While I'm pumped for the series, I was really hoping they would push the envelope a bit more.
I've been toying with an idea of a Mega Man X remake, but using a souls like formula. Rather than side scroller, you'd be 3rd person, and explore these environments in full 3d (a la legends).
The idea would be Mega Man X. You'd get introduced to the opening, the story and the mavericks are out destroying the areas right now. You'd have a central hub, (much like firelink shrine or Majula from DS) and you'd go out and explore various paths. You'd have to actually traverse zones to find the boss stages where you then have to find the boss rooms.. Boss stages would link to other areas, and would have effects just like the SNES game where clearing a boss could change the level/environment of another boss area. I.e. clearing Launch Octopus, floods Sting Chameleons level opening up pathways and new areas and new enemies.
Gameplay wise it would be fast paced methodical action like dark souls. Rolling replaced by the MMX dash, you can dash jump over enemies, around them etc. The game would have tons of secrets including heart tanks, sub tanks (estus flasks), w sub tanks (ashen estus flasks for boss abilities), and there would be the armor of light capsules hidden in the world to upgrade your functions (i.e. air dashing, charge buster and special weapons charging, reduced damage/shielding, and breaking environmental stuff).
I even built up a profile for fighting Chill Penguin:
Chill Penguin
Shotgun Ice - Tracks and has 3 variable speeds (Fast, medium, and slow). Can shoot up to 3 times consecutively. It also splits upon hitting terrain. Deals light damage on rebound, medium on direct hit. Freezes you on hit.
Ice Breath - Breaths outward a chilling blast of air Freezing anything it touches and dealing heavy damage. Can be aimed horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
Ice Clone - spawns from ice breath up to 5 clones on a single cast. Touching an ice clone freezes you for up to 10s (reduced by mashing buttons). If an ice clone falls from the air and hits you or shatters nearby and hits you it deals enormous damage and light damage respectively.
Blizzard - Summons a random direction storm that reduces your movement speed by 50% and causes all active ice clones to flow with the wind direction. Deals very light damage over time.
Slide - A very rapid slide attack that knocks back on hit. Can shatter ice clones sending shrapnel outward. Can also cast Shotgun Ice in P2 during slide. If hit by this when frozen deals enormous damage. Otherwise deals heavy damage.
Kick - Kicks an ice clone toward you that tracks. Treat as if the ice clone fell on you freezing and dealing enormous damage. Shatters on collision. deals moderate damage normally, or enormous damage if frozen.
Headbutt - variable melee combo. anywhere from 1-4 hits, in any specific order. Can cancel into any other special ability at any time.
The idea would be fighting Chill Penguin just like any other souls boss. Watching and evading and striking when it's safe. His abilities would be slightly random in nature and frequency and have triggers to use certain moves in certain conditions.
The one thing I wasn't sure of was how to balance the fact that X does ranged damage. Buster shots would obviously consume some kind of stamina as would slides. I also didn't want enemy weaknesses to be super staggering like in MMX. They should be more effective for sure, but not trivial. Maybe firing a charged shot requires you to be standing still and has a decent bit of recovery. Maybe make stamina recovery slower while charging (or maybe even a slow drain).
The last part is that I'd want the game to feel like a souls game, but keep the metroidvania/MMX styled item acquisition/exploration feel too.
Then as a bonus for that replay-ability bit. Make it so you can play as Zero AND Vile if you clear it. I.e. clear the game once, NG+ you can do as Vile or Zero (or X again). NG++ lets you play as the other. Maybe even as Vile it could be a different route altogether where you hunt X/Zero in different levels. Zero would obviously have his Z saber and Vile could even acquire different Goliath mechs (a la X3).
I'd play the shit out of this game. And they could easily apply the formula to each X game and have it be pretty decent, or combine a few to make a really large game. I'd imagine this MMX remake would have at least 8 bosses for the Mavericks, + Vile & Sigma. Maybe even Sigma's dog Velgaurder, Ranga Bangda and other sub bosses for a total of like 13 or 14 bosses or so.
Imagine the boss rush at the end of the game haha!