Great Games that don't need sequels.

[Wolf Kanno]

Was watching a video on Youtube where people discussed whether Bloodborne woulfdget a sequel and while I love the game, I kind of feel the setting and lore are so self contained that a sequel would largely hurt the franchise. This got me thinking about other games which I felt were awesome but ended up getting sequels, some good some bad. What are great games you loved that you hope will never get a sequel?

[Lord Golbez]

Considering that many game sequels tend to share only certain gameplay and style elements without continuing the same story or including the same characters, I can't think of any good games that it would necessarily hurt to make a sequel. Much easier to think of games I wish would get a sequel. If we're talking about actually continuing the story, well, most Final Fantasy games should not have sequels, but unfortunately far too many already do. I'll say FFVI. I think they haven't spoiled that with an FFVI-2 yet.

[karen_the_witch]

As for me there is always a group of people who asks for sequel. They are the biggest fans and they'll never put up with the fact their passion (I mean favorite game) has ended forever. That is why that's a very controversial issue.

[Ergroilnin]

Well FFX comes to my mind immediately as it is one of my most beloved games ever, I actually just finished getting the plat trophy on steam for it few days ago, which I have actually done a few times already (plat on vita; defeating all superbosses, Penance included, finishing the whole sphere grid for all chars, getting all overdrives and getting the celestial weapons like 3 times on PS2 and 1 time on PC emulator, etc.).

And while I just cannot get myself into FFX-2, I still can dig the story somewhat.

However what would have ruined the whole series for me if I accepted it would be the novel or whatever it was, that came after FFX-2.

I mean, seriously? Sin reborned so whole FFX ruined, Tidus dying due to angry kicking bomb dressed up as blitzball, after breaking with Yuna, thus ruining the whole FFX-2? For Fs sake...

[Vermachtnis]

Phantom Brave. I adore Phantom Brave. It's very different from the other NIS games. It had a few updated rereleases, but never a direct sequel. Whether or not the post-game stuff that happens in the Disgaea games is cannon or not is another story.



I mean, seriously? Sin reborned so whole FFX ruined, Tidus dying due to angry kicking bomb dressed up as blitzball, after breaking with Yuna, thus ruining the whole FFX-2? For Fs sake...

Wow, I heard X-3 or whatever was awful. But they only thing I heard was Auron had a kid. All the hard work of the past two games has been undone, meh. WAIT! AURON FUCKED! That's where I draw the line!

[Wolf Kanno]

It's not helped that X-3 might actually become a real thing (http://www.siliconera.com/2018/12/13/yoshinori-kitase-talks-final-fantasy-x-3-with-a-look-at-tidus-yunas-later-years-illustration-by-nomura/) after the VII Remake gets done.

[Karifean]

Well fuck. And just as I've been happy imagining it being a random weird idea that got dropped entirely because of how terrible it turned out.

[Wolf Kanno]

I think we all underestimate how much Japan and Square-Enix love Final Fantasy X. X is one of the only entries that can actually get ranked above VII in popularity polls over there.

[Karifean]

I mean I agree ! Final Fantasy X is the best game in the series to me! But FFX-2, while a fun game, was already very removed from what FFX was. And having the Later Years of Tidus and Yuna... I mean... do I even have to *mention* how removed from the original game that is !?

[Lord Golbez]

In general when we enjoy a game we always want to have a sequel, sometimes the devloppers succeed in doing good and sometimes not at all, most of the time I want to have a sequels of my favorite games even if it is a risk to take

FFVII is my favorite game and I never wanted a sequel for it. I'm not just saying in retrospect Advent Children was bad, so I wish there was no sequel. I'm saying the story and journey of the characters was complete. There was nothing they could possibly do to continue the story that wouldn't cheapen the original in some manner. The game needed no sequel. For that matter, it should not have had a prequel either. The game gave sufficient backstory. The few details the could be fleshed out paled in comparison to the abundance of extra details required to fill out a whole game, thus necessitating that any prequel would introduce a bunch of garbage (Genesis, etc.) that was uncalled for. The only prequel that FFVII left sufficient room for was the one that was never made: a Cetra-based prequel set far before the events of the game.

[maybee]

Going to stand up for the FFX drama story here, because it's a bit misunderstood. No, Tidus and Yuna don't break up. There are rumors that Sin is returning, so Yuna fearing that something might happen to Tidus again, she "breaks up with him " and pretends that she's moved on with somebody else.

Yuna does the whole 'Spiderman " thing and "breaks up " with somebody, if anything happens to them, it might hurt less if they die or fade away again.

Auron doesn't really have a kid, the Mother told the girl that she was the daughter of Auron, but as we know that Auron refused to marry anybody when he was younger, that's impossible. And Lulu sees through and calls out the BS. Why the Mother lied to her daughter, it's never said. Maybe she had a weird crush on Auron.

We all know that Auron is smurfing hot. :smug:


When Lulu overhears Chuami mention being Auron's daughter, Lulu confronts her, saying that she doesn't look like him and that many people have claimed to be children of Auron, Jecht (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Jecht), and Braska (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Lord_Braska).


When Tidus asks Lulu about Yuna's new love interest, Lulu says she thought Tidus would know Yuna better and tells him to figure it out himself.

It's really..... not that bad.


As for the blitzball bomb part, I don't think that was in the official Audio Drama that came with FFX/FFX-2 HD.

[Vyk]

There are a lot of companies i don't trust to make sequels to good games anymore but those companies also rarely make great games anymore. I think Horizon Zero Dawn wouldn't need a sequel but i would trust them to make one. Similar to The Last of Us not needing a sequel but i trust them to make it. People want the saga of Xenogears to be completed. i don't trust square or monolith to do it justice anymore. Anything done by the icon team should never have a sequel. looking at my ps4 collection at random games that come to mind are Dragons Dogma, Sleeping Dogs, and Alien Isolation. i have trouble trusting any of the companies with those licenses. though after all these years Capcom seems to be waking up recently so maybe that long stagnated dragons Dogma sequel will get some fresh and trustworthy fuel but i won't hold my breath

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Vagrant Story does not need a sequel. It's perfect as it is, flaws and all. If anyone tries to tarnish it with a sequel it WILL be ruined. There would be no avoiding it.

Also I can't see Einhander doing well with a sequel either. Good thing both of those have basically been forgotten by squeenix tho. It was nice to see Einhander in WoFF but I think (at least I HOPE) it won't go any farther than that...
I mean, unless someone comes up with a darn good reason to expand on the original story? It was kind of vague and open-ended.
...But I dunno. Fifteen years ago I would have said hell yes to the possibility of an Einhander sequel. But as time marches on and the sci fi aesthetic in videogames gets more washed out and more bland, I get more wary of sequels and prequels and remakes and the whole jazz in regards to old things.

Also hello I am back.

[Wolf Kanno]

The sad thing is that I could actually see a sequel to Vagrant Story working, assuming the original team got together to do it. I always imagined a sequel would deal with a new protagonist who had to hunt down an older Ashley, whom would play a role similar to this new character that Sydney did for him. Course I feel seeing the team come back and do a remaster would be pretty snazzy as well.

I doubt Einhander would get a sequel, but that could possibly change since I read somewhere that the team who worked on it are working on the Gummi Ship sequences in KHIII, so who knows.

For my own takes, I feel most of the FF series doesn't lend themselves well to sequels, but special mention would go to FFVI which I can't fathom how a sequel story could even work without coming up with some BS plot excuse. Maybe a smaller more intimate "where are they now" snime/manga adaption, but nothing on the scale of the sequels we've seen of other FFs.

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Agreed, FF titles don't really do well with sequels. But I'm perfectly ok with side-content set in the same world but following different characters separate from the main cast. Sad that the closest we got to that was Dirge of Cerberus... I think? Maybe XIII-2 counts but that went a little too crazy and didn't even seem to be part of the same world as the original, so...

I think the only reason really that I DON'T want a Vagrant Story sequel is that I love its battle mechanics. And after seeing what happened to Parasite Eve, which had very similar mechanics in the first game, I've grown to not trust any potential devs not to destroy the system it touts in favor of more modernized mechanics.
...Oh also I guess there's some concern about the color palette. You know how protective I am of colors. And modern games seem to all completely miss the mark in terms of attractive color choices, aside from maybe Monster Hunter World and Dragon's Dogma.

[Lord Golbez]

I pretty strongly disagree on that point, because I think there's substantial room for improvement in Vagrant Story's battle mechanics while keeping the same basic system so that a sequel would feel like it really belongs in the same series but remove some thornss. I guess I would say I don't have a problem with the mechanics themselves in terms of the way the game plays, but certain aspects of the implementation. To be honest, even the need to constantly swap weapons in order to keep them specialized to affinities for certain elements and creature types gets a bit cumbersome and annoying at times, but I could keep that, if they at least let the affinities develop a bit faster or, most importantly, don't include so many bosses of rare types so that it's unlikely you'll have a weapon with a decent affinity for that boss going into the fight. The amount of time I spent doing like 1 hit point damage just whacking bosses with a weapon over and over again is definitely something I could do without repeating. And I didn't really care for the increasing risk throughout the fight so you can finally do some attacks that do decent damage (I forget how this works to be honest, but I have some recollection that after hitting for 1 point of damage dozens of times I was able to intermittently do some more damaging attacks - took way too long though).

[Black Magic Shopkeeper]

Fair enough... These were all things that satisfied me, but I can see where it's not for everyone.
Except of course for that last one. I agree that it could get annoying with bosses. But hey, at least it's not like Dark Law, which I've been trying to get through but is taking... quite the toll on me.
Dexterity is kind of the most important stat in that one, and if you don't have substantially high dex you will ALWAYS do 1hp of damage no matter what weapon you use lol

Don't play Dark Law if you don't like dragging yourself through long, painful, stressful battles.

[Wolf Kanno]

Agreed, FF titles don't really do well with sequels. But I'm perfectly ok with side-content set in the same world but following different characters separate from the main cast. Sad that the closest we got to that was Dirge of Cerberus... I think? Maybe XIII-2 counts but that went a little too crazy and didn't even seem to be part of the same world as the original, so...

I think the only reason really that I DON'T want a Vagrant Story sequel is that I love its battle mechanics. And after seeing what happened to Parasite Eve, which had very similar mechanics in the first game, I've grown to not trust any potential devs not to destroy the system it touts in favor of more modernized mechanics.
...Oh also I guess there's some concern about the color palette. You know how protective I am of colors. And modern games seem to all completely miss the mark in terms of attractive color choices, aside from maybe Monster Hunter World and Dragon's Dogma.

Part of why I said I hope the original team would work on it. I doubt the art direction would change too much since Yoshida loves his earth tones with striking primary colors. Mechanics could still be switched around because holy hell the changes made by the team for Tactics Ogre were jarring despite largely being the same development team. Still, I imagine it would be pretty interesting. I feel part of the issue with Parasite Eve is that the series never had a proper team. The second game was made by the U.S. branch of the company and the third game was done by a hodge podge of employees they pulled from other projects to make it over a decade after the sequel. I would blame that more for the inconsistencies between titles. At least most of the VS team either still works for the company or are on good terms with them after going freelance.


I pretty strongly disagree on that point, because I think there's substantial room for improvement in Vagrant Story's battle mechanics while keeping the same basic system so that a sequel would feel like it really belongs in the same series but remove some thornss. I guess I would say I don't have a problem with the mechanics themselves in terms of the way the game plays, but certain aspects of the implementation. To be honest, even the need to constantly swap weapons in order to keep them specialized to affinities for certain elements and creature types gets a bit cumbersome and annoying at times, but I could keep that, if they at least let the affinities develop a bit faster or, most importantly, don't include so many bosses of rare types so that it's unlikely you'll have a weapon with a decent affinity for that boss going into the fight. The amount of time I spent doing like 1 hit point damage just whacking bosses with a weapon over and over again is definitely something I could do without repeating. And I didn't really care for the increasing risk throughout the fight so you can finally do some attacks that do decent damage (I forget how this works to be honest, but I have some recollection that after hitting for 1 point of damage dozens of times I was able to intermittently do some more damaging attacks - took way too long though).

As Risk goes up, your accuracy drops in terms of inflicting consistent damage, but your crit rate goes through the roof which is why you see those high hits. Technically the way the game is meant to be played is to engage an enemy, hit a few times and then run away until your Risk drops, but most players, myself included, learned that you can kind break the system if you can pull off a long enough chain combo. Not helped by the fact that after awhile, your consistent hits always go up. so even if you do one damage with your first hit, the second would be two, the third would be four and after long enough combo, you're likely doing more damage than you could at 0 Risk.

Honestly, the only mechanic I would really change from the original is how offensive magic works, either beef it up, give them secondary effects to be more useful, or drop them entirely. Otherwise, I honestly enjoy most of the game's mechanics. It took me years to finally appreciate it fully, but I see now how much thought really went into the whole mechanics of the system.

I feel the main reason why I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel, besides the fact the story had so much potential to begin with, is that the team still feels passionate about it. After the FFTactics port for PSP, they were hoping they could do something similar with Vagrant Story, and considering how many game ideas were dropped from the title or loose ends within the plot, I feel like either an enhanced remaster or remake could be really awesome if SE was willing to hire Matsuno back to write and direct and actually bank roll the thing properly. It's been interesting watch as SE finally revisits a few of their older franchises in the last few years so I'm hoping we might see something concerning Vagrant Story since enough of the right elements remain at the company to make it at least feel like a real sequel.

[Lord Golbez]

I was never really good at chaining too many hits in a row. I don't do well with things that require unbroken chains of correct timing and the timing changes as the hits increase, if I remember correctly. I'm fine with keeping the chaining idea though. I'd just prefer it to not be so dominant that boss fights take like an hour or whatever (maybe exaggerating but they felt quite long) if you can't do really long chains. I played through Vagrant Story several times, but I think only once on an original run and all other times were New Game +. For most games, I find that New Game + decreases my enjoyment of the gameplay, because battles are too easy and there's no more meaningful growth typically. In Vagrant Story, I actually prefer the gameplay on New Game +, because the bosses don't wear out their welcome.

[Christmas]

Undetale.