Sequels that Squandered Potential

[DeltaEdge]

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. The original was, for the most part, well-done with great characters and a deep story. The sequel... not so much.

But for me, the biggest annoyance was the fact they replaced most of the voice actors in the English version for some reason. Not that there weren't some good voices, mind you, but I'm peeved that I COULD have had Scott Menville and Johnny Yong Bosch, two of my all-time favorite English Language voice actors in the sequel to one of my all-time favorite JRPGs! GAAAHHH!!!

...Sorry, I always get a bit of Nerd Rage thinking about it...

Also, Prototype 2. I understand why they wanted to focus on another character, but did they have to make Mercer the villain?!?!?

Ninja'd...at least the Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of The New World bit. The plot was lacklustre, had issues with the controls, and the game teased you by giving you access to almost the full roster from the prequel, but you could not level them up, or equip them. The monster thing was a nice gimmick, but didn't really redeem the game for me.

Agreed, for the most part anyways. I thought it was an okay game on it's own, but failed miserably as a successor to Tales of Symphonia. It really would not have had any impact on the game if you swapped out Lloyd and the original cast for some generic legendary youth hero characters and slightly modified the story to change the parts where their names are directly mentioned. The story was... alright I guess, but the main character was a bit annoying. It's a bit of a shame since the battle system was probably my 3rd favorite in the entire series, behind only Abyss and Graces. I loved the aerial combat.
Also, Summon night Twin Age. I really liked the GBA Summon night installments so I was disapointed with the change in battle system. That just kind of killed the game for me. I could deal with it now, but it still wouldn't meet my expectations.
Also, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Didn't really have many problems with it, but I really did miss the overworld navigation of Sonic Adventure where you got to explore the Station Square, Mystic Ruins, Angel Island, and various other adventure fields.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Oh, and sorry Zelda fans, but I have to throw Skyward Sword in here. The game was great, don't get me wrong, but the whole "Wow I can control the sword attacks by swinging the remote" gimmick wore-off before Twilight Princess was even finished, we didn't need yet another game devoted to that same gimmick. By handicapping the player with clumsy motion controls and not giving us the option to play with a Game Cube controller, they basically took what could have been the next Ocarina of Time and made it into just another Zelda.

Pft, hardly. Skyward Sword did the "gimmick" a hell of a lot better than Twilight Princess. Skyward Sword was never gonna be the next OoT anyways, its story honestly wasn't that strong. Twilight Princess had a more enjoyable story for me honestly (despite worse gameplay).

Well, I was mostly exaggerating on the whole "next OoT" part. And doing a tired gimmick "better" is still doing a tired gimmick. Doesn't save the game from the fact that there were numerous times where fighting with the remote going finicky was the bigger challenge than the game itself; the game itself not even being hard in the first place. The upsetting thing is that I think Miyamoto has commented that this is going to be the norm for Zelda now... so I'm thinking that the series is over as far as I'm concerned. Next time a new Zelda comes out I'll just play Link to the Past and laugh at all the tools fumbling with their Wiimote flails.

No, seriously. It does kind of need to be said, and not even in a trolling sense. The game does some things well, but makes enough mistakes and the release had enough missteps that it deserves honorable mention on any list of games that "missed potential".

To be fair, Diablo 3 was ALWAYS going to be a disappointment. It doesn't matter how flawless of a launch it had or how good or bad the game itself was, Diablo 3, simply by virtue of the fact that gamers are gamers, was always going to disappoint. The only way for Diablo 3 to have satisfied the Diablo 2 fans was if Blizzard just copy-pasted Diablo 2 and put a "3" sticker over the logo. I'm speaking in hyperbole, of course, but you get the gist of I mean. People will go through the game with a fine-tooth comb, and anything that makes it even a little different from Diablo 2 will be nitpicked to death as "the reason this game is worse than D2".

It's the same reason why no Mario game is ever going to be "better" than Mario 64, no side-scrolling Metroid will ever be "better" than Super Metroid, or why no Final Fantasy will ever be "better" than Final Fantasy 7. Just that Diablo is getting it to the Nth degree because Blizzard fanboys are 10x worse than any other game's fanboys, mixed with the fact that they've had 12 years to conjure-up their own unique "perfect" Diablo 3.

 

[Khazoth]

Didn't I make a post like this a day or two ago?


As I said there, Saints Row 3.

 

[mysecondlife]

I will say ME2 and ME3 although this will get me flamed.

Other than that i'd also say the abomination that was Red faction: Armageddon.
Also Prototype 2 and FEAR 2 but these were still good games.

Nah. It seems hip to say ME2 and ME3 are not as great as ME. And this site is full of hipsters.

...on second thought, you better give that flame shield to me.

 

[mysecondlife]

Uncharted 3. Huge fan of the series and I thoroughly enjoyed UC3. But there were potentials within stories that were missed, especially when it comes to defining Drake even further.

I enjoy character interactions between Drake and his friends. But my small problem with the game is that Drake spends half of the game alone and wandering about. Its slightly upsetting.

 

[DioWallachia]

To be fair, Diablo 3 was ALWAYS going to be a disappointment. It doesn't matter how flawless of a launch it had or how good or bad the game itself was, Diablo 3, simply by virtue of the fact that gamers are gamers, was always going to disappoint. The only way for Diablo 3 to have satisfied the Diablo 2 fans was if Blizzard just copy-pasted Diablo 2 and put a "3" sticker over the logo.

Are you suggesting that there kind of arguments....





....don't have a foundation on logic?

Right. So to be fair, everyone who's disappointed in D3 is in some form delusional?

Is that thing up there what you are referring?

 

[Nebraskaslim]

For me Xenosaga 2&3. Also the most recent Star ocean game I forget what it is called but till the end of time was amazing and they followed it up with a game so crappy I wanted to take a sledgehammer to it, come to think of it I probably should.

 

[Austin Howe]

Advent Children and EVERY SINGLE KINGDOM HEARTS SEQUEL/PREQUEL/THEFUCKQUEL.

 

[Austin Howe]

Oh, and I'm not afraid to say Metal Gear Solid 3, although I will always forgive the rereleases for having the first two games from the MSX.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Red Faction: Armageddon

Only thing about that game that was good is that Magnet Gun.

Don't forget the pony gun that shoots a rainbow out of it ass.

OT: Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 as much as I loved them, I still prefer the first one because of it being an RPG instead of a shooter with RPG elements. Also Dragon Age II, what the fuck happened?

 

[Xerosch]

The one that devastated me the most still is 'Condemned 2'. The moment the generic cult was mentioned in the first minutes I had the creeeping suspicion that this wouldn't end well. And I was right, Condemned 2 destroyed EVERYTHING that made the first one stand out and put loads of crap on it as frosting.

Seriously, it's worse than all the american Silent Hill games. And that comes from someone who hates SH Homecoming with an unrivaled passion.

 

[Veylon]

The later Megaman X games, starting with either 4 or 5.
Master of Orion 3.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I have to admit, as much as I love Diablo III, I had to laugh at Azmodan the "master tactician" telling me his plans all through Act III. I get that he was trying to scare us, but after the first couple times he tells you his plans and then you stop them, he probably should have learned it would be better for him to just keep his trap shut.

 

[Rai^3]

Both Deus Ex: Invisible War and Human Revolution. Granted, all three Deus Ex games rate a solid 8/10 in my book, but all for different reasons.

Thief: Deadly Shadows. Not bad by any stretch (and being able to flatten against walls was great), but Thief II's HOOJ levels made it feel much more sprawly and explory, while Deadly Shadows was claustrophobic and kept using that goddamned eyesore teal to highlight things.

XIII-2. After the (relative, since we all know gamers are capable of keeping things in perspective, right?) dissapointment of XIII, I was sincerely hoping XIII-2 would take what XIII did well (a very interesting, yet underdeveloped setting) and expand upon it in an interesting way. Instead, we got this time travel crap that had bugger-all to do with XIII's science-fiction flavored universe. Not to mention, plot points that directly violated established lore.

Dude, I liked a very different XIII from the one you're talking about and thought I had just discovered a sequel I hadn't heard about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XIII_(video_game)

Gettin' me all excited. :c

 

[DioWallachia]

The gods that determine everything that is right with this world, hopefully. That game was an atrocity that likes of which comes only once every system generation. This way Custer's Revenge level bad.

Atari: Custer's Revenge/E.T. (tie)
Nintendo: Jekyll and Hyde
Super Nintendo/Genesis: Pit Fighter/Shaq Fu
Nintendo 64/Saturn/PSX: Superman 64
PS2/GameCube/XBOX/Dreamcast: Big Motha Truckers
PS3/360/Wii: Metroid Other M

If only Movie Bob could hear the noble words that come from your post about Other M. There is still logic in this world and these manly tears are for you.

[http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/190423-manly-tears]

 

[DioWallachia]

If you are, I think the videos are good, but often don't go nearly far enough in denoting just how bad the problems being talked about. Besides, simply pointing out the incredibly lacking aspects of the game isn't necessarily referring to youtube videos that do the same. I came up with my criticism myself, I'm so smart like that.

Edit: As a clarification (because I don't know what you were trying to tell me), I didn't actually call anybody delusional, nor did I imply it. I was pointing out that this is WhiteTigerShiro's way of being fair - essentially calling every discerning fan a buffoon with unreasonable expectations. I don't get why it has to be the fans' fault Blizzard's game sucks, but hey, apologists at their finest.

Just trying to help. It is just the lack of proper communication that makes any negative seems like entitlement bitching. Remember how the fans complained that the game was "too sugary" or "too colorful" when the screenshots came? that was because they feared that the dark atmosphere that made the first 2 games great would be lost, its integral in the greater whole rather than just something complaining about cosmetics.

So, when you tried to argue with that other guy over there, i just put the videos to facilitate the process, because believe that people are just too indoctrinated into listening to a video rather than seeing the same thing in text form.

 

[DioWallachia]

I have to admit, as much as I love Diablo III, I had to laugh at Azmodan the "master tactician" telling me his plans all through Act III. I get that he was trying to scare us, but after the first couple times he tells you his plans and then you stop them, he probably should have learned it would be better for him to just keep his trap shut.

Is not THAT bad compared to Adam from Metroid Other M.

THAT PERFECT MILITARY MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (shakes fist in the air and cries tears of admiration)

 

[Aeshi]

Dude, I liked a very different XIII from the one you're talking about and thought I had just discovered a sequel I hadn't heard about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XIII_(video_game)

Gettin' me all excited. :c

Yeah I always think that when I see somebody mention XIII-2 as well.

Oh well, we can always dream...

 

[DioWallachia]

I already tore this guy a new asshole in regards to the abysmal itemization, only for him to come into the next thread with this weaksauce, tired "it's not Blizzard's fault" shit.

I am seriously telling you that people just REFUSE to hear you if it isnt in video form. I am still not sure if these is really a signal of something worse for the future to come, but i got the feeling that, for example, if the Red Letter Media guy (Mr.Plinket) did a .pdf or a text based analizis of The Phantom Menace instead of a video, the people wont even know he actually exist nor care to read the whole thing.

I really wish to know some psychology right now on this subject because i dont really want to jump to the conclusion that its just "fanboism"

 

[DioWallachia]

I have to admit, as much as I love Diablo III, I had to laugh at Azmodan the "master tactician" telling me his plans all through Act III. I get that he was trying to scare us, but after the first couple times he tells you his plans and then you stop them, he probably should have learned it would be better for him to just keep his trap shut.

But wait!! There is more.