Topic: Can sequelitis be a bad thing?

[Bag of Magic Food]

"I assumed the default state of sequlitis was bad."
"Capcom Sequel Stagnation is what you're talking about. And Sequelitis  is inheirently a negative trope."

[ViperAcidZX]

To me, its true that too much good can be bad. A sequel / prequel to a game series can either be good or bad, depending on what efforts the developers behind the game puts in. I have a few series that I'd like to point out that has been doing almost the same thing, game after game; the Pokemon and Mega Man series. With these games when you look at, the same mechanics from the previous game but improved in some way (i.e. Pokemon series' introduction of Dark and Steel types, Day/Night system, World-wide connectivity via Wi-Fi). Mega Man on the other hand, Capcom decides to use the same formula game after game since they've been known not to mess with a good formula. Which is why we have the first six of the original Mega Man games on the NES/Famicom, one on the SNES/Super Famicon, one of the PSX/Sega Saturn, then the next two games on the current-gen consoles (Wii/PS3/360). But every series re-uses something from the previous game; as Vixy said earlier, (almost) every Final Fantasy game by is different; and Resident Evil/Bio-hazard took at huge turn for the better.

Now with the Tony Hawk series of video games, the first game was great, the second as just as good, the third game was good, then by the fourth installment and afterward, we began to see this series snowball into something bad. Recent Tony Hawk games have been panned by critics all over because the series uses the same materials over and over again to the point where it gets boring and not worth buying anymore.

There is a reason why developers such as Treasure are one of the most successful developers in the industry; in Treasure's case, their reason behind their success is because they refrain from making a sequel to a game (which might explain why we'll never see a Mischief Makers 2 in the future) and they want every new game they make a totally new experience. However, that did not stop them from making this game.

I also have an article by GameInformer about the same subject here along with my own thoughts here.

[HokutoNoBen]

There is a reason why developers such as Treasure are one of the most successful developers in the industry; in Treasure's case, their reason behind their success is because they refrain from making a sequel to a game (which might explain why we'll never see a Mischief Makers 2 in the future) and they want every new game they make a totally new experience. However, that did not stop them from making this game.

And that much proves that the whole thing of "Treasure hates sequels" is a myth.

The truth is, as the President of Treasure himself once put it, is that it's difficult to make sequels to games when either one of two things is in play:

1) Licensing/contract restrictions
2) Available personnel

The first thing is a natch thing; Treasure can't make sequels to games when they don't have license any more. That's why it took them about almost a decade later to come back to the likes of Gunstar Heroes and S&P; they didn't have the rights. Sega and Ninty, as the respective publishers of both games, retains the rights. You wanna see more, then hope Treasure makes a new contract deal with those parties. Same thing with Yuke Yuke Troublemakes (Mischief Makers). Enix holds the rights.

The other thing is the personnel themselves. The pres of Treasure said that he really would only want to see a sequel to any of their games made, when as much, if not all, of those originally involved can be on call once again. Considering how many of the peeps at Treasure could finish one project, and then immediately split off and join other teams within the company for other projects, that's yet another thing.



Even Hideki Kamiya (DMC, VJ, Bayonetta, Okami), another one thought to "hate sequels", has gone on to say he definitely does NOT think that way.

For example, he would have loved to have made DMC2. But as soon as the first game was finished, Capcom had already started ANOTHER team to make the sequel. And as soon as some one else touched "his chick", he has no interest any more. This same thing was repeated recently with Okami...he was all for the idea of making a sequel, until Capcom unveiled that DS knock-off. Viewtiful Joe and Bayonetta are all he has at the moment. I hope Capcom or Sega don't screw up things any... 

[The Drunken Dishwasher]

Only reason why people think too much good is a bad thing because they don't want to see positivity all the time.  They want something negative to shitstorm the good that happened.

Anyhow, @Gaia: KH3 is not in production, they're not starting production until they finish VersusXIII.  

[Gaia]

Whoops, forgot about Versus. This also makes me realize... when there's multipule titles of one series, you might wind up forgetting one or two, since there are so many games to think about in a franchise, giving a rather mad choice: Play the games in order, or go about in your order. however, consiquence follows anyway regardless the choice.  

[The Drunken Dishwasher]

Not really a bad thing.

Well, for the one that enjoy [insert game name] series.

I plan to do a chronological run for KH once BBS comes out~ so uh, yeah~