret and hopefully saving themselves whilst they're at it!

The first season would involve them trying to evade pirates whilst en route to a medical facility and stumble upon a long lost city hidden on an ice world where their captain discovers a long lost sibling and ends up becoming their guardian as they try to reestablish their business as the Empire seeks to cover its actions as they try to avoid being silenced...

And out there a far greater menace looms one that has a so-called terrorist organisation trying to build a defence against all the while hiding their actions from an Empire that would actually doom them all rather than protect what remains of their people...

Wild Guard: Come on who doesn't want to see a mock reality tv show of a team of super heroes!!!

[Jahkaivah]

Well since Gabe Newell isn't the only guy involved in the devlopment of his games I am now imagining the entire staff at Valve on my doorstep.


Anyhow:

Left 4 Dead 1 and 2:

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-Provide the option in lobby to have the teams scramble every round on versus.

-Provide the option in lobby to play whatever mutation you want.

-Give players the abbility call a vote for a pause mid-game, and of course a vote to then unpause it again.

-Make it so holding crouch after jumping off of a ledge will prevent the Survivor from grabbing the ledge. If the survivor does grab the ledge holding E for about a second will cause the survivor to just let go and accept the fall that awaits them.

-Playing Smoker has it so the person you would grab if you were to left click at that point in time is highlighted for you.

-Playing Jokey has it so you automatically jump right at the survivor when you left click when close enough (the survivor you would jump at is also highlighted for you), this can still be countered with a well timed shove.

-Playing Charger has it so your charge isn't immediately stopped if there is a Survivor directly in front of you. Also reduce the amount of crap that can stop a charge, perhaps by having it so that on a collision the charge will first attempt to move up/down or turn left/right mid charge slightly before breaking the charge. Also making the hitbox for collision detection during charges smaller.

-Portal 2's "see what your teammates see" feature is available in non-realism modes.

-Perhaps a "Cusswords Mode" which is a version of co-op realism where the Director has an extra dark sense of humour.

Team Fortress 2:

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Release a new version, Team Fortress 2: Recut.

It's a seperate game like Team Fortress 2 Beta, it has to be brought for a fairly modest price, but is available for free to anyone who brought Team Fortress 2 before it went Free to Play.

It cuts out alot of the features that TF2 has developed over the years to make it more like the game it was to begin with. However it keeps some of the better ideas produced over the years that improved the game without changing it too much.


Which is to say:

-The Mann store is cut out, along with the entire backpack/crafting/item-drop/trading system.

-That of course means no hats, it may be introduced later down the line under the strict rule of only obeying theme appropriate stuff, but it's much easier to not bother drawing a line for that.

-The majority of weapons in the game will be taken out, the weapons that remain in the game will be available to all players straight away.

-Of the weapons that remain, each class has a single choice that they can make between two weapons for one of their weapon slots, they have a single button they can use in game to switch between these two weapons when next to a supply cabinet. Also worth noting that some previous unlocks will replace the original stock for their weapon slot. For example the Pyro gets a Flamethrower, an Axetinguisher and has a choice between his Flare Gun and his Shotgun.

-Where there is a choice, there is a visual indication that the class is carrying that weapon on them, for example Pyro would either have a shotgun on his back or a flaregun at his side when it's not wielded.

-I won't go into detail about what weapons I think should stay and go, or what class changes should be made. Not entirely sure about some of it myself, but the thumbrule is:

-Weapons that screw with class balance goes (such as fast moving soldier rockets).

-Weapons that a significant portion of the TF2 playerbase finds annoying goes (such as mini sentries).

-Weapons which show poor game design goes (such as blocking medic healing).

-Weapons which changes the class to the extent of missing the point of the class goes (such as Demoknights, though on a side note I want to keep the Huntsmen).

And obviously the focus is then on balancing the classes and weapons which should be much easier since we have had the freedom to take all the troublesome ones out.

Portal 2:

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-Continue on that map editor that Valve is already working on... yeah they seem to be mostly on the right track here....

-Maybe as an amusing joke have it so that for the single player custom maps made in the editor you play a random test subject from the humans found in the co-op, every time you die in game your playthrough that time is revealed to be recorded footage shown to a new random test subject you replay the level as, along with Glados saying some amusing random line like "try not to get yourself killed like that person did".

After all that is out of the way, get Valve working on Episode 3 and possibly some kind of single player scary horror game.

[Orzel]

Star Ocean series.

NO @#$%&?$ Fourth dimensional beings!!!!
All games after SO# uses SO's battle system.
And redo the anime.