Poll: Prequels; Can they be good?

Hugh Wright

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Apr 2, 2010
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Was watching a video on the recent slew of reboots and prequels and it the question came up, 'Can a prequel be as good or better that the original?'. Only ones I can think of are in games Deus Ex: Human Revolution and in movies X-men 1st Class.
Story wise a lot is already known so a lot of suspense is lost, any character development from the original is lost, and they are often done after the original story is over and the creative drive is puttering out, but the dead horse is flogged due to directives from above.
Any other examples of good prequels or comments?
 

fezgod

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Prequels work if they expand the universe of a videogame:

- Halo Reach and Halo ODST work pretty well as prequels because they really place the plot of the story into a greater context.

Prequels don't work if they just sit down and explain every little thing that happened in the game.
 

shrekfan246

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May 26, 2011
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Daystar Clarion said:
Devil May Cry 3 is considered the best game in the franchise in both story and gameplay.
Also Metal Gear Solid 3.

So it seems like this is kind of a silly question.

Hell, for people who haven't played a game yet but were interested in it at some point, I imagine sequels ruin it more than prequels because if they're focused on the same main character then you already know right off the bat how the story of the first game is going to end.

Not that a whole lot of games end with a definitive "your character is dead/retired"...
 

MetricFurlong

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+1 to Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Fate/Zero would be a fairly good anime example, I'd have thought. Admittedly I haven't seen much of the original, but taken on it's own merits it certainly holds up pretty well.
The prequel segments of The Godfather Part II also hardly drag the film down.


Really, there's very little inherent about prequels that make them any better or worse than sequels. The only real difference I can think of is that while sequels can fall into the trap of 'everything must be bigger!' some prequels make the mistake of trying to foreshadow/expand on too many elements of the original.
 

ScoopMeister

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Well it's a pointless question. Any story can be good if handled properly, regardless of whether or not it's a prequel.
dunam said:
But even if that weren't true, the enjoyment of a story comes from the storytelling. Personally I think suspense is overrated. Why else would people replay / reread /rewatch?

It's the storytelling that makes it enjoyable.
To an extent, but then the best stories are able to be suspenseful even on repeat plays/reads/watches.
 

gamefreakbsp

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Yes. I do believe prequels can be good. In strictly answering the question asked in the poll, yes. There is nothing about a prequel that inherently makes it "bad." If the story or characters are "bad," that is a different story. But, just being a prequel doesn't immediately put it into the "bad" camp.

To give an example, Halo: Fall of Reach is my favorite book in the series. Also, as someone has said before, X-Men: First Class was fantastic.
 

klaynexas3

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Dec 30, 2009
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Year of the Black Rainbow was great(even if you don't like the album, the novel was awesome)
Same can be said of The Afterman for both parts
Birth by Sleep was the best handheld Kingdom Hearts game and one I'd put up with 1 and 2
Fuck, how has no one mentioned this, but ANY Legend of Zelda game
Deus Ex: Human Relations Department was great
Arthas: Rise of the Lich King was an amazing book
And I haven't seen many other prequels, so I can't continue this list, but there are good prequels out there.
 

Angie7F

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Nov 11, 2011
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I find sequels to be more disappointing.
I was just talking about how there was that one episode of Sailor Moon when all the girls were older and married.
It was quite horrible...
But Sailor V is awesome.
 

Thaluikhain

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Can be, but generally aren't.

OTOH, though, how many sequels are dreadful? A prequel is going to be riskier than one of those as it is.
 

Shoggoth2588

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While the Star Wars Prequel trilogy is rightly looked upon as being not-as-good as the original trilogy, the canonical prequel to that, Knights of the Old Republic and Sith Lords had far superior plot lines in my opinion. I like the Darth Bane plot line but there are no games based around him that I'm aware of, just a trilogy of books and a graphic novel.

Someone mentioned Deus Ex: Human Revolution and I would agree but the only other Deus Ex title I've ever played was Invisible War which is considered the worst in the series.

Someone else mentioned Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and while I don't like it as much as the PS2 original I did enjoy it more than any of the other hand-held titles I've played.

I'm sure somebody has mentioned this already but Reach is my favorite entry in the Halo franchise. No flood and the armor customization you use in multiplayer also applies to single-player. The lack of bosses is kind of lame though but Halo has never been known for its boss fights despite it's attempt in Halo 2...

Crisis Core. Crisis Core is probably my all time favorite prequel game.
 

Shinsei-J

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Shoggoth2588 said:
Crisis Core. Crisis Core is probably my all time favorite prequel game.
My god it was a worthy prequel.
Rates highly in my favorite Final Fantasy games list too.
Solid evidence that a prequel can best good.
 

Milanezi

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It depends, mostly, in my opinion, in HOW the "first" game ended. If the ending was an absolute closure,as in "the hero is now 100% dead", I think it's ok to go with a prequel as long as it captures the mood of the original game. However, most prequels turn out to look like a lazy job story-wise... I'm not a fan of prequels anywhere, games, books or movies, with very rare exceptions.
As someone else posted, sometimes we get prequels that actually set themselves on the universe and not directly on the story of original game, those do turn out to be the best choice. BUT I can't see them as prequels, because in this case, even if they are set BEFORE the events of the original game, we're not keeping up with the already established character, which breaks the continuity enough to also break the prequel curse
 

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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I dislike prequels because they have the tendency to buttfuck the already established canon. For example there's an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars where Anakin and a team of others try and infiltrate a prison for Jedi by freezing themselves in carbonite which suddenly throws Vader's actions in Empire Strikes Back into question. Why would he need to test the process on Han if he already knew it'd work?
 

Talaris

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution instantly came to mind as a prequel that respects the original, and does its own story and gameplay elements really well. Art style, characters and locations were all original and interesting, and the premise and lore is expanded in a realistic way to tie it back to the previous games without copying and pasting anything.
 

King of Asgaard

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Oct 31, 2011
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Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Metal Gear Solid 3
Devil May Cry 3
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

These are prequels, and they are awesome.
 

Ranorak

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Isn't the Metroid Prime series technically a prequel to Super Metroid?

Not sure if it counts as a prequel, due to it not being the first in the series.
That would be Metroid Zero Mission, but it is set before the older Super Metroid.

And metroid Prime is awesome.