MAJOR tl;dr sequence ahead.
So if you read my previous blogs, you would see that I absolutely hate Final Fantasy XIII. There's no good redeeming quality about it.
And in my last blog, I had no idea what game I should play out of my list. So I decided to play some Uncharted 3. I took a major break from it after going through the first 2 quickly non stop. But I wasn't that far in so I could still remember the story. I just finished the part where I escaped from the burning building.
This is how a video game should be. Why is it that when Uncharted 2 came out, it blew Uncharted 1 out of the water. And now that Uncharted 3 came out, it hit the frickin ball out of the park and made Uncharted 1 and 2 look like it's bitch.
How is it that these games constantly get better and better. And yet so many games these days, seem to be getting worse and worse? Granted I'm looking at my library of games now and all of them have been greatly improved over their prequel.
Games like Mass Effect 3 (I don't care what you say, that game is a god damn masterpiece in my mind), Skyrim which is milestones better than Oblivion, and that's coming from someone who doesn't even like TES, but I love Skyrim. Batman Arkham City is another example. Somehow these games just destroy their prequel in every single way possible. And these are big budget titles that have a lot of hype behind them, so they have a lot to live up to, and they shine like gold through a pile of shit at the bottom of a pool.
So why is it something like (again, going to use it here as an example because it's my most recent frustration and an example everybody will understand) Final Fantasy is just getting worse and worse? To me, I loved Final Fantasy X. I thought that game was probably the best in the series, but I never played the older ones, so I can't speak from much experience past FFV. But Square is a big company, well, was, and their games are just getting worse and worse? That doesn't make sense to me at all. I have a couple theories as to why some games become better and better, and others become worse.
Final Fantasy, I believe, is no longer Final Fantasy. I believe that Final Fantasy was all about exploring dungeons, going to towns, getting lots of weapons and armor, playing mini games, and have a simple turn based battle system. That's what it was like up until FFX, then they changed it all, and look what happened. We no longer have stories about the characters growing from some "I don't want to help nobody" asshole to "I'll die saving this planet".
Speaking of Final Fantasy, I feel that Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, was the only reason the series was good. What do I mean? He was either the producer the Executive producer up until XII where he was no longer working on the games. Sure X-2 sucked, but it was still a pretty enjoyable game and the battle system I think is one of the funnest in the franchises. But ever since he left Square, Square has just been going down hill and making no money at all. Then Hironobu leaves and forms Mistwalker and gives us games like Blue Dragon (eh, mediocre but still alright), and Lost Odyssey, which I believe is totally underrated and should be played by everyone. And it kept the gameplay simple to what Final Fantasy was. Then he gave us The Last Story, which I never played so I can't speak for it.
I'm going to leave it there because I'm kind of getting off track, but I just wanted to know if you guys agreed as to why I think sequels in games suffer. I would love to hear your opinions on why you think sequels suffer and why they succeed.
So if you read my previous blogs, you would see that I absolutely hate Final Fantasy XIII. There's no good redeeming quality about it.
And in my last blog, I had no idea what game I should play out of my list. So I decided to play some Uncharted 3. I took a major break from it after going through the first 2 quickly non stop. But I wasn't that far in so I could still remember the story. I just finished the part where I escaped from the burning building.
This is how a video game should be. Why is it that when Uncharted 2 came out, it blew Uncharted 1 out of the water. And now that Uncharted 3 came out, it hit the frickin ball out of the park and made Uncharted 1 and 2 look like it's bitch.
How is it that these games constantly get better and better. And yet so many games these days, seem to be getting worse and worse? Granted I'm looking at my library of games now and all of them have been greatly improved over their prequel.
Games like Mass Effect 3 (I don't care what you say, that game is a god damn masterpiece in my mind), Skyrim which is milestones better than Oblivion, and that's coming from someone who doesn't even like TES, but I love Skyrim. Batman Arkham City is another example. Somehow these games just destroy their prequel in every single way possible. And these are big budget titles that have a lot of hype behind them, so they have a lot to live up to, and they shine like gold through a pile of shit at the bottom of a pool.
So why is it something like (again, going to use it here as an example because it's my most recent frustration and an example everybody will understand) Final Fantasy is just getting worse and worse? To me, I loved Final Fantasy X. I thought that game was probably the best in the series, but I never played the older ones, so I can't speak from much experience past FFV. But Square is a big company, well, was, and their games are just getting worse and worse? That doesn't make sense to me at all. I have a couple theories as to why some games become better and better, and others become worse.
- - Some games don't change much from the formula. They follow the rule "If it ain't broken, don't fix it". Uncharted hasn't changed much in it's gameplay, Batman hasn't, neither has Skyrim or the NHL games which I am a fan of (They actually improve on the games unlike the Madden series).
- - Instead of constantly trying to reinvent itself, it gives the fans what we want in most cases, just another story to play through in a new land with a few tweaks.
- - They find ways to improve on the graphics to make it look more realistic. I mean, lets be honest, Uncharted had fantastic visuals, we thought there was no way they could get better. But nope, not once, but twice we were proven wrong. It doesn't have to be a complete overhaul, just the tiniest things like adding a blur, or simple foliage or garbage on the streets immerse us into the games so much more.
Final Fantasy, I believe, is no longer Final Fantasy. I believe that Final Fantasy was all about exploring dungeons, going to towns, getting lots of weapons and armor, playing mini games, and have a simple turn based battle system. That's what it was like up until FFX, then they changed it all, and look what happened. We no longer have stories about the characters growing from some "I don't want to help nobody" asshole to "I'll die saving this planet".
Speaking of Final Fantasy, I feel that Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, was the only reason the series was good. What do I mean? He was either the producer the Executive producer up until XII where he was no longer working on the games. Sure X-2 sucked, but it was still a pretty enjoyable game and the battle system I think is one of the funnest in the franchises. But ever since he left Square, Square has just been going down hill and making no money at all. Then Hironobu leaves and forms Mistwalker and gives us games like Blue Dragon (eh, mediocre but still alright), and Lost Odyssey, which I believe is totally underrated and should be played by everyone. And it kept the gameplay simple to what Final Fantasy was. Then he gave us The Last Story, which I never played so I can't speak for it.
I'm going to leave it there because I'm kind of getting off track, but I just wanted to know if you guys agreed as to why I think sequels in games suffer. I would love to hear your opinions on why you think sequels suffer and why they succeed.