Why are very old games weird about their sequels?

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Smaug's Smokey Hole 2 said:
Bubble Bobble, everyone loves Bubble Bobble.

This is Bubble Bobble 2, or "Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2"
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Seven years later they released Bubble Bobble 2
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But three years before that they made a sequel to Bubble Bobble 2 called Parasol Stars. They ditched the BB name and made the game distinctively more BB than its predecessor. It is the third game in the series.
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A year before Bubble Bobble 2, but six years after Bubble Bobble 2, they also released Bubble Bobble Part 2. It is the direct sequel to The Story of Bubble Bobble 2.
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Two years after the third Bubble Bobble 2 they released Bubble Memories: The Story of Bubble Bobble III, it is the fifth game in the series.
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Bubble Bobblr Memories invented Let's Plays???
 
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Smaug's Smokey Hole 2 said:
Bubble Bobble, everyone loves Bubble Bobble.

This is Bubble Bobble 2, or "Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2"
View attachment 4222955

Seven years later they released Bubble Bobble 2
View attachment 4222960

But three years before that they made a sequel to Bubble Bobble 2 called Parasol Stars. They ditched the BB name and made the game distinctively more BB than its predecessor. It is the third game in the series.
View attachment 4222972

A year before Bubble Bobble 2, but six years after Bubble Bobble 2, they also released Bubble Bobble Part 2. It is the direct sequel to The Story of Bubble Bobble 2.
View attachment 4222980

Two years after the third Bubble Bobble 2 they released Bubble Memories: The Story of Bubble Bobble III, it is the fifth game in the series.
View attachment 4222982
Click to expand...
Bubble Bobblr Memories invented Let's Plays???
 
As opposed to Final Fantasy XIII-2 or Half-Life 2: Episode One or Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3-e or God of War [2018]
 
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It's not really that big of a mystery. Old sequels.l tended to be different from their predecessors because devs assumed people wouldn't want to just keep playing the same thing over and over again and in order to sell it needed to be something new and exciting.

Moat naming and numbering oddities were because of localization or censorship.
 
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I am going to use a recent example. Crash 4 was made for the PS2 and then the PS4 20 years later. This was done because they didn’t want the baggage of the previous titles that cut in-between Naughty Dog’s run and theirs.

It is likely that many older series were the same. Pac-Man held a shit load of titles with numerous characters, not all of which were owned by Namco. The 2 could have been a way to streamline things to only the elements the devs wanted. This would explain why Frogger 2 is multiple titles, as why work off Frogger 2 when I can start new as Frogger 2, work off the loved title.
 
Product Placement said:
Also got sega games which are totally different games despite having the same name such as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on master system and genesis.

Ys games keep redoing main line games, Ys: The Oath in Felghana is a redo of Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, however they have little in common outside some story ideas. also have two YS 4s, Ys IV: Mask of the Sun and Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys.
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There are actually 4 Ys IV. The one for the Turbografx-16, Ys IV: Dawn of Ys. The one for the Super Famicom, Ys IV: Mask of the Sun. The PS2 version, Ys IV: Mask of the Sun, A New Theory, & the remake Ys IV: Memories of Celceta. Dawn of Ys is its own, but the other 3 share a general premise but all differ substantially in various ways. The remake is now considered the cannon entry, but before that it was Mask of the Sun for the Super Famicom.

Feel free to award me with autisms.
 
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and then there is the case of Wonder Boy/Adventure Island/Monster World/Monster Boy... sorry could not find text chart. all of these charts are inadequate in some way but by studying all three you should be initiated into studying the mysteries of Wonder Boy.

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AirdropShitposts said:
Contra III is the fifth Contra game or something. Some modern games do this too, Assassins Creed III and IV are the fifth and sixth games.

The greatest sequel name ever is the fourth Call of Duty: Black Ops game being Black Ops IIII because it's so stupid I still can't believe they did it and somehow got away with never explaining why.

edit: Oh wait, someone actually did the research instead of being a fag and apparently it's technically fine according to the British Museum, turns out I'm the stupid one and Bobby Kotick is the smartest man in human history instead:
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IIII = 4 is often used on clock faces, too
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I remember when I first discovered Shin Megami Tensei, I was confused by the numerous titles.
  • First you got "Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei", which is also the name of the novel it adapted from. In fact, there's two adaptations. The monster collecting RPG by what will eventually become Atlus and an unrelated top down action game by Telenet.
  • A sequel game called "Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II" with little to no relevance to the previous game or novel.
  • A reboot called Shin Megami Tensei which is sometimes called Shin Digital Devil Story by some fans.
  • Numerous spinoffs such as Devil Summoner and the ever so popular Persona, both getting sequels of their own.
  • Devil Summoner gets its own spinoffs in Raidou Kuzunoha and Soul Hackers 2.
  • A standalone spinoff called Digitial Devil Saga, referencing the title they stopped using a while back.
  • And many more.
None of the spinoffs carried the Shin Megami Tensei title in Japan, they were added in the Western release to remind people they were part of the broadly defined series. In fact, Atlus tried to rebrand the series as "Revelations" because they thought Shin Megami Tensei might have been too Japanese for the average gamer.
 
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NOT Sword Fighter Super said:
Don't forget Sonic CD...would that technically be 4?
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Sonic CD was being worked on around the same time as Sonic 2. Sonic CD was being made by the japanese while Sonic 2 was being made in America. In Sonic 2's concept art, they too were toying with the whole "Time Travel" gimmic until they scrapped that idea. Sonic 2 had a FUCKTON of scrapped levels that were supposidly past versions of current levels (i.e. Wood Zone being the past version of Metropolis Zone)
 
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Muttley said:
I blame the Japs
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You're actually close to the truth. A lot of those confusing lineages are due to a mix of translation issues and convoluted copyright issues that led to companies thinking they could make a thing when maybe they couldn't, or maybe they could then but not now, etc.

THREAD TAX (sorry if this is already mentioned).

I was talking to a friend last week about the Ys series, and telling him how the series eventually does get a little head-tilting because for example, when you get to Ys III, there's both the original Wanderers From Ys, but there's also the remake, Oath in Felghana.

But then I got to the absolute autism called Ys IV.

There's four different games that are all considered Ys IV.

Two of them were released at around the same time: Ys IV - Mask of the Sun for Super Famicom, and Ys IV - The Dawn of Ys for PC Engine CD (this latter also gets points for having a title that sounds like a prequel).

Later on, a PS2 game called "Mask of the Sun - A New Theory" comes out.

For years Falcom had flipped between which Ys IV is the "real" one, but finally they say "you know what? We're gonna make a definitive one" and they make Ys: Memories of Celceta.

Also for some reason, Falcom hates Ys V - Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand... that one is still locked to Japan (officially) even tho it did get a PS2 remake. I'm not sure why that one is the one Falcom doesn't wanna remake.

John Titor said:
A reboot called Shin Megami Tensei which is sometimes called Shin Digital Devil Story by some fans.
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Shouldn't it be "Shin Goddess Ressurection?"

ADDED THREAD TAX since I now see the Ys IV thing has been covered.

Hydlide. On PCs it was simple: Hydlide, Hydlide II, then Hydlide 3. Simple.

Or how about the Gradius series and its history of alt names and multiple games all called "Gradius II" or "Nemesis/Nemesis 2" depending on the region or even the platform.

Then console ports come. Hydlide 1 becomes Hydlide Special (except in USA where it's just Hydlide), Hydlide 3 becomes Super Hydlide.

Then there's Virtual Hydlide which is a remake of the original.
 
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skykiii said:
I was talking to a friend last week about the Ys series, and telling him how the series eventually does get a little head-tilting because for example, when you get to Ys III, there's both the original Wanderers From Ys, but there's also the remake, Oath in Felghana.

But then I got to the absolute autism called Ys IV.

There's four different games that are all considered Ys IV.

Two of them were released at around the same time: Ys IV - Mask of the Sun for Super Famicom, and Ys IV - The Dawn of Ys for PC Engine CD (this latter also gets points for having a title that sounds like a prequel).

Later on, a PS2 game called "Mask of the Sun - A New Theory" comes out.

For years Falcom had flipped between which Ys IV is the "real" one, but finally they say "you know what? We're gonna make a definitive one" and they make Ys: Memories of Celceta.

Also for some reason, Falcom hates Ys V - Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand... that one is still locked to Japan (officially) even tho it did get a PS2 remake. I'm not sure why that one is the one Falcom doesn't wanna remake.
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I think they initially went with Mask of the Sun as the canon version. I've played that game but haven't finished Dawn of Ys or Memories of Celceta yet. I actually like the bump system.

I liked Ys 5 a lot. There's a hidden option to customize Adol's appearance. At this point I'm thinking there will never be a remake. It remains inaccessible unless you emulate the patched version. It's a bit odd compared to the other games. Even Ys 3. If you're played Ys 3 the SNES and Genesis versions are different. I've played both and highly prefer the Genesis version. The graphics aren't as good but to me it was more playable.
 
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