Do you Like Prequels?
- Thread starter Mackinator
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Devil May Cry 3 was fantastic.
Baten Kaitos Origins was better in almost every way from the original.
Baten Kaitos Origins was better in almost every way from the original.
For RPG prequels, it depends on how "set in stone" the story is. For instance, Tales of Symphonia was a prequel to Tales of Phantasia, but was set long (I think it was 1000 years) before. This meant you didn't know what was going to happen. As long as some kind of distance is maintained, it can work.
If done correctly, I don't see them as a bad thing.
The other day, I was thinking about how much of a shit storm FFX-2 was and how much cooler it would be if they dumped Yuna's coming of new age bullshit, and replaced it with a prequel of how Sin ultimately became born, taking place during the great machina war mentioned a few times in game.
They could of also left it alone, but if you had to do SOMETHING, I wish it wasn't X-2.
The other day, I was thinking about how much of a shit storm FFX-2 was and how much cooler it would be if they dumped Yuna's coming of new age bullshit, and replaced it with a prequel of how Sin ultimately became born, taking place during the great machina war mentioned a few times in game.
They could of also left it alone, but if you had to do SOMETHING, I wish it wasn't X-2.
I like prequels if they bring something to the table that isn't completely irrelevant or obviously out of canon.
I don't care for prequels myself, most of them tend to be downers, and (as we know) predictale by knowing what is going to happen. Plus in a lot of cases it seems like a refuge of game designers who want to keep a franchise alive but don't know what to do in order to continue it, and how to satisfyingly answer/resolve the situations they created.
Take Valkyrie Profile for example, a ton of stuff was left hanging especially regarding Brahms, and Silmaria (even going by what happened in her own prequel game). Not to mention the whole bit with Lezard after the credits which left things wide open for the story to be continued despite the arrival of Ragnarok.
I could forgive Valkyrie Profile 2 to some extent, but the next game to come out in the series is a second Prequel?
I mean come on, it's been ages and 2 console generations already. Let's get on with the actual story.
>>>----Therumancer--->
Take Valkyrie Profile for example, a ton of stuff was left hanging especially regarding Brahms, and Silmaria (even going by what happened in her own prequel game). Not to mention the whole bit with Lezard after the credits which left things wide open for the story to be continued despite the arrival of Ragnarok.
I could forgive Valkyrie Profile 2 to some extent, but the next game to come out in the series is a second Prequel?
I mean come on, it's been ages and 2 console generations already. Let's get on with the actual story.
>>>----Therumancer--->
Sequels I can see, since continuing a story along an arc is a good thing if it's done right (consider that two of the best movies of all time---The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather Part II---are sequels).
Prequels are inevitably ridiculous because if you've seen the movie set in the later time frame you know that the story is on rails and there's no "what's going to happen next" suspense involved. Star Wars is the worst example of this (you know Anakin's gonna be Vader so of course everything in the film is going to reflect that---I have the same issue with historical films because, well, just look at Titanic. You could put that film's plot on Twitter---"there was a boat. It sank.")
Alternate history within a timeline (real history---as in Harry Turtledove's body of work---or fake history, as in the TNG episode Yesterday's Enterprise) is another matter---the suspense there is in the blank slate created by the original what-if question (as in "what if the South won the Civil War" for Turtledove or "what if the Federation never made peace with the Klingons" in the aforementioned TNG episode.)
Prequels are inevitably ridiculous because if you've seen the movie set in the later time frame you know that the story is on rails and there's no "what's going to happen next" suspense involved. Star Wars is the worst example of this (you know Anakin's gonna be Vader so of course everything in the film is going to reflect that---I have the same issue with historical films because, well, just look at Titanic. You could put that film's plot on Twitter---"there was a boat. It sank.")
Alternate history within a timeline (real history---as in Harry Turtledove's body of work---or fake history, as in the TNG episode Yesterday's Enterprise) is another matter---the suspense there is in the blank slate created by the original what-if question (as in "what if the South won the Civil War" for Turtledove or "what if the Federation never made peace with the Klingons" in the aforementioned TNG episode.)