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Changes in game sequels - "If it had been called anything but ..."

Africa's Toto

Africa's Toto

Banned
Sometimes game sequels try out new things. Sometimes they try out *really* new things, and change so much they're basically a whole other game.
You know how it goes. "If it had been called anything but x, it would have been great"

Give some examples of sequels that tried to take a franchise in a radically different direction, but were held back by having to be connected with that franchise.

Or the alternate: Sequels that ruined a franchise by trying a new direction but failing to commit, thereby half-assing the change and leaving a mess of a game.
 
If Splinter Cell: Blacklist had been named literally anything else instead of Splinter Cell, it would've been better received.
 
I think I've heard this line leveled at either Deus Ex 2, or Human Revolution.

As far as games I've experienced personally, there's Dungeon Siege III and Carrier Command Gaea Mission. Both could have been decent games in their own right, if they didn't have the weight of the name behind them.

Honestly, the "phenomenon" if you want to call it that, is often seen most starkly with very delayed sequels. Games that could have been at least decent, are trying to cash in on the hype of a fondly remembered past installment, and end up living up to absolutely no expectations at all.
 
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The Hamburglar said:
Read the op
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Or the alternate: Sequels that ruined a franchise by trying a new direction but failing to commit, thereby half-assing the change and leaving a mess of a game.

they went from making a good to making a bad one, that's a new direction
 
Warnen said:
Or the alternate: Sequels that ruined a franchise by trying a new direction but failing to commit, thereby half-assing the change and leaving a mess of a game.

they went from making a good to making a bad one, that's a new direction
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Hasn't ruined the franchise though. Yeah the story was shit but wasn't a shit game.

A tv series, dlc and most likely another sequel will be coming.
 
The Hamburglar said:
Hasn't ruined the franchise though. Yeah the story was shit but wasn't a shit game.

A tv series, dlc and most likely another sequel will be coming.
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they still make assssasin creed games, souls games ect.. kinda odd just to pick out my example from this list just for that. Also the tv show is based on the good game.

Also the 1st game was a good popcorn summer movie horror game, 2nd turned into a misery simulator. Might not have distoryed the franchise (I don't see a sequel on the books) but it has shaken the foundation of a Lot of peoples trust in the fun naughty dog of old.
 
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Warnen said:
they still make assssasin creed games, souls games ect.. kinda odd just to pick out my example from this list just for that. Also the tv show is based on the good game.
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I picked assassin's creed because the assassin's creed identity is a baggage in the direction they're going

Valhalla is a perfect example. You're a pillaging viking that can't kill Civillians because your animus says no that's bad.

You just picked TLOU2 because the writing was crap. Nothing to do with what the OP is asking.
 
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ArtemisClydeFrog said:
Those games slap tho
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Eh. I picked those two for different reasons, the quality notwithstanding.

Prey because I think the name holds it back in terms of expectation. (Does anyone know if there's an in-universe reason for calling the game Prey?)

Fallout 3/4/76 because I think they half-assed shifting away from pure rpgs with each release, peaking at 76.
 
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Metal Gear Solid V was an amazing game, but a bad Metal Gear Solid game.

Final Fantasy X-2 was very, very fun JRPG, with lighthearted setting, but it felt weird compared to what Final Fantasy X was all about.
 
Final Fantasy 13 is that game for me. It was an interesting game but just did not feel like a final fantasy game to me. If it had been named something else I think it probably would have been liked a lot more. Maybe that weird final fantasy movie as well . Made no sense calling it final fantasy after watching it.
 
Unpopular opinion but id say resident evil 5, first trailer and first details of the game was that it was basically res4, horror action game but the final product was just action, if they never implemented coop and capcom didnt listen to people saying resident 5 was racist game could lf been up there with re4, same can be said about dead space 3 as well.

Halo 4 and 5, not only is the story no where near as good as intense as the first 4 games but then implementing stuff such as iron sight and sprint feeling more like cod sprint and not reach sprint sent the series to a dark path even though these are pretty much minor changes.

Also another capcom game id put here is lost planet, first game is amazing cant fault it, 2nd game was just shit, again capcom took what was good about lost planet (giant boss fights) but added coop which made the boss fights totally bland and also extremely spongey not to mention the glitches then lost planet 3 came out and that literally killed the franchise, not aaying its a bad game its just a bad lost planet gane
 
Probably prey 2017 which I just got around to - also doom eternal I loved but I'm not super attached to the doom ip and i woulda liked it regardless of the title
 
NahaNago said:
Final Fantasy 13 is that game for me. It was an interesting game but just did not feel like a final fantasy game to me. If it had been named something else I think it probably would have been liked a lot more. Maybe that weird final fantasy movie as well . Made no sense calling it final fantasy after watching it.
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FF 13 was what came to mind for me as well. The battle system, music, and visuals are some of the best in the genre. I think people would be a lot more forgiving of its faults if it weren't a mainline entry in the biggest and most prestigious JRPG series.
 
Warnen said:
Last of us 2

part one was good
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People still crying about this? Gameplay and visuals were vertical improvements to the first and the story, while subjective, is across the industry and by the vast majority of consumers considered to be one of the best ever told in a game. I'm unsure how calling it something else would make sense.
 
brian0057 said:
This.
Assassin's Creed should've been a Hitman game set in a historical setting, instead of whatever the fuck it's supposed to be now.
This is why the original game from 2007 remains the best in the series.
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The first game was trash though. As much as I'd have liked it to be, the series has never been close to Hitman.
 
Chrono Cross.

While there are similarities to Chrono Trigger, I think going from six well fleshed out characters to,I can't remember how many, was a drastic enough change.

then the story is different, until they try to tie loosely together in the end.

definitely would have served it better to be called by a different name. Especially having to live up to a game as highly regarded as Chrono Trigger.
 
Every 8 bit sequel ever?

modern games dont even come close

Zelda -Zelda 2
Castlevania - cv2
Mario-Mario 2 ( technically a diff game(

and they were all greeat and i wish games did that more often these days
 
ACESHIGH said:
RESIDENT EVIL 4: THE THREAD

The game that almost killed survival horror.
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what do you mean Almost?`there are barely any Survival Horror games nowadays anymore. and that's not RE4's fault btw. a real survival horror game would be very niche nowadays. Survival Horror means item management, death has to mean something and the difficulty has to be accordingly. SURVIVAL has to be a big part in the design.

even RE2 remake is barely one... and it in general only is one if you play on certain difficulty levels, on Normal it most definitely is not a Survival Horror game. only on Hardcore where ink ribbons and auto save is off does it actually technically count as one. but imagine if that was the only way to play it, people would hate on it, pussy reviewers would shit on it in their ratings and it would have a niche audience.
 
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The whole Mana franchise fits this thread (for some reason, Square has refused to give fans what they have wanted since 1993: a faithful follow-up to Secret of Mana), but the one that really sticks out is probably Dawn of Mana. It's single-player, it's fully 3D with a character-following camera instead of top-down, it's not really an RPG in its structure... all things that crushed Mana fans may have accepted as they knew Square was never going to make their wishes come true no matter how many Mana games get made, but Dawn of Mana pushed even further with the bizarre integration of Havok physics into RPG/platform action. You're supposed to throw things from the environment into enemies (or enemies into enemies), and the chaos created by the physics engine factors into the HP you can drain and the EP you earn from foes. A genre with mathematics at the root of the play balance (but also, randomness is in its nature,) now for fun throws the unpredictable element of physics into the equation, is that going to work out?



Dawn of Mana wasn't a good game ultimately, and wouldn't have been a good game if it had been like a Musashi game or new IP or whatever instead, but maybe they would have given it a little extra time in prototyping if it hadn't been attached to a franchise that whisked it into production.

The franchise I can think of, BTW, that they did do exactly what the OP was talking about, is also a Square game: Parasite Eve didn't even try to sell itself as a Parasite Eve game in the third game. It wasn't fixed-camera, it wasn't survival horror, it wasn't on a console, it wasn't the type of thing Madonna would want to make a movie of... It wasn't Parasite Eve, so to speak. So, they didn't call it Parasite Eve, they called it The Third Birthday.

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DmC: Devil May Cry

I like the game, but come on. Just call the game something else, and call it a day. This is capcom though, so it comes with the territory.
 
Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link.

I actually liked the game, it's weird quirks and combat too, and it could have spawned it's own series if it was called something else.
 
Resistance 2, Fallout 3/4/NV/76, GoW4, resident Evil 7/8 - gameplay-wise those game are not what they origin from.
 
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Fugitive Sex said:
Baldur's Gate 3. :lollipop_sad_relieved:
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I think Larian could've set the game anywhere within the dnd fiction and made it work. Those new mechanics are honestly genre-defining

But they wanted to make a Baldur's game. I'm waiting for release to see what that means to them.

Still think it looks great so far really. I've played and enjoyed a fair amount of both turn-based and rtwp, so it didn't really matter which they went with for me.
I can understand how people that grew up with BG 1&2 might have issues with it though.
 
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Driv3r was a huge miss with how they wanted to copy some of GTA's mechanics and allow you to leave the car to move on foot. The game should be exclusively about driving cars.

Max Payne 3 had a horrible setting change which ruined a lot of the fun. Should've stayed in winter New York or some other similar location. The game would've been definitely better received if it wasn't called Max Payne.
 
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Renozokii said:
People still crying about this? Gameplay and visuals were vertical improvements to the first and the story, while subjective, is across the industry and by the vast majority of consumers considered to be one of the best ever told in a game. I'm unsure how calling it something else would make sense.
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Abby's biceps.

I agree with Assassin's Creed.

It kinda needed a makeover, but they could have done that without dropping some of the best aspects. The next part of the cycle is usually "back to the roots" though, I'm looking forward to that.
 
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