Konami Recruitment Ads Feature its Forgotten Series: Suikoden, Castlevania, Contra and More

Giuseppe Nelva April 2, 2017 9:12 AM EST

Konami pushes the Nostalgia button hard with its new Japanese recruitment ads.

Konami used to be an extremely popular publisher in the past, developing many beloved console series. Unfortunately, the fans’ appreciation for the brand has taken a fall in the past few year, even before the climax represented by Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and the divorce with Hideo Kojima.

The reason for that are deeper than recent drama, and lay mostly in the apparent abandonment of many beloved series, which certainly did not sit well with many veteran fans.

Yet, a series of recruitmnt ads featured prominently across all the major Japanese media outlets (below you can see a web banner ad that appeared on many relevant websites, and a full two-page spread in the Weekly Famitsu magazine) relies heavily on nostalgia.

We see not only recent series, including Metal Gear Solid itself, represented by the cast of The Phantom Pain, but many of those that have been inactive for years.

Among others, the ads feature Suikoden protagonists from the first game to the fifth, Tokimeki Memorial, Contra, LovePlus and Castlevania.

While many relevant developers that made those series great have since departed the company, all of those IP are still fully owned by Konami.

The ads don’t explain the message, and whether Konami is appealing to its history to attract developers, or really intends to revive those forgotten franchises, but it’s certainly interesting.

One thing is for sure: the revival of many of the series depicted in the ads would probably help in rekindling the relationship between Konami and its fans.

The positions mentioned are many: Game Programmers, Planners, Designers, Server Programmers, Senario Writers and Network Engineers.

Interestingly, we also read that the company is looking for developers experienced on either home console and mobile development. Incidentally, before someone pulls out the usual joke, no pachislot is mentioned.

Could Konami be planning a major return to its origins? We don’t know yet, but they did bring Bomberman back to consoles after several years of absence, so maybe there’s a glimmer of hope.