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Don't you just love it when a story-heavy series is spread across different platforms

G

Glass Rebel

Member
This might sound almost like a consoles vs. handhelds thing but it's been bugging me out lately even if it doesn't affect me most of the time. I don't have a problem with series jumping platforms after a generational shift (regardless of manufacturer) and I understand the financial motivations but I hate it when I have to own more than one platform within a generation to play a series in its entirety.

Take Metal Gear Solid for example. Last generation you only needed a PS2 to play MGS2 and MGS3 and you knew everything about the canonical story. Metal Gear Solid GBC/Ghost Babel and Metal Gear Ac!d 1 and 2 were created during that generation but they were set in alternate timelines so it was ok. Then they split the canonical story between the PS3 and the PSP. While Peace Walker eventually made its way to the PS3, the only way to play Portable Ops is via PSP (or Vita) so unless you buy that one as well you're shit out of luck.

Assassin's Creed is similar. Altaïr's Chronicles, Bloodlines, Discovery and Liberation only appeared on portable devices but are still set in the same universe. While one could argue that the former three aren't that important to the overall story (and not that good either) but from what I've seen and read Aveline seems to play a bigger role in the AC universe.

Today I found out that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate leads to the events of Lords of Shadow 2. And it's hardly the only series to do that.

I know, I could just "watch it on youtube" or "read the wiki" but that's beside the point. It's frustrating that publishers put up such barriers for players to experience their stories. Movies and books are at least easily accessible for most people. I don't think I'm alone with this.
 
R

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
Surprised that this thread is not about Kingdom Hearts, for once. Then again, if you play that series for the plot you are doing it wrong.
 
B

Bumhead

Banned
Resident Evil is sort of bad for this. Or has been in the past anyway. You can at least play 1 to 6 all on a PS3 now, but not Zero and not the best version of 1.
 
D

doniewhalberg

Member
Yea, came in expecting Kingdom Hearts. The Castlevania thing could be annoying definitely but luckily it'll be one of the sole reasons I can find to turn on my 3DS next year so that's a rare occassion that it's figured out for me. KH though is horribly divided up between consoles, MGS always got on me (GOW too), but they need you to buy that portable somehow I guess.

At least in the case of AC you don't need to worry too much, there isn't much to miss there.
 
S

Seven Force

Banned
Resident Evil's another example, although most games save for REmake and Zero eventually found their way to a Sony platform.

Edit: Beaten!
 
Hellraider

Hellraider

Member
Bumhead said:
Resident Evil is sort of bad for this. Or has been in the past anyway. You can at least play 1 to 6 all on a PS3 now, but not Zero and not the best version of 1.
Click to expand...

You still get part of Zero's story via the Chronicles Collection.Not to mention that you can play three generations worth of RE in one console.Resident Evil is far from being an offender to what the op says.Probably the only good thing that comes from Capcom's greed. :p
 
H

HiiiLife

Member
Yup. One of the most annoying things that could happen with a series. I don't care if people say that its not required to understand the storyline. It doesn't feel "complete" to me until I at least YouTube a walkthrough or wiki it.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Uhhh, you're not missing much with Portable Ops from all I've heard/spoiled myself on. And it's pretty damning that the closest thing to a direct sequel wasted no time sweeping it under the rug. Nevermind that MGS4 pretty much killed any interest in really seeing the story continue anyway, that's the END, at this point I'm just following in case the games are still fun, and Peace Walker and Rising('s demo) definitely are.

And, yeah, Kingdom Hearts is probably the worst offender really. We're talking about one of the most batshit convoluted narratives in a game series ever, and the most offensive thing is it could probably be boiled down to just a few games if they divorced it from being a Disney crossover.
 
G

Glass Rebel

Member
Hellraider said:
You still get part of Zero's story via the Chronicles Collection.Not to mention that you can play three generations worth of RE in one console.Resident Evil is far from being an offender to what the op says.Probably the only good thing that comes from Capcom's greed. :p
Click to expand...

Actually it is, there's no way to play Resident: Evil Revelations on a platform that had RE5 or 6 (so far). I'm not talking about series that transcend generations.
 
Nemesis_

Nemesis_

Member
Regulus Tera said:
Surprised that this thread is not about Kingdom Hearts, for once. Then again, if you play that series for the plot you are doing it wrong.
Click to expand...

Me too, I thought this was the original topic.

I don't actually mind the examples that were given in the OP, but for me the biggest offender is easily Kingdom Hearts. It's also annoying because then console bias and the like always come into play when discussing which title or installment is the best in said series.

(I mean, in the big scheme of things, I own all the consoles, so I don't really find it that much of an issue if this segmentation happens - but I guess I can sympathize for those who might not be able to play all the games in their favorite series.)
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Most westerners don't know this, but Front Mission is apparently an epic spanning many generations of gaming hardware as well as other mediums.


http://frontmission.info/upload/FrontMissionAnalysis.pdf


I can apprecaite the OP's example... I found myself fascinated around the idea that MGS3 was this thoughtful origin story for an 8-bit villain... or that the series had grown from technologically primitive roots to be this post-modern blockbuster of insanity in MGS4.

EDIT: Oh now that I read closer.... I thought this was an appreciation of gross-generational series! I like them.
 
G

Glass Rebel

Member
BocoDragon said:
Most westerners don't know this, but Front Mission is apparently an epic spanning many generations of gaming hardware as well as other mediums.


http://frontmission.info/upload/FrontMissionAnalysis.pdf


I can apprecaite the OP's example... I found myself fascinated around the idea that MGS3 was this thoughtful origin story for an 8-bit villain... or that the series had grown from technologically primitive roots to be this post-modern blockbuster of insanity in MGS4.

EDIT: Oh now that I read closer.... I thought this was an appreciation of gross-generational series! I like them.
Click to expand...

I actually like cross-generational series as well but I meant within a generation. I guess I should have made the title less snarky but put in more information. Oh well.

Thanks for the link to the Front Mission Analysis. I'm reading it even though I should be working on my assignment D:
 
Domstercool

Domstercool

Member
Doesn't bother me. It means I get to play more of the games I like without having to wait for long development times for home consoles. Another point, at least you are getting more games in that franchise too, some franchise have just died off completely. :(

If you love the games enough then you will most likely buy the hardware to play them.
 
B

Bladenic

Member
Kingdom Hearts absolutely shits on the competition when it comes to this. The constant platform hopping is certainly part of the massive sales decline for the series as well.
 
H

hamchan

Member
First thought was also Kingdom Hearts. Somehow I have played all of them.

Watch KH3 go to the Wii U exclusively so Squeenix can screw things up even more with the series.
 
A

Anteater

Member
I usually skip whatever sequels on the consoles/handhelds I don't own, but I also lose interest on the series over time. Same goes to small DLCs that "extends" the story, but it's not really a big deal for me as long as each game is self contained, it would bug me a bit if it's a plot of something I'm interested in like Pied Piper for Xenosaga, or the small extra cutscenes in KH final mix from games that didn't even get localized, but if the script or cutscenes are on the web, I just use that as an alternative.
 
T

ThoseDeafMutes

Member
In the case of Assassin's Creed, the portable spinoffs are hardly necessary to understanding the main plot thread. In fact, you can go AC2 > AC3 without any of the intervening titles, and the 1 minute long "Previously on Assassin's Creed" thing will get you up to speed on the most important stuff. I would also personally suggest that the overarching stories are crap, because Desmond is so incredibly boring and it's hard to care about 2012 conspiracy stuff. I did enjoy Ezio in AC2, though, because he was very likable.
 
B

bakedpony

Member
What about the Tales series? Sure the games aren't connected but if you're a big fan, you'd have to have multiple platforms.
 
D

disappeared

Banned
That's why it works best when a game, in a series, can be a self-contained narrative. It may allude to events prior, but has the ability to stand on its own through the hardware transitions. See Silent Hill. Doesn't matter the hardware, as each story is contained within its own world, so to speak.
 
Hellraider

Hellraider

Member
Glass Rebel said:
Actually it is, there's no way to play Resident: Evil Revelations on a platform that had RE5 or 6 (so far). I'm not talking about series that transcend generations.
Click to expand...

Give it some time.:p

But yeah I get what you say.It's just that, story-wise, when it comes to Revelations, it feels more like just a game in the same universe than a sequel or a prequel to the main series.

I think it's a great compromise between the home console RE fans (who are the most) and the handheld ones.
 
B

Bumhead

Banned
Hellraider said:
You still get part of Zero's story via the Chronicles Collection.Not to mention that you can play three generations worth of RE in one console.Resident Evil is far from being an offender to what the op says.Probably the only good thing that comes from Capcom's greed. :p
Click to expand...

I did say "used to be". It's definitely not as bad now. But before RE4 HD and the release of the first 3 games on PSN the series was allover the place.
 
S

Son1x

Member
Robin64 said:
Definitely. I've had to buy 11 consoles just to keep up with the Mario canon.
Click to expand...

Starting a series late has a huge advantage here, you can play all the main Super Mario titles with just a Wii, Wii U (only needed for NSMBU atm) and 3DS.
 
W

wildfire

Banned
Pfft all these complaints about Kingdom Hearts are silly. If you want true pain try following the .Hack series which spans multiple anime formats, half a dozen platforms as well as different types of literature.
 
S

Snowden's Secret

Banned
So what's the alternative? Making a series exclusive to a single platform? Or making the games that do show up on other platforms irrelevant to the mythos?
 
G

Glass Rebel

Member
Snowden's Secret said:
So what's the alternative? Making a series exclusive to a single platform? Or making the games that do show up on other platforms irrelevant to the mythos?
Click to expand...

The former is obviously not an option for most publishers. They won't just stop making handheld entries in profitable franchises.

The MGS series solved this in 2 acceptable ways for me: Ac!d is a separate story in an alternate universe with no canonical connections to the main series (awesome games though) and Peace Walker was later ported to the PS3. I'm fine with either. I'm not fine with Square-Enix putting 2 Kingdom Hearts on different handhelds in a single generation.
 
2

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
Series are too long, you can't pretend that a long series stays on a single console.
A story should not exceed 3 episodes imo, if you want to continue with a saga then change story and/or characters.
 
I

idlethreats

Member
This generally doesn't bother me since by the end of a console generation I usually have all of the systems I want anyway, but I will say that in the case of Valkyria Chronicles putting the series on the PSP effectively killed it in the West and I bummed about that (though I pre-ordered VCII/loved it + bought all the DLC - I'm not part of the problem!).

I used to be annoyed that I couldn't play the first Mass Effect on the PS3 (no interest in a 360, don't PC game) because I'm the type that has to start with the first installment, but as of today that's no longer an issue.
 
S

Syril

Member
2+2=5 said:
Series are too long, you can't pretend that a long series stays on a single console.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but there's a difference between something like The Legacy of Kain moving from PS1 to PS2 after two games and Kingdom Hearts going from PS2 to GBA to PS2 to DS to PSP to DS to 3DS.
 
I

idlethreats

Member
Syril said:
Yeah, but there's a difference between something like The Legacy of Kain moving from PS1 to PS2 after two games and Kingdom Hearts going from PS2 to GBA to PS2 to DS to PSP to DS to 3DS.
Click to expand...
The sad thing, it's actually even more complicated than that, haha. Kingdom Hearts would need like a 3D chart to take into account all the remakes and platform shifts.
 
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