Day 23: A game sequel which disappointed you.
Even though I love knowing more of the back story, I was so pissed off by Aeris’s voice actor in Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core that I didn’t even finish the game (I also know that CC is technically a prequel in the chronological timeline, but since it came out after the original game, it counts to me).
Omg who the hell cares?!
I wish I had enough words to express how much this irritated me. She sounded like a complete airhead/ditz, and while I know she’s only supposed to be 17 in this game, Aeris always struck me as someone who would have an inkling of her own destiny. She might be cheerful, hopeful, and optimistic, but CC made her into a vacuous, vapid, manic pixie dream girl fit to be Zack’s girlfriend, and that just sells her entire character short. She’s arguably the most important person in FFVII since it’s her actions and sacrifice that saves the world, and the OG shows this by having her be the first and the last person you see in a brilliant bookend.
I enjoyed the gameplay in CC, but Aeris’s characterization completely ruined it for me, and it’s the main reason I put it down. I may eventually watch a let’s play of it just so I can better talk about the happenings in FFVII as a whole, but I doubt I”ll ever play the game again, and I swear to god, if they fuck up her voice in the Remake, I will rain holy hell down on the world.
What sequel disappointed you?
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
When it comes to disappointing sequels, to me, Modern Warfare 2 and Mother 3 (the sequel to Earthbound) spring to mind. The former is an unambitious token sequel while the latter had a litany of problems, including a lack of focus, the author being uncharacteristically preachy, and an utter failure to stick the landing, rendering the proceedings pointless.
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Wow Mother 3?? The ending was a little weird, I’ll give you that, and I figured out who Klaus was pretty easily. I think they were going for the ambiguous ending. I liked the game, but I honestly mix up the Earthbound series so I can’t quite remember what happened where. I enjoyed the one with Giygas, well…enjoyed, but was a little freaked out by it. That fight was creepy as hell.
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I admit I’m a stickler for endings; it’s the reason one of my rules is that I can’t award a passing grade to a game with a weak finish. In fact, Mother 3 is one of the three games that led me to develop that rule.
When it comes to ambiguous endings, I feel one needs a sense of fair play to make them work. Mother 3 does not; the narrative, though it had its moments, dashed any notion of subtlety for the sake of a moral that the narrative itself contradicted in the end. Therefore, when the ending decided to be ambiguous, it felt like a cop-out – like somebody giving an hour-long lecture only to lose their voice just before they were about to make their most crucial point. Had the ending been equally unsubtle, I probably would’ve given it more credit.
Conversely, the reason an ambiguous ending works in Shadow of the Colossus or Dark Souls is because in those games, almost everything is up for interpretation; even as you play through them, there aren’t many things you can be sure of. Therefore, when the ending is up for interpretation, it’s thematically appropriate. Had those endings outright explained everything that happened in great detail, it probably would’ve been disastrous.
In either case, my favorite of the trilogy is Earthbound (which is the installment the Giygas you’re thinking of originates), as I feel it’s held up the best of any of them. The other two are products of their time (albeit in different ways) while Earthbound has a more timeless quality about it.
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You’re right. The game doesn’t really lend itself to an ambiguous ending as say Final Fantasy VII, which has that question and notion ever hanging above (like the meteor) of “Do humans deserve a second chance? Can they be redeemed? Is the sacrifice of the innocent worth it?” And it’s convoluted and darker nature lend itself to the idea of not knowing exactly what happens in addition to being highly up for interpretation, as well. Journey also lends itself to this notion since it is literally about the journey that player takes as the traveler, and the destination and what happens is very ambiguous, but Mother 3, while sad/tragic in terms of, well, Hinawa’s sacrifice for her children, still has a much lighter tone to it despite due to other factors.
I’m struggling to remember the other Earthbound. I watched them all in order, but the one with Giygas stuck out the most for me. I did like the Moonside part, but I think that was Earthbound as well.
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I hope for Squeenix’s sake that they get the inspiring flower girl’s voice right in the remake.
At the moment, I cant think of any sequel’s that have disappointment me. Beyond Good and Evil 2 seems like it has the potential to upset me. Hopefully my fears are wrong.
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As long as they have the Japanese with English subtitles option I’ll be happy! I’d much rather listen to the dialogue in the original language and read it than take that chance.
I hope your fears are wrong, too. Sequels can be difficult. You want to have an appropriate follow up to the original story, but you obviously can’t do the same things twice. However, you don’t want to go entirely out into left field.
I’ve told you my trilogy theory right?
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I don’t remember reading about your trilogy theory. Go on… 🙂
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Ah okay, so from what I’ve seen there are two major types of trilogies. The first type is when the first book is the introduction to the world, the second heightens the plot/action to the extreme and is the strongest usually best book, and the third is kind of a long denouement where all of the best laid plans of the first and second come to fruition. So Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings would be good examples of this.
The second kind of trilogy is weaker. It’s when the second part is more of a bridge between the first and third, so it’s actually more of a duology than a trilogy. When there were only three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, that’s exactly how I saw Dead Man’s Chest, but I think Dragon Age best exemplifies this. The second game is the weakest of the three.
So I guess the easiest way to explain it all has to do with what the second book does 🙂
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Intriguing! The Hunger Games definitely follows the first type now that you mention it.
I beg to differ on the internet’s hate for Dragon Age II, but I haven’t played the other two to have an informed opinion yet. Maybe I am just cursed to love the worst game in every series? It sure seems like it… 😦
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Ah you like DA 2! Oh you’ve only played that one? If/When you get to them, I’d love to hear your opinion about my bridge theory!
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Dragon Age 2. Devil May Cry 2. original Deus Ex 2. Fable 3.
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I was just talking about Dragon Age 2 and how it’s more of a bridge to the third game than a true sequel. I’m still probably going to play it when I get to those, but I already know what to expect.
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It’s not terrible, but there’s a ridiculous amount of environment recycling. You can tell it wasn’t quite finished.
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Love the detail you put into this post! 🙂 I so wish I had something meaningful to add.
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banjo-tooie. banjo-kazooie was such a colorful, whimsical, and fun 3d platformer, and although tooie does have its’ redeeming qualities, it doesn’t change the fact that they more or less threw all of that out the window. it takes forever to get to one place to the next (and while nuts & bolts still had unnecessarily huge worlds, the vehicles at least made them less of a chore to navigate), the visuals are a lot more dull compared to the ones in the first game, and it’s generally just boring.
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Agree with you on Banjo-Tooie. I don’t remember it that well, but it didn’t really stand out as that different from the first one. Oh yeah it did have the vehicles didn’t it? I watched a Let’s Play of it a while ago, but it just doesn’t stick in my memory.
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you’re thinking of nuts and bolts in terms of which sequel had the vehicles
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Oh, I have a list. Final Fantasy VIII, Resident Evil 6, Crackdown 2, the 3rd Birthday, Devil May Cry 2, Killzone: Shadowfall, Plants vs Zombies 2… I can probably keep going but I’ll stop here.
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I think we’ve talked about your disappointment with FFVIII lol. Please tell me you at least liked the card game. It’s my favorite mini-game in the series.
I heard that RE 7 more than made up for RE 6, though I’m just regurgitating what others have said.
I’m blanking of DMC 2. I know I wasn’t that fond of the one where Dante didn’t have silver hair. What the shit was that??
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The card game is decent.
RE7 is quite good.
DMC done by Ninja Theory was the reboot where Dante did not have white hair. I believe he did get it by the end though. DMC2 was just so bland and coming off of the original game, which was so good in my mind, it seemed thrown together.
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Well, even though I’ve played it way to many times to count, Dragon Age 2. After releasing Inquisition, I believe it was basically made to bridge a gap between two stories that they really wanted to tell. I think I played it so much bc it was practice playing a video game, and I actually played it on a higher level, and it was still easy. Inquisition took time to re-equate myself to how DA 1 was told, but even with that, Inquisition was the “hardest” to play. I put that in quotations because it was still very playable, even with my limited video game experience.
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Yep. It’s one of this trilogies that’s really a duology with a bridge in the middle.
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I know! When I first played DA 2, I felt it was incredibly easy to play, but that it lacked an actual story. I did, however, liked the combat style as it was faster than the first, and I felt like I had more options. Inquisition is the best of both (and I’m very happy that they kept fast combat).
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So I don’t think you’ve played Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, but it’s a visual novel adventure series about a lawyer solving murder cases. There is an original trilogy games that is one of the most fantastic stories that I have ever experienced. It had a sequel trilogy, and the 4th game in the series horribly disappointed me for a lot of story reasons, which made me sad because I love the originals so much. I’ve just written that game out of my head canon, haha.
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That’s what I do when I don’t like something in the canon hehe. It’s why I still refuse to call her “Aerith,” even though I’m well aware Aeris is a mistranslation.
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I don’t know who this Aerith is that you speak of. I have only ever called her by her correct name, Aeris. ;P
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EXACTLY!
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Somewhat unrelated since it’s a Japanese to English conversion, but Terra, not Tina. 🙂
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Yup! I think I read somewhere that they named her Tina in Japanese, because it’s a decidedly not Japanese name, and they wanted her to sound really foreign. I always thought it was interesting that her name was Terra, which means “earth” in Latin, but she was half not of this earth. it’s like they continued this trend in VII with Aeris (air), but then her name was supposed to be Aerith, which is an anagram of “I Earth,” so it’s like the developers are just toying with their over-analytical fans 😀
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I think Aerith was meant to sound like earth, when you pronounce it in the Japanese tongue. The anagram thing is interesting though. Either way, they meant for her name to refer to her connection with the earth, yet ended up naming her Aeris, the superior canonical name. 😉
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Yup! It’s interesting though. I’ve noticed that the gamers who played FFVII when it first came out or are a bit older call her Aeris, but the younger ones call her Aerith. Kids these days!
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They only call her Aerith because SE keeps throwing the wrong name down our throats!
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SE is constantly getting things wrong and changing their minds. They really need to start conferring with the FFVII experts aka me for whenever they want to do anything :p
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Agreed! Fix the FFVII universe! 😀
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I’m working on it! They just need to give me a call, and I’m ready 😀
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