Games with confusing or misleading titles

[Agent Abe Caprine]

>Call your game Final Fantasy
>game set in modern era with minimal fantasy elements

This is why Dragon Quest is better. There are always dragons and quests in Dragon Quest.

 

[skykiii]

Resident evil.

What's the confusing part? The house has residents and they're out to kill you, therefore presumably evil.

..............

Also once again not a big fan of the shitposty answers. This topic was supposed to be about legitimately confusing game titles, not "durr hurr this title could be confusing if you interpret it in a fucktarded way that no one actually would."

The term "street fighter" existed long before video games and nobody over the age of three assumed it was someone who fought streets.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

Alright, here's a couple serious answers.

"Super Castlevania IV"
It's not the 4th mainline Castlevania game. It's actually just a remake of the first game, and the Japanese title makes that clear by calling it the exact same title, but the Konami's American branch apparently thought it would sell better if they pretended it was a sequel.

And while we're at it, Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge. Is it the 2nd Castlevania? No, that's Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Belmont's Revenge is the sequel to the handheld spin-off Castlevania: The Adventure. This wouldn't be a potential point of confusion if they did something more to differentiate. In Japan the two handheld games were Dracula Densetsu 1 & 2, vs the mainline games being Akumajou Dracula.

And then there's the N64 game, which is just called Castlevania. People have to differentiate by calling it Castlevania 64. Don't know why they couldn't give it a subtitle like in Japan where it's effectively called Castlevania Apocalypse. Oh, but then there's Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness released on N64 a year later. Is this a sequel? No, it's actually an updated rerelease. It has both playable characters and their story campaigns from the original, but refines the controls a little, changes parts of the level design, and adds two new characters with their own story campaigns.

And Mega Man has a few fucked up titles too.
There's Mega Man II ~ V, using Roman numerals. Is this different from Mega Man 2 ~ 5 using Arabic numerals. Well, yeah, actually. The former are a sub-series of Game Boy spin-offs which are completely different games from the latter which are the mainline games for NES. Wouldn't be a problem if they added some extra word in there like the Japanese tiles for the GB games were are Rock Man World.

And then there's Mega Man 64, which is not its own game but a port of Mega Man Legends for PS1. So why not just call it Mega Man Legends if it's the same fucking game? Capcom didn't rename the N64 port of Resident Evil 2 to Resident Evil 64. What's the point of this? And again, the American side the only one doing this. In Japan it's still called Rockman DASH like the PS1 version.

Also, Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge for GBA. In this case, it's the Japanese side that's confusing, because the game was released simultaniously with a WonderSwan Color port. So if it's the same game then you'd expect it to be the same title, but for some reason, no. The GBA version is Rockman EXE Battle Chip GP, while the WSC version is Rockman EXE N1 Battle. Why? And to possibly make it more confusing, there's an entirely different Mega Man game for WSC called Rockman EXE WS, which is roughly a port of the Game Cube game Rockman EXE Transmission (Mega Man Network Transmission).

 

[Samuel Fuller]

O.D.S.T. was originally planned as an expansion to Halo 3, but Microsoft made it a standalone because they knew Halo fans were retarded and would slurp it up at full price.

Super CastleVania was only stuck with the IV because Konami USA were afraid it wouldn't sell if they acknowledged it was just an updated port of the original CastleVania. In Japan, it's just Super Akumajo Dracula.

 

[Calandrino]

"Super Castlevania IV"
It's not the 4th mainline Castlevania game. It's actually just a remake of the first game, and the Japanese title makes that clear by calling it the exact same title, but the Konami's American branch apparently thought it would sell better if they pretended it was a sequel.

Super CastleVania was only stuck with the IV because Konami USA were afraid it wouldn't sell if they acknowledged it was just an updated port of the original CastleVania. In Japan, it's just Super Akumajo Dracula.

It's a completely different game that covers the same plot as a game that had almost no plot in the first place. The only thing that makes it a "remake" is the intro text that says the whip guy is supposed to be Simon. Haunted Castle and Castlevania X68000 are also "remakes" of the original and they're both (mostly) completely different too.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

It's a completely different game that covers the same plot as a game that had almost no plot in the first place. The only thing that makes it a "remake" is the intro text that says the whip guy is supposed to be Simon. Haunted Castle and Castlevania X68000 are also "remakes" of the original and they're both (mostly) completely different too.

Oh yeah, it's definitely an entirely different game. Controls differently and has entirely different levels and bosses. It's still confusing to call it Castlevania IV as if it's a sequel when it's really a retelling, even if the plot is so thin it's basically just what's in the manual.

It is kind of funny that the premier Castlevania game for the SNES is a remake of the first game. Meanwhile the PC-Engine got Rondo of Blood and the Mega Drive got Bloodlines (Vampire Killer), which Konami considered the true sequels at the time.

While I'm posting, here's yet another confusing set of titles from Konami. There were four Yu-Gi-Oh! games released in Japan for GB and GBC.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters III: Tri Holy God Advent
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelist

The only one of these games to be released outside Japan was the 3rd game. But uh oh, it has "holy" and "god" in the title. We can't have that, we censor those words out of card name in the West. So what do they call it? Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories. Yeah, they used the subtitle from the 2nd game. Obviously it's not too much of an issue since we didn't get those other games here, until Konami released that Yu-Gi-Oh! rom collection recently which has all those old games including Japan-only ones. So now when you talk about them, you have to clear when you say DDS do you mean the 2nd game or the 3rd game.

Now, there's some other bullshit with the GBA games that only affects the Japanese tiles. I'll explain it by just listing the titles out for you.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 5: Expert 1
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 7: Duelcity Stories
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 8: Reshef of Destruction
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International: Worldwide Edition (*this is an updated rerelease of Expert 2)
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters: Expert 3
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters International 2

 

[Maniacal Foreigner]

Super CastleVania was only stuck with the IV because Konami USA were afraid it wouldn't sell if they acknowledged it was just an updated port of the original CastleVania. In Japan, it's just Super Akumajo Dracula.

Just "Akumajō Dracula", no Super. Literally the exact same title as the original game.

 

[Ed Special]

I very rarely see the game's full title mentioned anywhere the game is discussed.

To be fair, when was the last time you saw someone mention Halo 5 outside the context of "what not to do for a sequel"?

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Tokyo Mirage Sessions.....good god.....its less a Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei game and more....dungeon crawler idol turn based jrpg

 

[pollution jim]

obligatory

 

[skykiii]

It's a completely different game that covers the same plot as a game that had almost no plot in the first place. The only thing that makes it a "remake" is the intro text that says the whip guy is supposed to be Simon. Haunted Castle and Castlevania X68000 are also "remakes" of the original and they're both (mostly) completely different too.

This always made me wonder if, in a narrative sense, Simon Belmont was particularly special. Like why is his fight with Dracula worth going over so many times when every other Belmont got one bite at the apple?

I'm aware the real answer is likely just "it was early in the series and some ideas hadn't been thought of yet" but it feels like in lore, Simon should have some special significance.

Going back to the issue of the title, yeah putting "IV" is a little confusing, but I almost feel like the Japanese title is worse since its literally the same title as the NES game. They really should have called it "Super Akumajou Dracula" because at least the "Super" would indicate its a new game.

And Mega Man has a few fucked up titles too.
There's Mega Man II ~ V, using Roman numerals. Is this different from Mega Man 2 ~ 5 using Arabic numerals. Well, yeah, actually.

To add to this, they're actually not even consistent. Mega Man on NES uses Arabic numerals on the cover and box art (where I guess it counts most) but then roman numerals in the actual title screens.

..........

While we're talking about games that are confusing on an international level.... how many people here have heard of Wonder Boy? aka Monster World?

The full story is autistic as fuck, but part of it is that the first Wonder Boy game also spawned the Adventure Island series on NES. Then the Japanese PC Engine version of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap... happens to be called "Adobencha Airando" (Adventure Island). Note that in Japan the "Adventure Island" games are called "Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima" (Master Takahashi's Adventure Island) but still.... I can see it being a bit of a clusterfuck, especially since we have two unrelated-but-actually-related "Adventure Island" games.

And that's just one story in the fucked-up Wonder Boy title saga. I don't have enough aspirin to regale you with the rest just yet.

...................

So here's a more obscure one:

Mansion of Hidden Souls. This is a case sort of like Castlevania earlier: the original was a Sega CD game, but then there was a sequel for the Sega Saturn... but the Saturn game was still just called "Mansion of Hidden Souls." No numeral, nothing to indicate it was a sequel and not a remake or updated port.

And for once its not just the English side being dumb--in Japan both games are called "Yumemi Mystery Mansion" and again, the Japanese title does jack to indicate its a sequel.

..............

As a matter of fact, multiple games with the same title is just a clusterfuck in general.

Bust-a-Move -- are we talking about the dance game, or the game where you shoot colored bubbles to form a chain reaction? Nowadays the makers of the latter got their head un-fucked and just call the series by its original title, Puzzle Bobble.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Manhattan Missions - I actually wanted to avoid mentioning licensed titles because I just know that's gonna result in people spamming pretty much every movie-licensed game ever. However, this is a special case since it has a subtitle ("The Manhattan Missions") which delineates this as a particular entry.

This was a rare MS-DOS game... and for literal decades, websites mistakenly described it as a PC port of the NES game TMNT III: The Manhattan Project. See, the titles were close enough (and the DOS game obscure enough) that this seemed like a natural assumption. Especially since the previous TMNT game for PC was a port of the first NES game, and this was by the same company.

But no, its a completely different game. Observe:

Portal - Quick, am I talking about Valve's Portal, or am I talking about a 1980s text adventure? This one illustrates another irritation--the "hard to google name" (or more specifically, hard to look up on sites like ebay)--because of course, if you're looking for the more obscure one, you have to wade thru hit after hit for the one everyone knows.

obligatory

Classic.

Worth noting that he did a sort-of followup as part of his "You Know What's Bullshit?" series.

So here's a funny thing: I actually have seen (and may have on a hard drive) a version of this video where half of it is just the "movie" half of the Chronologically Confused video before going into new entries... but the version here is just the new stuff.

Someone also apparently did a video that combines the two into one longer video, which Rolfe really should have done himself. But, ya know. "No time, my kids."

 

[T-21]

>Harvest moon.
>Actually not about harvesting the moon.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

>Harvest moon.
>Actually not about harvesting the moon.

Funny enough, this shitpost answer is also an actual answer because of publishing bullshit. In Japan, the Harvest Moon series is called Bokujou Monogatari (牧場物語), which literally means Ranch Story. Most of the games are developed by Tose, and were originally published by Pack-In-Video until it merged with Victor Interactive in 1996 and then later Victor was bought up by Marvelous in 2003, who have owned and published the series in Japan since then. Pack-In-Video/Victor and then Marvelous lacked the resources to publish their games outside Japan, so publishing in America was handled by Natsume, who renamed the games Harvest Moon for the American market.

This deal between Marvelous and Natsume continued until the 2014, when Marvelous bought up the American publisher/localization company XSeed, which gave them the resources now to translate and publish their own games outside Japan. But despite Marvelous owning the copyright to the games themselves and their content within, the way the publishing worked meant Natsume owns the trademark to the Harvest Moon name and English logo , and it seems they weren't willing to sell it to Marvelous. So Marvelous started publishing the series outside Japan under the name Story of Seasons. This obviously causes some confusion with the series completely changing English names despite always having the same Japanese name, but to further confuse things, Natsume has continued to use the Harvest Moon name for their own games that are practically low-quality bootlegs of the Bokujou Monogatari series.

And on a side note, the name and history of the company Natsume is also confusing as shit as well. So originally there was a Japanese game company called Natsume founded in 1987, and a year later 1988 they opened up an American branch. In 1995, the American branch split off and became its own independent company but still kept the name, so now you have a Japanese Natsume and an American Natsume who aren't directly related to each other. This American Natsume is the one who started publishing Harvest Moon and all that. Meanwhile, in 2002 the Japanese Natsume decides to open a subsidiary focused on pachinko and pinball machines, and guess what they call it? Atari. Absolutely no relation to THE Atari. Later in 2013 after some business restructing they fuse the Atari name into their main company game, renaming their company Natsume Atari. This company effectively has nothing to do with either the American Natsume or the American Atari.

 

[Rapesputin]

Touhou Project; none of the hoes have their toes showing

 

[lfbWitnesser]

The Lords of the Fallen games are just stupid as fuck.
One of those I heard it was decent, but which is just a complete mystery.

 

[The Last Stand]

We have Prey from 2006 and Prey from 2017, made by two different developers that play and perform radically different from one another.

Oh, people who made the 2017 Prey didn't even WANT to call it Prey. They're not even in the same canon.

 

[skykiii]

The Lords of the Fallen games are just stupid as fuck.
One of those I heard it was decent, but which is just a complete mystery.

How is this an example of a confusing or misleading title?

Absolutely no relation to THE Atari.

And the game pictured here could also be an example....



This is one of the best games ever made. And yet its title has all the tisms. What else would you expect with thousands of years of history?

Depending on where you are, its called Go, Igo, Weiqi, Baduk, probably others.

But if you're American or Japanese, likely you're using "Go" or "Igo."

And well.... how the fuck do you google that? (I say that despite somehow having found images easily).

But no seriously, I've had cases where trying to look this up (and get anything that's not just a wikipedia article) winds up getting hits for Pokemon Go, Densha de Go, Go Go Ackman, Mach Go Go Go, so on and so forth.

The Japanese name "Go"/"Igo" is also an issue.

So, there's a game played with the same materials called Gomoku.

Now, actual Go is sort of a territory game.... I don't want to give you a full rundown (watch the anime Hikaru no Go if you want to see it in action) but an EXTREMELY simplified and grossly inaccurate way to explain it is its sort of like a turn-based, multiplayer variant of the arcade game Qix.

However, "Gomoku" is basically just Tic-Tac-Toe but on a big board and with black and white stones, where the idea is to line up five in a row.

The confusion comes in that some people hear the name "Go," know that's Japanese for "five," and assume the five-in-a-row variant must be the actual game. I legit got into an argument with someone once because of this.

 

[lfbWitnesser]

How is this an example of a confusing or misleading title?

Because every single game in the Franchise has the same title?

 

[skykiii]

Because every single game in the Franchise has the same title?

I didn't know that. I had never heard of this series.

Thanks for elaborating.

 

[Asian tech support]

The Lords of the Fallen games are just stupid as fuck.
One of those I heard it was decent, but which is just a complete mystery.

The old one is crap, the new one is alright. It's another one of those instances where the parent company didn't want the IP to rot, only to make everything worse.