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When the sequel was better.


watkinzez
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A fun question, as sequels are rarely better than the original due to the "cash-in" factor.

As for videogames, obviously FF2 [speaking from an American standpoint. I'm talking about FF4 here, you weaboos] was a huge improvement over Final Fantasy 1, which is probably the most boring game I have ever played. I tried to be cool and shun the Final Fantasy games though. I still think all Japanese RPGs are boring as hell, but I've really warmed up to Nobuo's music, at least for the SNES Final Fantasies.

I also found Toejam and Earl 2 to be very fun. It's really nothing like the first game, but it still contains [and in a way enhances] the funk of the characters. Its music is also some of the highest quality you can find for the Genesis. The FM brass is so good.

Totally disagree with FFIV > FF. FFIV was waaay more contextually restrictive. And why even bring up Toe Jam & Earl 2? It's not even in the same league as Toe Jam & Earl.

Sonic 2 was way better than the first Sonic

Huge Sonic 2 fan, but I have to disagree.

Oh, and Phantasy Star 2 > Phantasy Star.

Mildly disagree. Phantasy Star 2 had better music and a better interface, but the top-down dungeons were total mazes and mind-numbingly repetitive.

GTAIII was infinitely better than its predecessors.

Thank you. Finally something I agree with.

Herzog Zwei > Herzog

Warrior of Rome II > Warrior of Rome

Road Rash II > Road Rash

Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight > Dark Forces

Descent2 > Descent

Duke Nukem 3D > Duke Nukem 1 & 2

And as a controversial contribution:

Deus Ex: Invisible War > Deus Ex.

All of the problems with Deus Ex were fixed in the sequel. No more worrying about performing every task for "skill points" in a given area. No more worrying about ammo types. No more enemies that you aren't allowed to kill for no reason. Excellent grahpics and physics -- I must have spent half my time just stacking objects around for fun.

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I'd say that Seiken Sensetsu 3 was better than Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2) In terms of more interesting gameplay and a better game engine. Though the massibe nostalgia factor of SoM is nearly enough to put it on top of the list. I'd also take a gander to say that Both of those game were better than Seiken Densetsu 1 (Didn't it make a US release on the GB under the title of Final Fantasy Adventure?) Well despite their various US release titles, they are sequels...

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I went back to Secret of Mana, and wow that was tedious shit. It definitely wasn't as good as I remembered though :( .

It's the nostalgia factor. According to my memory, I actually enjoyed casting the same spells over and over for hours to level up my magic to make all the bosses a peice of cake.

Funny how things are distorted through the lens of time like that...

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Kirby Superstar, 3rd of the traditional platform Kirby games, is by far the best Kirby game in the series. It had great length, variety, and fantastic copy abilities.

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror I would rate higher than Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland for similar reasons that KSS takes top honors of all Kirby games.

I prefer Sonic 2 to Sonic 1.

Smash Melee of course.

Mario Kart 64 > Super Mario Kart

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I don't know. I generally regard most sequels as being much superior than their original.

Sure, we can have nostalgic twinges here and there, but I think that's the majority rule.

Though for something like Rare, where its glory days truly were in the past (not to diss them now, since they are still there and trying), or even for Nintendo when Miyamoto and crew were at their full swing where the past games were definitely better than their modern counterparts.

As for the reason why a lot of sequels don't live up to our expectations, it's because the same developers don't make the sequels. Actually, the FF6 -> FF7 argument is a good one. Not because of the battle system alone, but because just about ALL the major developers for FF6 made FF7. Though after that, a lot of development changes started happening and people started faulting FF games since FF8 more and more. Even with FFXII, a lot of gamers don't acknowledge it because the core FF development team did not make it, but the storied Tactics Ogre team.

I mean look at Nintendo games now. Miyamoto barely even touches any of them now, if at all. Koji Kondo only does "musical supervision" and not much of actual compositions. And the level designers, the artists, the actual programmers have hit the revolving door and they are now in other companies or have different roles in development now. That's why a lot of modern Nintendo games were really good games due to the influence of older development talent, or hit a snag because they were completely outsourced.

Then look at Bioware, which basically had the same core development personnel since the beginning. Similar could be said of Epic Games, Blizzard and a few others. But smaller American game development teams seems to stick to the few knowable development talent compared to the corporate atmosphere of Japanese game development.

And oh yeah, Sega used to be the best gaming company back in the day. When it actually existed as a venerable company.

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As for games: Baten Kaitos: Origins (though be it a prequel) is in some ways better than the first Baten Kaitos game. It sure as heck wasn't bad, which is something you usually expect from sequels.

I don't know if it was "better" per se - but it was different, in a very very good way. They both had great, but unique qualities, which made them (imho) equally awesome.

BK and BKO are hands down my two favorite games for the Gamecube.

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As for the reason why a lot of sequels don't live up to our expectations, it's because the same developers don't make the sequels.

This is true, and also why I'll probably never see a good, Hexen 2 sequel from Ravensoft ever - even if Activision let them make one.

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Ew sick, nobody said X2 was better than X.

I am damnit. I love X2 - I think its the best one.

As for my nomination? The X-Wing series. I think every reincarnation gets better and better (though XWvsTF had great multi, I did kinda miss a story mode)

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I am damnit. I love X2 - I think its the best one.

Seconded.

Also, it's pretty safe to say that X5 is better than X4. Unless some people actually liked Iris or Double. X6 made Zero broken with his Z-buster and had even less story than usual. If the series wanted to make any real sense, it should have ended at X5.

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I don't know if it was "better" per se - but it was different, in a very very good way. They both had great, but unique qualities, which made them (imho) equally awesome.

BK and BKO are hands down my two favorite games for the Gamecube.

Wow... I thought most people here hated that game other than me...

I really liked Baten Kaitos and I actually beat it. I usually don't beat my games because they get boring, but the battle system was awesome.

BK:O's battle system was really different, but I liked how much faster it was and the voice acting was like fifty times better than the first one.

I do like BK:O more than BK, but I still need to beat it.

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I am damnit. I love X2 - I think its the best one.

As for my nomination? The X-Wing series. I think every reincarnation gets better and better (though XWvsTF had great multi, I did kinda miss a story mode)

Good point. To this day the best flight game I've played was TIE Fighter. It was far superior to X-Wing.

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That reminds me...I miss the lucas arts of old...the one that made so many bad ass games.

They still make lots of good ones. Jedi Knight and KOTOR are 2 of my favorite series (been waiting like 4 years now for another Jedi Knight). Battlefront and Lego Star Wars 2 are also good. Of course, Galaxies and Empire at War are garbage...

I guess I wouldn't mind a big 3D version of Maniac Mansion though. Speaking of which, Day of the Tentacle was a sequel that was better than the original.

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TI 83> TI 82, and I say that from experience, haha.

It's kind of hard to find an instance where one game in this series was head and shoulders above its sequel, but I'd say Tekken tag was the plateau in the series that Tekken three reached for, but couldn't attain.

I can't say much about four or five, however becuase I haven't really played either of them at all.

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