Games with confusing or misleading titles

[Retarded Weeb]

I've got one last series I've thought of. The Final Fantasy Legend, and its two sequels on Game Boy. It's a Final Fantasy game, right? Nope, Square's American branch just called them that because they hoped it would give them more sales. They're actually the first three SaGa games, and are called as such in Japan. It still hangs on the games outside Japan to this day, given Square semi-recently released a rom collection of the three games which was called SaGa Collection in Japan, but had to be called Collection of SaGa: Final Fantasy Legend everywhere else because it's not like they can be assed to romhack the title screens or anything. And you know what, there was actually DS remakes of 2 and 3, but Square never released those outside Japan because they think the series is too big-brained for dumb gaijin.

 

[Calandrino]

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.

It's only confusing to modern lorefags looking up the post-Iga Official Castlevania Timeline and seeing that, according to Konami, there are at least four completely different games that cover the same spot. The English text in SCV4 doesn't even make it clear that it's supposed to be a remake. For that matter, CV3 is ackshually a prequel and nowadays might've been titled Castlevania Zero or Castlevania Origins or some other retarded meme name, but at the time, just being the new CV game was enough for a new sequel number and the story didn't matter as much.

Then again, it was also common for a "true" sequel to [GAME] on SNES to be titled Super [GAME]: Super Metroid, Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, etc. So why Konami felt the need to go with Super [GAME] IV is anybody's guess. I suppose it makes it consistent with Super Contra 3, where they had to work around there already being a game called "Super Contra".

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.

Not sure if there's even any in-game text identifying the MC as "Simon" in half of those games. In the NES original you have to wait for the end credits, and they don't even spell his name right.

Though having said that, it seems to me that, originally, Simon was supposed to have really beaten Dracula for good and they didn't want future games to steal his kill. Dracula's not really back in CV2, the other early games are prequels. Then came Rondo, then all of Iga's OCs, and now killing Dracula is like hitting the snooze button.

But anyway: what's actually sort of weird is that Double Dragon 4 came out over 20 years after Double Dragon 5.

 

[The Last Stand]

Mario Golf on the GBC isn't even a golf game, but an RPG. Wow.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

Escape From Tarkov. Where the fuck is the escape? I'm running around doing these fuckass quests for a bunch of traders to keep me in tarkov.

The Escape is when you uninstall after some bullshit.

 

[skykiii]

And you know what, there was actually DS remakes of 2 and 3, but Square never released those outside Japan because they think the series is too big-brained for dumb gaijin.

There were Wonderswan Color remakes of the whole trilogy IIRC as well.

To be honest, calling them Final Fantasy in the west made sense to me. There's really nothing in the actual gameplay or aesthetic that screams "this is not Final Fantasy" (indeed I recall letters in Nintendo Power with people saying the first one felt a lot like FF1 on NES) so like... its kinda harmless all around.

They did the same with the first Mana game, and in that case it wasn't just in America. The real clusterfuck is the history of the name "Mystic Quest" if you live in Europe.

but at the time, just being the new CV game was enough for a new sequel number and the story didn't matter as much.

Especially when "the story" of Castlevania III was "Dracula wanted to make a bad world filled with evil." (yes that's literal in-game text).

where they had to work around there already being a game called "Super Contra".

Which for some reason had to be renamed to "Super C" on NES. It's amazing to me that somehow people at the time knew that Super C and Operation C were both Contra games. I somehow knew that and I wound up not playing either game until the days of emulation.

I guess you could say Contra Forced its way into my consciousness

But anyway: what's actually sort of weird is that Double Dragon 4 came out over 20 years after Double Dragon 5.

That itself is kind of a clusterfuck IMO. I think the deal at the time was that "Double Dragon IV" was either Super Double Dragon, or else the Neo-Geo one.

Then Double Dragon V was based on the animated series for some reason. And was also a fighting game, for some reason. Really there's a whole lot of "why?" involved with that.

Its funny because there are actually some games where I would like to see them do a game based off their animated incarnations... Double Dragon wasn't one of them.

(I could swear I heard there was going to be a new Double Dragon V at some point, or am I thinking of Double Dragon IV?)

Mario Golf on the GBC isn't even a golf game, but an RPG. Wow.

But if you have a drill, you can put a hole in one.

.........

THREAD TAX

I believe this is another one the AVGN mentioned:

the Bubble Bobble series. Somehow, there is both a "Bubble Bobble 2" but also Rainbow Islands is "The Story of Bubble Bobble 2." But then the arcade game Bubble Symphony is also called Bubble Bobble II....

Will the real Bubble Bobble 2 please stand up?

.........

Also, if we can count compilations, I sometimes get a little confuzzled when there's multiple compilations that have the same or similar names.

"Namco Museum" and "Activision Anthology" for example. Gotta be careful if you're asking your parents to buy those for you because you might have to be very specific about which one... in fact, don't ask your parents, just don't. Buy your own games.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

There were Wonderswan Color remakes of the whole trilogy IIRC as well.

Only the first game. And it's not nearly as different from the original as the DS games are, it's mostly just a graphical upgrade and some bug fixes.

To be honest, calling them Final Fantasy in the west made sense to me. There's really nothing in the actual gameplay or aesthetic that screams "this is not Final Fantasy" (indeed I recall letters in Nintendo Power with people saying the first one felt a lot like FF1 on NES) so like... its kinda harmless all around.

There's obviously some similarity what with being made by a lot of people who worked on FF1~3, but they feel pretty different in a lot of ways. The biggest similarity is reusing some spell names. And the series continued to evolve further into its own thing. I don't like pretending something is something it's not.

They did the same with the first Mana game, and in that case it wasn't just in America. The real clusterfuck is the history of the name "Mystic Quest" if you live in Europe.

Final Fantasy Adventure always was a Final Fantasy game. In Japan it's called Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden. It not only has FF spell names but even chocobos. But they decided to make it into more of its own thing after that, so the sequel is just Seiken Densetsu 2, which is called Secret of Mana everywhere else, completely hiding any link it has to Final Fantasy Adventure. And they later made two remakes of the first game as well. The first one was for GBA which tried to remove all the FF elements, so in Japan it's called Shin'yaku Seiken Densetsu (New Testament: Holy Sword Legend), while elsewhere it's called Sword of Mana. But Japanese fans didn't like it very much, so later they made a remake for Vita that's more of a direct recreation and so is called by the original title exactly in Japan, but in the West they gave it yet another new name Adventures of Mana which removes the FF part.

 

[Evil Peter Griffin]

Does this count?

 

[skykiii]

And they later made two remakes of the first game as well. The first one was for GBA which tried to remove all the FF elements, so in Japan it's called Shin'yaku Seiken Densetsu (New Testament: Holy Sword Legend), while elsewhere it's called Sword of Mana. But Japanese fans didn't like it very much,

IIRC I remember not liking it very much either. By contrast I actually had a bit of fun with Final Fantasy Adventure.

Does this count?
View attachment 7843942

Honestly... not really.

First of all.... this ain't a box art topic, this is about the game's actual title... and I don't find the title "Phalanx" misleading or confusing at all. In fact, if you told me the game's name and what system its on, but absolutely nothing else, my first guess would be that its a space shmup.

Secondly, despite the memes... well, I remember seeing this box when I was a kid, but even back then I quickly figured out the game was a shmup (we didn't call them that back then but you know what I mean). As much as people like to meme on this cover, it's really not that confusing. "Ha ha old guy is startled by something otherworldly" was actually kind of a common gag at the time.

.........

EDIT:

THREAD TAX

If I tell you I have a game called "Wizards and Warriors," what am I talking about?

A) an NES side-scrolling platformer?

or

B) a late-1990s computer RPG by one of the guys who worked on Wizardry VII?

Bonus factoid: Neither one is in any way related to a short-lived 1983 TV series also called Wizards and Warriors.

(If you're curious.. the one I actually own is the late-1990s computer RPG, which I happened to find in a flea market recently. Somehow I actually don't have any of the NES games, tho I do have a Gameboy spinoff).

 

[The greater a'tuin]

This is not a sequel to a first "Anubis" game, but the name of a character called "Anubis the Second". Also it sucks gorilla dick.

 

[skykiii]

This came up in another topic but it fits well here:



At first this kinda seems like the "Final Fantasy but its not actually Final" shitpost answer, but R-Type Final's case is actually a bit more sad.

See, R-Type Final actually was meant to be the last game in the overall R-Type series, detailing the battle in which the Bydo were finally defeated (kinda). The next game in the series wound up being a turn-based strategy game which I think took place in an alternate timeline or was like a reboot or something.

Years later, they make R-Type Final 2. Which everything I've heard about it is that it's a lazy cash-in.

And now I've heard there's apparently an R-Type Final 3 on the horizon.

So a game that really was meant to be the FINAL installment, wound up not being so.

(The good news is I think there's also a port/remaster of those turn-based strategy games coming out as well. I never got to play the first one but it sounds good, and the second was Japan-only... and apparently involved the Earth forces having to make an alliance with the Bydo to fight off something worse. Which, I always like "hero has to team up with villain to fight off a worse villain" type plots).

 

[strumpets exeunt]

Does this count?
View attachment 7843942

 

[George Lucas]

Everyone remembers Dune II but there actually was a Dune I and it came out the same year. They were totally different types of games, but they were related storywise at least.

Donkey Kong 3 was also weird. There was no Donkey Kong 2, but there was Donkey Kong Jr. Donkey Kong 3 was not a platformer, it was a shooter, and it’s not that good of a game either.

The Game Boy Mega Man series is all fucked up and the numbers don’t line up with the NES series. They were called ‘Rockman World’ in Japan so some fans refer to them as ‘Mega Man World’ to distinguish them.

SimCity went from 2000 to 3000 and then just to 4. EA is so gay. Also does anyone else remember SimTown? It’s like SimCity but it’s a town! Anyone? Hello?

This is actually a longstanding myth. In actuality they wanted to call it "Fighting Fantasy" but that name was taken by a legendary series of gamebooks, so they went down the list to another F-word, and the next word on the list happened to be Final. There was no particular relevance to the name.

They skipped over File Fantasy because that just didn’t sound cool.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

File Fantasy

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Persona 3. Where's 1 and 2? I am aware Persona 1 and 2 exist. Just making a joke about how no one talks about them. Silent Hill The Room has exactly zero Lisas tearing me apart.

 

[skykiii]

Silent Hill The Room has exactly zero Lisas tearing me apart.

True, but Dr. Kaufmann gets to experience that in the original Silent Hill.

Everyone remembers Dune II but there actually was a Dune I and it came out the same year. They were totally different types of games, but they were related storywise at least.

Errr... kinda. Dune 1 was based on the David Lynch movie. Dune II however was pretty much an original story that can't occur in any other version of the Dune universe--its pretty much its own thing and only keeps the premise of noble houses fighting over an economically important desert planet.

 

[the khat quaffer]

Wii U. Actually not an add-on for the Wii, but was its own console. So confusing that consumers around the world didn't know what it was, it caused Nintendo's worst financial slump ever, and caused then president Satoru Iwata commit sudoku.

Not a game, but still. Millions confused. Also it sucked worse than a diagnosis of the clap.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Wii U. Actually not an add-on for the Wii, but was its own console. So confusing that consumers around the world didn't know what it was, it caused Nintendo's worst financial slump ever, and caused then president Satoru Iwata commit sudoku.

Not a game, but still. Millions confused. Also it sucked worse than a diagnosis of the clap.

I got one for Bayonetta 2. Had I known it would get a Switch port, I would not have gotten a Wii U.

 

[George Lucas]

Wii U. Actually not an add-on for the Wii, but was its own console. So confusing that consumers around the world didn't know what it was, it caused Nintendo's worst financial slump ever, and caused then president Satoru Iwata commit sudoku.

Not a game, but still. Millions confused. Also it sucked worse than a diagnosis of the clap.

Iwata died from a tumor, not suicide. I don’t think the confusing name is what did the Wii U in. I think it was the price. The Switch was actually cheaper.

 

[HeyYou]

Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat 1

These are all separate games. There's a million other examples of reboots/soft reboots doing this shit and it never stops being aggravating.

 

[Retarded Weeb]

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

It's not confusing as to what the game is or anything, but the way it's pronounced isn't obvious. If you're unfamiliar you probably looked at it and read the subtitle as "three hundred fifty eight over two days" or something similar, but actually it's supposed to be pronounced "three five eight days over two".