Sequels that Squandered Potential

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Wowzers! A "disappointing games" threat that's existed for more than 10 seconds without someone making some mention of Diablo 3? I'm shocked! Anywho... I am going to say Blood Omen 2. The fact that Amy Hennig had to quickly re-write the way that Soul Reaver 2 ended (the two games were being developed at the same time) and then devote pretty much ALL of the next game into forcing Blood Omen 2's story to work with the rest of the series alone says volumes for how badly that game fucked up; and Blood Omen 2's story was the least offensive thing about the game... so... yeah.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Chrono Cross

It's a game with great ambitions.
One of the most ambitious games of its time really, and the PSX-era was a period of tremendous ambition.

The main quest is enormous in length (though padded in places), the roster is huge and the theme/tone is established as being mysterious, grand and adventurous (something very few games have actually pulled off).

But it squanders its great potential by having an amazingly convoluted, and kind of stupid plot.
Oh, and its enormous cast of characters? Virtually none of them get any time to develop as characters, so they are almost entirely gimmick.

 

[thiosk]

Star control III.

I'm going to go weep into the bosom of my syreen temptress.

fucking doog

 

[templar1138a]

Wowzers! A "disappointing games" threat that's existed for more than 10 seconds without someone making some mention of Diablo 3? I'm shocked!

Well, I would have mentioned that one except,

1. I haven't played it and don't plan to.
2. I never thought much of the Diablo franchise to begin with.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Oh, and sorry Zelda fans, but I have to throw Skyward Sword in here. The game was great, don't get me wrong, but the whole "Wow I can control the sword attacks by swinging the remote" gimmick wore-off before Twilight Princess was even finished, we didn't need yet another game devoted to that same gimmick. By handicapping the player with clumsy motion controls and not giving us the option to play with a Game Cube controller, they basically took what could have been the next Ocarina of Time and made it into just another Zelda.

 

[ThriKreen]

I'm still waiting for Star Control 3.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Chrono Cross

It's a game with great ambitions.
One of the most ambitious games of its time really, and the PSX-era was a period of tremendous ambition.

The main quest is enormous in length (though padded in places), the roster is huge and the theme/tone is established as being mysterious, grand and adventurous (something very few games have actually pulled off).

But it squanders its great potential by having an amazingly convoluted, and kind of stupid plot.
Oh, and its enormous cast of characters? Virtually none of them get any time to develop as characters, so they are almost entirely gimmick.

I can kind of agree, though the only point I'll agree on is that they should have paced themselves with the characters. I can understand how maybe they felt that Chrono Trigger had too few characters to pick from, but it at least has the counter-argument that all of the characters mattered. A game with as much story focus as CC had really should have made sure to keep the playable characters to people who mattered; and the story was big enough that it still would have allowed for a much bigger roster than Trigger had.

That said, I still loved Chrono Cross; yes, even more-so than I loved Trigger. ;P

 

[AlotFirst]

I'm still waiting for Star Control 3.

You could have stopped waiting four minutes ago, I fear.

 

[Nightmare-Child]

Xenosaga Episode 2. That game was abysmal.

 

[Archleone]

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. The original was, for the most part, well-done with great characters and a deep story. The sequel... not so much.

But for me, the biggest annoyance was the fact they replaced most of the voice actors in the English version for some reason. Not that there weren't some good voices, mind you, but I'm peeved that I COULD have had Scott Menville and Johnny Yong Bosch, two of my all-time favorite English Language voice actors in the sequel to one of my all-time favorite JRPGs! GAAAHHH!!!

...Sorry, I always get a bit of Nerd Rage thinking about it...

Also, Prototype 2. I understand why they wanted to focus on another character, but did they have to make Mercer the villain?!?!?

Ninja'd...at least the Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of The New World bit. The plot was lacklustre, had issues with the controls, and the game teased you by giving you access to almost the full roster from the prequel, but you could not level them up, or equip them. The monster thing was a nice gimmick, but didn't really redeem the game for me.

 

[Wanderhome]

Star control III.

I feel your pain, there was nothing good about that awful excuse of a game... except maybe the Spathi voice acting.

 

[Hylke Langhout]

Oh how many I could name...
Starfox Adventures
Banjo-Kazooie Nuts 'n Bolts
LEGO Indiana Jones 2
KOTOR 2 (in my opinion)
Not technically a sequel, but Dawn of War Soulstorm

 

[Atmos Duality]

I can kind of agree, though the only point I'll agree on is that they should have paced themselves with the characters. I can understand how maybe they felt that Chrono Trigger had too few characters to pick from, but it at least has the counter-argument that all of the characters mattered. A game with as much story focus as CC had really should have made sure to keep the playable characters to people who mattered; and the story was big enough that it still would have allowed for a much bigger roster than Trigger had.

That said, I still loved Chrono Cross; yes, even more-so than I loved Trigger. ;P

Don't get me wrong, I still love the game. Its plot concept is great (parallel dimensions clashing in a fight for the right to exist creating a massive "time crash"? Sounds fun!) and a lot of people mistakenly bashed the game for not being exactly like Chrono Trigger when that's really what it should have avoided doing in the first place.

"There's no time travel!"
Well, actually there is, Chrono Trigger goes forward and backward in time, Chrono Cross goes sideways into parallel existences. They have their own theoretical, (and paradoxical) consequences. I don't blame Squaresoft for trying to expand on the concept; it was actually a very smart and logical way of avoiding further paradoxes with Chrono's Crew.
I blame them for kind of screwing it up and making it a confusing mess.

It's just that I look at most of the characters in Cross, and realize that they barely get more than a handful of lines about their own plight. Little to nothing of any consequence develops for most of them.

They should have just cut the roster down to Kid, Harlequin, some of the Dragoons, Norris, Fargo and maybe a Dragonian character to add poignancy to Terra Tower.

Not adding in pun-gag-characters like Funguy, useless does-nothing characters like Sneff, Neofio, that skeleton clown thing, the voodoo doll, Draggy (and I love cute dragons!) or annoying shitstains like Orcha (or most of the "-CHA" family) didn't accomplish anything.

The roster is LOADED DOWN with those characters. Completely!

 

[Cobalt Lion]

Ones that come to mind first for me are:

Dragon Age 2
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Red Faction: Armageddon
Crysis 2
And I realize this is technically just an "expansion" but I'm going to place it in here anyway: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

 

[bigfatcarp93]

HALO 2. FUCKING HALO 2. I mean, WTF happened?

 

[Candidus]

None more squandered than Supreme Commander was by Supreme Commander 2.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

The Condemned series. The first game struck a perfect balance between gritty, realistic 1st person melee combat and that brilliant sense of isolation and imminent danger.

Condemned 2 ruined it all with... shouting.

HALO 2. FUCKING HALO 2. I mean, WTF happened?

I know, I feel your pain.

 

[Smeggs]

Red Faction: Armageddon

Only thing about that game that was good is that Magnet Gun.

I didn't even like the magnet gun. Geurilla was leagues better in both gameplay, story, and destruction ability.

OT: PENUMBRA: REQUIEM.

Good thing that shit was free with Black Plague.

It had absolutely nothing to do with horror or anything from the two prior games, it was a bunch of ridiculous platforming puzzles, which honestly, some were annoying as fuck. It literally had NOTHING to do with the two games from before.

 

[TheDuckbunny]

Assassin's Creed 2 and onwards. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record on that one but they really dropped the ball in terms of tone, atmosphere, characters and story that (in my opinion) the first one did very well.

And to counter all that negativity I actually preferred Dragon Age 2 over 1 in nearly every aspect.