Probably not time to start holding our breath yet though

Bloody Roar hasn't really been a thing for almost 16 years at this point, but that doesn't mean fans of the series have completely abandoned hope that it may once again return to the spotlight.

One such dedicated fan going by the name Jerimiahisaiah appears to have come across the biggest development the series has seen in quite some time: Konami filed a new trademark for Bloody Roar just a few weeks ago.

Konami put in the paperwork for Bloody Roar listing it under "downloadable video game programs; recorded video game programs; downloadable video game software; recorded video game software; downloadable computer game programs; recorded computer game programs; downloadable computer game software; recorded computer game software" on March 23, 2020 from their home office in Japan.

The only other live trademark for the series was submitted all the way back in 1998 when the oft-forgotten fighting game was still owned by Hudson Soft.

This discovery sparked some excitement that we may soon see some sort of revival for Bloody Roar though it still seems a good bit too early to start anticipating any big news there.

Given Konami's current trend of... not really releasing video games very often, it's hard to picture a world where Bloody Roar jumps back on the scene when properties like Metal Gear, Castlevania and Silent Hill have sat dormant for years.



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Contra: Rogue Corps was the last console game put out under Konami's umbrella back in late 2019 which wasn't exactly well-received by just about anybody. The other three games the company released that year were collections of older titles like Castlevania.

There have been rumors circulating that something of a Silent Hill reboot has been in the works for a while, however, but all of that still remains unconfirmed.

Starting out as Beastorizer in 1997, Bloody Roar saw its last new title release back in 2004 on the PlayStation 2 though the first two games in the series were re-released as PS One Classics on the PlayStation Store.

The games center around Zoanthropes, who are half-human, half-animal fighters, with the ability to transform into powered-up beast states while the gameplay is similar to the older titles in the Tekken or Dead or Alive series.

It's hard to tell what a new trademark for Bloody Roar could mean at this point with Konami's apparent focus more-so centered around mobile and pachinko markets in recent years.

With next-gen on the horizon, it's certainly possible a new entry in the series could be looking to make a splash among early standouts, but we heard similar rumors around the time the PS4 released which never ended up going anywhere.

Bloody Roar is a classic fighting game property that probably deserves another look in an era where fighting games have been possibly doing their best ever though it all boils down to what the publishers want to do with what they own.

The small fire of hope for it still burns which is now brighter than it has been in some time at least.

Sent in by AriesWarlock and saucepot.