What games do you think NEED a sequel?
- Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria. We need a game that focuses on Hrist. None of this Covenant of the Plume nonsense; I want a proper sequel to VP2 that follows on from it and wraps up those loose ends in the story, like the three mages who vanished, never to be heard from again.
- Resonance of Fate? I loved that game; it was a breath of fresh air in a very stagnant genre. Steampunk setting, fantastic - and unforgiving - battle system, and a cast of characters that had some genuine chemistry; the story wasn't very good, but the characters more than made up for it. I'd like a sequel to this.
What games should never have had a sequel?
- Golden Sun: The Lost Age. I say this only because of how bad Dark Dawn was. I waited on baited breath for seven years for a sequel to TLA, and that was what I got. I would have preferred they never touched it, to be honest; it was a far cry from the GBA games and, whilst it is set up for another game at least, that game is going to need to be very, VERY good to justify the existence of this atrocity.
- Tales of Symphonia. What in the name of everything sacred was Dawn of the New World supposed to be?! Until Xenoblade, ToS was my favourite game. Everything about ToS other than the characters was gone in the sequel. I have absolutely no idea what they were thinking when they made THAT disaster...
- Final Fantasy XIII. As unforgivably atrocious as that game was, it had a conclusive finish, and it didn't need the horrendously confusing mess that was XIII-2 - which didn't even have a proper conclusion, I might add - to follow it up. That entire world, concept, cast of characters, ALL OF IT, should have been discarded; it was a bad game, a bad idea, and it didn't need the sequel it got. And it doesn't need a threequel either, thank you very much, Square Enix.
- Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age II was atrocious. Bioware should have left that alone; they improved the combat, but wrecked everything else, and it was for the story and characters that I played Dragon Age; not the combat. DAII was a nightmare that should never have been made.
- It's an oldie, but Drakengard. The madness was sucked right out of the sequel, and it was dreadfully boring as a result. Drakengard was memorable because of how crazy it was: how often do you see incest, pedophilia and giant monster babies with teeth destroying the planet, all in the same game? Drakengard 2 followed the most boring of Drakengard's endings, and it was just such a chore to play.
If one of your favorite games had a sequel, how did it live up to your expectations?
- Golden Sun: The Lost Age inevitably gets a mention here, for being bigger and better in every regard than the original. It didn't just live up to my expectations; it surpassed them in leaps and bounds.
- Alice: Madness Returns failed in a lot of areas - like the entire story, for one, and the length, for two - but exploring Wonderland was FANTASTIC. It had a fantastically world to explore, and there were moments towards the end where the insanity shone through, reminiscent of the original game. That, plus it had a teapot cannon.
- Whilst not sequels in the strictest sense, Atelier Totori and, by extension, Atelier Meruru, built upon the gameplay mechanics of Rorona and continued the development of the cast whilst adding in new characters as well, building up a picturesque and thoroughly charming world that, for a change, didn't need saving from some monster or another.
- People think I'm crazy for liking Hyperdimension Neptunia, but it's sequel, the creatively named Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk. II, met my expectations by improving upon the gameplay in leaps and bounds, making itself actually playable for longer than ten minutes. It lost Neptunia's fantastic humour - or at least, it didn't measure up to it - but it was a good game in its own right.
- I'm going to count NieR, because it follows on from one of Drakengard's endings, and gets everything right. NieR was what a true successor to Drakengard should have been like: insane. Depressing. Strangely humourous, albeit in a dark, twisted fashion. Also immense fun, and boasting the best soundtrack to come from a video game to date.
