The newly announced Total War Saga games will be standalone spin-offs focusing on the most exciting moments in history rather than entire historical eras. In other words, instead of focusing on a single character's life and the time around them (such as Napoleon or Attila) the team will be exploring some of the most pivotal moments that only lasted a few months, or a few decades at best - something that just wouldn't be enough for a classic Total War game.

That said, the Total War Saga games will not attempt to reinvent the wheel. They will still feature the same mix of turn-based campaign strategy and real-time battles with thousands of units, though with all of that centered onto a single region or country at a certain point in time. A good example of this would be Fall of the Samurai as its essentially a standalone spin-off from Total War: Shogun 2 focused on the most important events of the Boshin War.

The first of the Total War Saga games will be announced properly in the next few months, but what we know so far is that its going to be a spiritual follow-up to Total War: Rome 2 and that it will move the time period forward in much the same way as Total War: Attila. The idea is to use all of the already established tech and content from the mainline game, polish and improve it, and then use that to further explore the time period. Its certainly a good idea, especially for the fans of the original game, so hopefully it'll end up working out just as well as Fall of the Samurai did!