Yeah the sequels better...BUT

[Tonberry]

Kingdom Hearts and Super Mario Galaxy come to mind for me.

 

[get]

This is a trash take, but with the Kingdom Hearts games. I feel like it has to be out of pure nostalgia because 2 is obviously and objectively a better game, but given the option Id rather play 1 over 2.

YESSS! I don't have nostalgia for KH1, that I do have for the second one. And when I finished KH1FM for the first time last year, I decided to play KH2FM (I played the vanilla one in my childhood not FM) I found myself being annoyed by KH2.

And I feel like It's the small(ish) things that annoy me. The Ultima Weapon being a bit harder and more tedious to achieve (but also not as useful in my opinion)

The maps being FAR less interesing with way less puzzles and hidden stuff to find. And I think the maps are that way because they wanted less clutter for the advanced and more flowy combat system.

The party members feeling better in KH1(idk how to explain it) I just feel like they are not as useful in KH2 as they are in 1.
Basically,
KH1 - alongside Sora
KH2 - extension of Sora.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I always hear people say that the sequel is an improvement in every way. I get the feeling that they haven't played the first one, because people say that "the combat in this one is the best of all the KH games" and that makes me sad, if all other aspects don't matter that much then it's not as big of an improvement.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

Demon Souls over Dark Souls
Game has this weird archaic feel to it. Idk how to explain it but Demon Souls has those cool intricate levels that are all separate from one another and the nexus being a central hub that doesn't comeback in later entries is really cool.

 

[Clippy]

The mother of all such games for me:

Yes, Diablo II has many QoL improvements, yes, it has more classes with a skill tree that's thought out a bit better, yes, the sequel is larger and more expansive in scope but it just doesn't do it for me the way the original does. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing game, easily one of the best ones ever made but still...

 

[YuriSukiSan]

I'm sat here trying to think of some other franchises to avoid saying this but honestly for me it has to be FF and the transition away from it's old format to fully realized 3D. Everything about it whether it's the cutscene or it's the graphical fidelity is for it's time a MASSIVE leap. It was a genre defining game! I just feel like despite how good FF7 actually is they lost some of the series' charm in the transition.

 

[CheesyExplosive]

Have you ever played a critically acclaimed/well loved sequel, that, on a technical level, IS definitely better than the first game....but you enjoy the first game more? I know a title that fits that description for some is Super Mario Galaxy 1 over the second game. In my opinion those two are on equal footing with a slight edge actually going to Galaxy 2. A personal choice for me is Batman Arkham Asylum over Arkham city.

View attachment 92937
YES, Arkham City does have a better and more intricate story. YES City is a larger, more ambitious game, and it succeeds in what it tries to accomplish in that area. City also fixes many of the clipping issues the first game had creating a more consistent experience visually. But the atmosphere of the first game, the gothic hallways of the prison, the creepy feeling of anything can happen on this small island, how creative some of the riddler trophies were placed. I enjoyed the more linear experience compared to the open world one in city.

I wanted to know this forums thoughts on such a topic, what is the original game you like more than the "improved on" sequel?

phanstay star online series and spinoffs...

 

[qw90700]

The mother of all such games for me:
View attachment 92989
Yes, Diablo II has many QoL improvements, yes, it has more classes with a skill tree that's thought out a bit better, yes, the sequel is larger and more expansive in scope but it just doesn't do it for me the way the original does. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing game, easily one of the best ones ever made but still...

Well perhaps why prefer Diablo 1 over 2nd game could be the way how 1st game is "so different genre" of a game. D1 is more about surviving all the layers of the floor and all in a very much of a "rogue-like" and even "survival horror", 2nd game is more about "enjoy looting and upgrading your character and killing is just piece of cake" in hack and slash manner lol.

No wonder in later games people enjoy trading items like Team Fortress 2 BS instead of actually enjoying the game.

In the end weirdly Diablo 1 and rest of Diablo games are a case of "dude these games have the same name but especially later games than 1st game seem like from another game series" topic very similar to how Persona series changed a lot since its 1st game.

 

[aquova]

Everyone and their mother seemed to love Freedom Planet 2, but for whatever reason I was never able to really get into it. It was fine, but there was something about the original that I feel the sequel didn't have

I agree with Mass Effect as well. Something about the atmosphere of the first one makes maybe my favorite of the trilogy. It feels like a meeting point of Bioware's more classic RPGs and what came after, which was lost in the sequels.

 

[Cosmiken]

Streets of Rage. Second game is better in every way, but the first game just has that immaculate atmosphere and moodiness to it that the second game completely lacks IMO. In the first game it feels like you're fighting for your life through a run-down urban hellscape beyond saving, whereas 2 feels more cartoony and comic book-y with the neon colors and more energetic music. I'm so glad 4 returned to the more atmospheric tone rather than trying to be the second game again lol

I've never agreed with a post more in my life. Streets 1 bosses legitimately frightened me when I was younger. Then soundtrack was phenomenal. And it didn't have a kangaroo in it...

 

[PhrawzT]

I agree with a lot of the comments here. Parasite Eve, Halo, Diablo, and Dead Space are all such unique games that the original seems superior to me since I had played nothing like them at the time. I've played the sequels and while thy do tend to improve on the original formula, I find myself going back to the original games more.

 

[Varyag]

I was thinking I don't really have anything to add to this thread, but then I remembered the Dawn of War series. I know so many people love DoW2 and while I still think it is a perfectly good and well made game, it's just not my favorite. It's much too fast and MOBA-ey for my taste, and there's no base building at all! Dawn of War 1, with it's expansions and mods, is where it's at. I get to play with many Warhammer 40K factions, using all of their soldiers and vehicles and even titan units! And battles aren't a constant retreat fest where units either die instantly or never die at all. In DoW1, battles have weight and take some time to resolve.

For very similar reasons I also prefer Company of Heroes 1 to any of it's sequels. And while I still DO love Homeworld 2 a lot, I agree with the argument that 1 was better written, and some quirks of it's engine (not all of them, it's clunky) were better than HW2. We don't talk about HW3, or DoW3... or CoH3. Maybe they should stop making RTS sequels.

 

[MasterEn]

Have you ever played a critically acclaimed/well loved sequel, that, on a technical level, IS definitely better than the first game....but you enjoy the first game more? I know a title that fits that description for some is Super Mario Galaxy 1 over the second game. In my opinion those two are on equal footing with a slight edge actually going to Galaxy 2. A personal choice for me is Batman Arkham Asylum over Arkham city.

View attachment 92937
YES, Arkham City does have a better and more intricate story. YES City is a larger, more ambitious game, and it succeeds in what it tries to accomplish in that area. City also fixes many of the clipping issues the first game had creating a more consistent experience visually. But the atmosphere of the first game, the gothic hallways of the prison, the creepy feeling of anything can happen on this small island, how creative some of the riddler trophies were placed. I enjoyed the more linear experience compared to the open world one in city.

I wanted to know this forums thoughts on such a topic, what is the original game you like more than the "improved on" sequel?

i'd say the reason that asylum seems like a better game in general might be due to the smaller scale of the overall area. with everything being more tightly packed together in one area, everything feels more connected. city has a much, much larger area so everything feels more disconnected, like each area is it's own self contained mini-game, so to speak.
an example of this is poison ivy. she makes a brief appearance at the beginning of asylum and over the course of the game, her plants start to take over the place, slowly and subtly growing her presence as a threat. she's not intentionally interfering with the player and batman, but you see that she is a threat of some sort.
in city, i don't recall her even appearing once if you don't have the catwoman dlc. she helps catwoman who helps batman later, but unless you knew that, she's barely in the game.
there are more examples of the different characters having different affects on the story and gameplay between the two games. the main point is that the scale of the game affects that a lot. bigger doesn't always mean better. breath of the wild/tears of the kingdom is proof of that.
super mario galaxy 2 is dlc for galaxy 1. it's just more stuff that couldn't fit onto the first game's disc; which is why people like it, but aren't super ecstatic about it.
as for your question; i think the only game that i played where the first game did something better than the sequel is the dot hack quadrilogy and the sequel trilogy. in the first game, you had magic users who could naturally use healing and attack spells as long as they had the equipment.
in the trilogy, you have one white mage for 98% of 3 discs who naturally learns healing spells. the other magic users have to have high weapon levels to learn basic healing spells and other characters can learn healing spells from items sold at shops. not all of the spells are available at the shops, but a good amount are. you can't really pick the characters that you want to use without taking that in consideration.

 

[bjork]

Sonic 1

 

[MemeAlert]

Someone already said it but Kingdom Hearts 1. I like how someone described it like a "Super Mario 64 Action RPG". One thing Kingdom Hearts 2 was missing was how you can interact with stuff to find secrets, also Kingdom Hearts 2 level design is kinda flat and the game felt like a shonen jump anime.

 

[Merlin Yggdrasill]

It's not so much that I prefer the remake over the original, cause I think I do, but in this instance, I have a bit of a different answer. Metroid: Zero Mission, is one of my top 10 games of all time and I love it to pieces. People tend to say that the original NES/FDS Metroid is obsolete and irrelevant because of Zero Mission, but I 100% disagree. The original Metroid is really something special and unique and the atmosphere of it was never recreated in the remake. That soundtrack is almost completely different from Zero Mission and the game feels a lot scarier and lonely than the remake, too. I love the original Metroid.

 

[moonbits]

For me, it's the original Mass Effect. Mass Effect 2 may have improved the combat and made the game much less janky. But in the process got rid of much of the RPGness of the original and made it more of a Action game. I also liked how in 1 you are building the legend of Shepard whereas in the sequel you're considered a hero from the very beginning.

I'm not willing to stake my claim that the first game is objectively better in really anyway. But I get absorbed every time I try and replay the series. Mass Effect 2 however I get bored pretty early on for whatever reason.

I agree with this but in the immersion aspect. I liked the elevators, entering the ship manually, the exploration aspect was more enjoyable in the first one and I think that sort of design made me love it more than the sequels.

I like holstering my gun >: (

 

[iamthemilkman]

Agree with you on Arkham Asylum. I loved City and Origins, didn't love Knight, but Asylum will always be the best given its Metroidvania structure, IMO.

I would also say SMG1 is better than 2. While I like 2, 1 felt like a more complete game, whereas 2 felt like an expansion to it.

Halo: Combat Evolved
Bioshock
Borderlands
Mass Effect
Alan Wake
The Last of Us
Saints Row
GTA IV
Dead Rising
The Darkness
Dishonored
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The sequels were all better playing games, however I preferred the originals.

 

[qw90700]

I find myself going back to the original games more.

Well I'm rather the same but I especially bounce back from Assassin's Creed 1 and wanna forget it ever existed and return back to the 2nd game lol. Assassin's Creed 1 is "good" but not as a game, they had better release it as a movie.

 

[Arthxas3]

Maybe it's popular opinion but after I played Spyro trilogy for PS1 and Remastered version i found out I like Spyro 1 more than 2 and 3 if I remove nostalgia aspect from my rating. Spyro 1 as a platformer have this unique kind of feeling none other game from series have. Idk if this is Copeland music or levels vibe. And whole game is simple free dragons magically imprisoned in stone and defeat gnasty gnorc. Then in 2 and 3 there are background characters and spyro dont have much to talk in the story. Its hard for me to say why I feel it that way

 

[NOTthatHARD]

Dragon's Dogma 2 is the perfect example of this, it is technically superior to Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen; Dragon's Dogma 2 has better graphics more realistic animations, a deeper and darker story and a much bigger open world to explore, but Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen still comes out on top with a less ambitious but more "to the point" story, more memorable characters, better music, a lot more enemy variety, far better vocations (jobs/classes) that have more skill variety (and more useful too) and last but not least Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen has some of the best optional high level dungeons in the entire action RPGs genre, "Bitterblack Isle", this dungeon is so awesome that it turns a great game into an amazing game.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

The entire "Early instalment weirdness" trope perfectly describes that feeling about many franchises' first entry compared to the rest (like Megaman 1 having only 6 robot masters and a score system or Donkey Kong Country being the only in the SNES Trilogy having a playable Donkey).

phanstay star online series and spinoffs...

Technically PSO is itself a "sequel" (not chronologically but as a release) yet I do agree about it. PSU introduced Photon Arts and more freedom in class selection for your character (which PSO2 and NGS expanded upon) yet there's something about the simpler battle system and more restrictive class for your characters.

Sonic 1.

Sonic 2 with the two acts per zones, the the spindash and the removal of air speed cap made the series much more dynamic yet there was something about the first game, maybe because it wasn't all about speed and had some emphasis on pure platforming.

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

This is me with Donkey Kong Country 2 and 1, like yeah, 2 is the fan favorite of the trilogy, but DKC1 just does it for me much more

 

[Lowpoly Kenshiro]

Have you ever played a critically acclaimed/well loved sequel, that, on a technical level, IS definitely better than the first game....but you enjoy the first game more?

Absolutely! Dead Rising would probably be my favorite example, as the general atmosphere, tone, and story of the first game take themselves way more seriously while still being funny in gameplay. Dead Rising 2 (and the following Dead Rising games) was made by Capcom Vancouver instead of Capcom Japan and made a sequel that was a really good improvement in almost all aspects of gameplay (especially with the introduction of weapon crafting), but in exchange the game's story becomes way more of a cheesy low-budget movie. Still a great game but I wish the franchise wouldnt have gone on the goofy over the top road as much as it did.