Sequel decay

[Jeanfranc]

Saving anywhere makes sense yes, but the way atlus added it in SJR was honestly disrespectful and thanks to atlus adding it so liberally in recent games its now understood as a "necessary QoL" by the modern fanbase to the point it won't be returning, portable or not. Magnetite consumption would be super interesting to have back too, but ironically its more likely for these things to come back in a spinoff than mainline.

Basically all of Fatlus "enhanced" re-releases are bad, for every good thing they add they fuck something up or add unnecessary things; I unironically believe that the best version of all the Persona games is the original one (FES is mostly fine though, just ignore The Answer and forget about what they did to Chidori).

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Sometimes a game becomes an explosive success and this almost always guarantees sequels - it becomes a franchise.
That said, for a myriad of reasons (company interference, trend compliance, lead changes), sequels sometimes become... different.

"Better" and "worse" are not quantifiable, objective metrics, so it's all very relative. The way changes are weighted depends very heavily on something highly personal - expectation.

I'll start the conversation with a personal example, then: Parasite Eve.

This was the third RPG I played on the PS1, after FF7 and Xenogears, and I absolutely loved everything about it. You had an intriguing story, a sexy, strong and independent female protagonist, incredible music and very cool and fresh systems to back it all up. It's a game that really stuck with me and that I hold very dearly, along with the other two I mentioned above.

Then came... Parasite Eve 2. My disappointment was unsurmountable: it had become something else, something I couldn't care less about - a second fiddle Resident Evil (I am no RE fan, never have been). To me, everything that had been attractive, interesting and fresh about PE had been discarded in a foolish attempt to chase after Capcom's survival horror behemoth and it failed spectacularly.

I don't even need to say that Third Birthday made things even worse, so I won't waste anyone's time by ruminating on all the bullet points that make this "sequel" terrible.

So, I'd like to hear you guy's thoughts regarding similar experiences!

I know we all love F-zero, but this exact issue certainly killed it. This is something developers are very aware of: if you can’t improve in the next entry, what’s even the point of making a next entry?

It sucks for everyone. As fans, we want a new game. For devs, they want to make something that pleases the fans. But, if they can’t think of anything that could make for a good next game, they won’t make it unless they’re forced to by upper management.

Tony Hawk. Love it to death, but it got mega burnout at or after American Wasteland. Mechanic wise, I think THUG 1 was the last game to give us something totally worth celebrating, but I give them grace for a couple entries. After that point though, the series entered a death spiral where it had worn out its welcome AND it wasn’t doing much new gameplay wise.

The cool part of fan projects like THUG PRO is that, as a fan project, it doesn’t have the weight of a price tag on its shoulders, so it’s free to just be an engine that you download new maps for and have fun.

 

[RageBurner]

I know we all love F-zero, but this exact issue certainly killed it. This is something developers are very aware of: if you can’t improve in the next entry, what’s even the point of making a next entry?

It sucks for everyone. As fans, we want a new game. For devs, they want to make something that pleases the fans. But, if they can’t think of anything that could make for a good next game, they won’t make it unless they’re forced to by upper management.

Tony Hawk. Love it to death, but it got mega burnout at or after American Wasteland. Mechanic wise, I think THUG 1 was the last game to give us something totally worth celebrating, but I give them grace for a couple entries. After that point though, the series entered a death spiral where it had worn out its welcome AND it wasn’t doing much new gameplay wise.

The cool part of fan projects like THUG PRO is that, as a fan project, it doesn’t have the weight of a price tag on its shoulders, so it’s free to just be an engine that you download new maps for and have fun.

You're right! still, I feel with games like this sequels are iterative first, additive second. There's always room for improvement if one really takes a long hard look at a game, if you ask me.

If they feel they can't iterate (really, has SMK changed much over 2 decades or so?) then the least they can do is release GX on a current platform with on-line and track making.

Like you said, though, fans are the hope with Aero GPX. Would be funny and sad if they tried to take it down.

 

[Big Finger Jim]

Diablo 1 (9/10)
Diablo 2 (10/10)
Diablo 3 (3/10)
Diablo 2 Resurrected (3/10)
Diablo Immortal (0.2/10)
Diablo 4 (?/10)

well 1 & 2 qualify as "retro" to me
and they are the only 2 good games in the series :P

0.2? God damn. Even I, at least, gave the worst life is strange game a 1.

 

[edenfh]

Not a sequel that exist already but there is the possibility of Final Fantasy X-3, while many people hated X-2 i was fine with it especially the international version, i was always a sucker for happy endings. The problem is that they already made an audiodrama and with all the problems a sequel can have, the protagonists don't keep their happy endings they throw some dumb drama and forcefully bring back the major enemy just for the sake of making a sequel.

Now for the hot takes, i think the persona series of games have strayed more and more from it's darker roots with 1 and 2 and became a hijacked series as of 3, making the series less and less interesting to me, to a extent this also applies to the shin megami tensei series as well.

I don't mind the dating sim elements and all but, the series have really decayed it simply doesn't try to do something serius anymore, or the darker appeal of the first games, in a way i'm glad Atlus ingore them i'd hate for a remake/remaster, especially since i dislike pretty much all of their remake/remaster from the past decade, Raidou just next to the list.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Not a sequel that exist already but there is the possibility of Final Fantasy X-3, while many people hated X-2 i was fine with it especially the international version, i was always a sucker for happy endings. The problem is that they already made an audiodrama and with all the problems a sequel can have, the protagonists don't keep their happy endings they throw some dumb drama and forcefully bring back the major enemy just for the sake of making a sequel.



I don't mind the dating sim elements and all but, the series have really decayed it simply doesn't try to do something serius anymore, or the darker appeal of the first games, in a way i'm glad Atlus ingore them i'd hate for a remake/remaster, especially since i dislike pretty much all of their remake/remaster from the past decade, Raidou just next to the list.

Wait, is there a possibility of it? They would be making a sequel twenty years after the original, and Square Enix as a whole doesn’t seem to recognize how much market pull FFX has. They re-release it a bunch, but it doesn’t get the merch love that VII gets.

 

[edenfh]

Wait, is there a possibility of it? They would be making a sequel twenty years after the original, and Square Enix as a whole doesn’t seem to recognize how much market pull FFX has. They re-release it a bunch, but it doesn’t get the merch love that VII gets.

Considering how nowadays it's all either a remake or a sequel i wouldn't dismiss the possibility. The -WILL- audiodrama was made in 2018 iirc while they never said it was in development SE can just use it and make FFX-3 as a future cashgrab.

 

[_oBSOLEte_]

Tbh , i liked invisible war . But it was a game to dislike for its unnecessary and rather bad streamlining but otherwise still cool for its grounded vision of the future that even today suprisingly reflects our nowadays society and its political shenanigans .

Agreed. It was streamlined the same way System Shock 2 mechanisms were streamlined to do BioShock but by that time the PC crowd was just going with it.

I really liked the setting and the endings of Invisible War. I got the Omar ending on my first playthrough and it felt quite satisfying and cyberpunk.

 

[sysuah]

Assassin's Creed, Monster Hunter, Gran Turismo and Forza for me definitely
They should've ended it and start something new