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If you've spent any amount of time following video games or being plugged into the culture, cancelations often feel like the price you have to pay for being so attuned to the industry. I can't tell you how many games I dedicated large parts of my entire personality to in order to follow them, becoming intimately familiar with them and their production histories.
A lot of JRPGs have been canceled over the years, but it almost hurts a lot worse when the game in question is a sequel. I've tracked the production cycles of countless JRPGs over the years, and many of the games I'm about to talk about would fall very clearly into that category.
Looking back, the number of times we've gotten painfully close to seeing a JRPG sequel go into full production just becomes a bit more depressing when you really think of it. Video game cancelations happen every single year, but not getting the chance to spend untold hours in the worlds that these games promised to expand on is a hurt that will never go away.
Baten Kaitos 3
An Ambitious Third Chapter
I always used to feel like I was the only one who remembered how cool the Baten Kaitos games were, but thanks to the recent remasters, it became clear that this lovely series has its own unique fanbase. I used to wonder why a third game never happened, only recently finding out that it was briefly in production.
The third game entered production not long after the release of Baten Kaitos Origins in 2006, conceived as an ambitious next-gen JRPG for the Wii. It was planned to take place in the air, the land and the sea, creating a world that would take full advantage of what the Wii was capable of.
After some financial struggles and uncertain futures at Bandai Namco, however, any hope for Baten Kaitos 3 was dashed. It was almost restarted as a 3DS game, but Baten Kaitos remains without a third entry, and considering the middling sales of the HD remasters, it's likely to stay that way.
Vagrant Story 2
Gaming's Most Terrible What-If
Following completion of Final Fantasy Tactics, director Yasumi Matsuno looked to expand the kingdom of Ivalice that he created for that game. The end result was Vagrant Story, a game so effortlessly cool and classy, that elements of it would slowly be folded into other Final Fantasy games until it became a sort of distant cousin.
In a post-Vagrant Story world, Matsuno wrote a prologue for what he wanted a sequel to be. It involved a woman named Jack, who was the proposed daughter of Callo from Vagrant Story, on the hunt for Ashley Riot, the protagonist of the first game. It was a wild concept, but sadly, that's all it would ever be.
Matsuno would later repurpose elements of this prologue for a quest in Final Fantasy 14, but it wasn't quite the same as having Vagrant Story 2. He pitched it to Square, who showed some interest, but it was ultimately canceled and left to the imagination of Matsuno, who still considers it a game he'd like to go back to one day.
Chrono Break
The Ever Mysterious Third Chrono Game
For a game series that is as hugely influential as Chrono, it's always been somewhat amusing that it's made up of two games. While Chrono Trigger gets a lot of the mindshare, rightly so, I've always had a more personal connection with Chrono Cross.
No matter which game you prefer, Square felt that there were quite a few elements of both games that could be further explored. In the early 2000s, they set out to change that, putting a game called Chrono Break into development.
Often described as a sequel to both Trigger and Cross, Chrono Break's true nature has been consistently shrouded in mystery. Through numerous trademark registrations and false starts, Chrono Break was internally canceled at Square in late 2003. Very few members of the teams that made the original games are at Square today, which makes the fate of Chrono Break even more dire.
The Legend of Dragoon 2
Sony Hates Money
The PS1's extensive JRPG library is one that has more than earned its place in gaming history. It's no exaggeration to say that the PS1 was the best console for JRPGs in the 1990s, and one of the most brilliant examples of that is The Legend of Dragoon.
Often cited as one of the console's greatest games, The Legend of Dragoon is a masterwork of the genre. It effectively stood out among the crowd, which was hard to do in that era of JRPGs. So beloved was The Legend of Dragoon, that a sequel was put into production at Japan Studio in the early 2000s.
The Legend of Dragoon was canceled at some point in 2001, as the studio felt more attention should be diverted to the PS2's upcoming onslaught of AAA games. Despite strong sales and a fanbase that would show up no matter what, The Legend of Dragoon 2 never re-entered development after that. Rumors of a remake by Bluepoint proved to be just that, leaving it as one of gaming's most heartbreaking cancellations.
Skies of Arcadia 2
More Sky Pirate JRPGs, Please
There's just something about games with vibrant, beautiful colors that attracted kids of the 1990s and early 2000s. Like so many of you, I grew up in an era where that style of game was the norm, and Skies of Arcadia certainly fits that description.
It's one of those JRPGs that just burns itself into your brain. I can still remember every moment of playing it back in the day, and in the years since, I was able to learn that a sequel entered development in the early 2000s.
Skies of Arcadia 2 entered development sometime in 2003, where it languished in development. The main issue that Skies of Arcadia 2 struggled with was the scope of its team, as members of the original game's group had splintered off into other sections of Sega. It left the game motionless, and Sega ended up putting the game on indefinite hold a year later.
Final Fantasy X-3
Emotional Damage
Despite each Final Fantasy game being its own unique, self-contained world, several of them have been given narrative sequels over the years. One of the best direct sequels an FF game ever got was Final Fantasy X-2, which took place two years after the events of the original.
In the years since, the concept of Final Fantasy X-3 has been a prominent one in the fanbase. It wasn't without reason, as the Final Fantasy X universe still has a ton of potential for new stories. Final Fantasy X writer Kazuhige Nojima solidified that idea, as it was revealed he had an entire story and scenario written for a potential third game.
Rumors about FFX-3's status inside Square always fluctuate, though it seems like at one point, it was far more than just a rumor, and was in active development. No matter the status of it, Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase have both labeled the game as canceled.
Xenosaga Episode IV
This is Just the Beginning
After leaving Square in the early 2000s, Tetsuya Takahashi founded Monolith Soft and worked together with his wife to craft what would become Xenosaga. They envisioned a six-chapter storyline, one that would deal with the themes of religion, morality, philosophy and more. It was ambitious, but considering this is the same duo that created Xenogears, it's not entirely surprising.
By the time Xenosaga Episode II was ready to ship, it became clear to Bandai Namco that this just wasn't going to work out the way anyone wanted. They had to find a way to condense the stories of the remaining four into one, concluding the series with Xenosaga Episode III. Any potential fourth episode was not happening.
In reality, the cancellation of Xenosaga Episode IV also led to the end of production for three other games. The Xenosaga series was excellent, and while I greatly enjoyed the conclusion, I've always wondered what would have happened if Episode IV had gone ahead as originally planned.
EarthBound 64
The Greatest Nintendo 64 Game That Never Existed
EarthBound was a massive success in Japan when it first launched back in 1994, but the numbers in North America were incredibly disappointing. The failure to reach an American audience didn't really matter to Nintendo, as they immediately put a sequel into production, which was to be directed by series creator Shigesato Itoi for the Nintendo 64.
Completely bypassing the traditional prototyping phase, Nintendo allowed Itoi and his team maximum creative freedom. It allowed Itoi's seemingly unlimited imagination to run free, as he envisioned a hugely ambitious JRPG that would see a town live, grow and evolve across twelve chapters and multiple playable characters.
Despite their passion and commitment to the project, EarthBound 64 was simply unable to make it across the finish line. Nintendo was in dire need of staff members for GameCube projects, and the EarthBound 64 team was already stretching their resources thin. It was nearly restarted multiple times, and would eventually land on the Game Boy Advance. The game that it was, however, and the one that so many of us were desperate to play, was gone forever.
