10 Video Game Sequels That Made The Original Even Better
Kratos' journey is one of a kind.
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00:00Some sequels are so bad that they make the original look even better than it was before
00:04based on just how much they dropped the ball. But this isn't limited to bad sequels,
00:09great sequels can also make the first game better retroactively too, in a good way.
00:14I'm Syed for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 Video Game Sequels That Made The Original Even Better.
00:1910. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2
00:23The sequel to Knights of the Old Republic had a lot to prove, especially since Bioware was
00:27no longer at the helm, but instead we got Obsidian Entertainment, the guys who would
00:31go on to make Fallout New Vegas. And much like Fallout New Vegas, bad project scheduling led to
00:36the game coming out rushed and missing a ton of content. But even with the vanilla game,
00:41the story shines through as something that improves Knights of the Old Republic in retrospect.
00:45For one, it goes way more into Darth Revan's history, his reasoning for turning on the Jedi,
00:50thanks to the point of view character being one of Revan's former soldiers,
00:54and one of your first companions being Revan's first master, Kreia,
00:57who also happens to be one of the best written characters in Star Wars, if you ask some people.
01:02It also adds shades of grey to the light vs dark conflict seen in the original,
01:06which feels complementary to what the previous games set up, rather than contradictory.
01:10Knights of the Old Republic becomes just one side of the story,
01:13the other side of which is provided by its sequel.
01:169. Kingdom Hearts 2
01:18One thing you need to know about Kingdom Hearts co-creator Tetsuya Nomura is that he really loves
01:22belts. Oh, and he's also an eccentric offbeat storyteller whose writing often comes off as
01:27improvisational, but when previous entries are analysed it doesn't take long for certain prior
01:32clues to jump out at you. That is a very padded way of saying the man is a looney tune who put
01:37more intricate thoughts into a Disney tie-in game for the PS2 than he really should have.
01:41Kingdom Hearts 2, on top of being one of the poster boys for how to make a good sequel on
01:45a gameplay level, enhances the story of the original by doubling down on the complexity.
01:50From hints centering around the Nobodies found in the many Ansem reports hidden throughout the game,
01:54to Xehanort being a secret boss, Kingdom Hearts 2 expands on all of this and proves just how far
02:00ahead Nomura was thinking. Sure, its writing is anything but concrete, in fact it's more like a
02:05big cloud of words, but that's par for the course for the franchise at this point.
02:098. Final Fantasy X-2
02:12Final Fantasy X-2 might not be the best Final Fantasy game out there, but as a continuation
02:17of Final Fantasy X, it's about as perfect as it gets from a storytelling and world-building
02:21perspective. At the end of Final Fantasy X, the entire status quo of the world is irreparably
02:26upturned. In short, both the government and religion is pretty much ruined, leaving the
02:30world of Spira overall having to start from scratch. Thus comes along Final Fantasy X-2's
02:35premise of what happens to a world after it's been saved. Like with Knights of the Old Republic
02:402, seeing this other side of the world after the big epic journey makes it a brilliant companion
02:45piece to the original. Playing X-2 drives home just how much of the Spirans' lives revolved
02:50around the ever-present threat of sin in the original, how so much of their economy, lifestyle
02:54and communal relationships had to constantly account for the very real possibility that,
02:58out of nowhere, a giant magical whale demon will just pop out and say, nope,
03:03you guys are gonna die today. X-2's Spira, meanwhile, is practically unrecognisable,
03:08with the nations of the world having to put themselves back together and figure out who
03:11they are when at peace. It's also fun to see Yuna, who is smothered by her dark calling in the
03:16original, burst out of her shell into a badass, fun-loving, gun-slinging treasure hunter. Which
03:22sounds jarring at first, but feels natural when playing the games back to back.
03:267. Batman Arkham City
03:28Arkham Asylum cleverly teased a wider world outside its gothic walls, feeling like both
03:32its own thing while also being an amalgamation of all previous incarnations of the character.
03:37City, however, knew that that type of road can only be walked for so long before you have to
03:41mark your own identity on a property, and so better establish the universe this version of
03:46Batman inhabits. Miraculously, it does this without contradicting anything brought up in
03:50Asylum's lore, but this makes sense when you realise the sequel was being planned from the
03:55beginning. There's a secret room in Warden Sharp's office you can access with a clever
03:58appliance of explosive gel that shows the blueprints for Arkham City a year before the
04:03game's announcement. Showing that Sharp, Hugo Strange and Rayshard Ghoul had been planning
04:07this for a long time, Asylum went from a representation of Batman as a whole,
04:11to the first chapter in a wholly unique take on the Caped Crusader, all thanks to the sequel.
04:166. Portal 2
04:18Certainly one of the most perfect sequels to a game ever made, Portal 2 improves the
04:23retrospective viewing of the original by answering pretty much every question left
04:27lingering at the end of Portal 1. Where did Aperture Science, let alone GLaDOS,
04:31even come from? How long has Protagonist Shell been stuck there? Portal 2 dedicates
04:36an entire section of the game to answering both former questions in one fell swoop,
04:40all while staying coy about the exact timeline. All we know is it's definitely been a while.
04:45Okay, but what is all this testing even for? Science! Portal didn't need a sequel,
04:50because all the questions that were actually important to the story were answered in the
04:53first game, but it's astounding how much Valve was able to wring out of those scant
04:57remaining dangling plot threads. Both games stand perfectly fine on their own,
05:01but together they become one of the all-time great science fiction comedies ever made.
05:06And considering Portal started off as a side experiment you got in the orange box bundle
05:10with Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2, well that's quite the achievement.
05:145. Psychonauts 2
05:17Just shy of two decades waiting for the sequel to this cult classic platformer,
05:21and by God it was worth it. Psychonauts originally had a very cut and dry story,
05:25which considering the wait for the sequel left Psychonauts fans at least better off
05:29than Beyond Good and Evil fans. And since the game sold like garbage,
05:33they had to make peace with the idea of never getting one. But lo and behold,
05:36Double Fine finally came through. Psychonauts 2 dives a lot deeper into
05:40main character Raz's family, giving players an almost uncomfortably honest look at Raz
05:45and his lineage's history. This is combined with more emotionally mature storytelling,
05:49which stands in stark contrast to the darkest pitch comedy of the original.
05:53Raz faces consequences this time for just barging into a person's mind without permission,
05:58after which he begins asking for consent from the people he's helping.
06:01Rather than act as a criticism of the first game, 2 positions itself more as a continuation of a
06:06specific character arc. The story of 1 leads directly into 2, with the characters growing
06:11and changing accordingly. It may have taken multiple console generations, but Psychonauts
06:152 is one of the most natural-feeling sequels in all of gaming.
06:194. Yakuza 6 – The Song of Life
06:21There's a good reason Sega released the smash-hit prequel Yakuza 0 and a full-from-the-ground-up
06:26remake of the first game before Yakuza 6, because it really has been all leading up to this.
06:32The story of Yakuza, or Like a Dragon as we should be calling it now,
06:35has pretty much been the same in every game after the first.
06:38Kiryu wants to leave the Yakuza because he's a good man, and because he's a good man, he fails.
06:43Even in the best ending of each game, there's always a catch, always a price,
06:46because Kiryu did the right thing, and the right thing often hurts.
06:50One would think 6, intended and marketed as the true ending,
06:53would cut him a break, but Yakuza sticks to its guns all the way through.
06:57The finale of Like a Dragon 6 elevates every game that came before it,
07:00ending on the perfect thematic note as Kiryu disappears into anonymity,
07:04leaving all his friends and family behind, summing up his entire journey.
07:08Doing the right thing can seem impossible, hurt like hell,
07:11and will often take more than it gives, but the right thing still needs to be done.
07:15Oh, he's coming back for Yakuza 8.
07:17Okay, well, I mean, you could've cut this guy some slack, but maybe not.
07:20Number 3, Sly 3, Honor Among Thieves.
07:23The Sly Cooper franchise has always been about the potential toxicity of reputation and legacy.
07:28Our family lineage, not to mention the personal impact one makes on the world,
07:32can be fulfilling, but it can become a milestone around your neck.
07:35The Cooper line was a noble thing, a family of Robin Hoods trying to take back from criminals
07:40and the ultra-wealthy, but Sly 3, building on what came before,
07:43shows that very little long-term good had come of this.
07:46Ultimately, Sly realizes the only path to true fulfillment
07:49is to let go and put the people around him first.
07:52The best part is that you can see this ending being set up from the very beginning.
07:56Not in an oh-we-plan-this-out-from-the-start kind of way,
07:59Sucker Punch was nowhere near the financial and creative security needed
08:02at the time to plan a whole trilogy,
08:04but in a we're-thinking-about-it-enough-to-make-it-seem-natural-when-it-happens kind of way.
08:09This is demonstrated through that theme of legacy and reputation being the spine of all three games,
08:13from the insecurities of the bosses in 1 and 2 being what drove them to become criminals,
08:18to the twisted origins of series villain Clockwork and his spiteful hatred of the Cooper line.
08:23That kind of storytelling is a careful balancing act,
08:25but Sucker Punch pulled it off masterfully.
08:30The original Red Dead Redemption was a great game and a beautifully written story,
08:34and it's a write that wraps up nicely at the end.
08:36Technically, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel,
08:39but as a follow-up, it does some wonderful things.
08:42This entry is at number 2,
08:43mainly due to finding a way to make Red Dead Redemption somehow sadder than it already was.
08:48While there were hints of Marston's past with his old gang
08:50that he hunts at the behest of the government in Red Dead 1,
08:53Red Dead Redemption 2 showcases the gang in their prime,
08:56as the whole thing leads up to the events of John Marston ending up on that leash in the first place.
09:01The story of Arthur Morgan trying desperately to hold his found family together
09:05gives the original so much more weight, as now you know what's been lost.
09:08Red Dead Redemption definitely did a great job of making the player feel sorry
09:12for Marston, but there was a separation from his past
09:15due to you not being that clued in to what happened.
09:172, however, shows the whole thing in painful detail.
09:20After so much death and misery in Red Dead 2,
09:22the player is left relieved that John gets out mostly okay in the end,
09:27only to remember how the first game closes out.
09:29At number 1, God of War Ragnarok.
09:32Santa Monica Studios' continuation of the God of War series was always meant to be two entries,
09:36meant to bring down the curtain on the story of Kratos.
09:39The 2018 title was a fantastic game and story in its own right,
09:43but Ragnarok is so natural and flowing a sequel,
09:46the two become inseparable from each other,
09:48the idea of playing one but not the other being utterly ludicrous.
09:51The story of the two games is the story of Kratos learning
09:53that there is never a point where you cannot choose to be better.
09:56Everyone is capable of change and deserves the opportunity to be able to,
10:00but they need to choose that for themselves.
10:02Ragnarok is a natural continuation of that theme,
10:05as Kratos is faced with constant temptation to revert back to his old ways,
10:09very nearly falling into a complete relapse partway through the game.
10:12You can choose to be better, says Ragnarok,
10:15but that's a choice you need to make every day,
10:17especially when doing things how you used to seems like an easier path.
10:20Ragnarok doesn't just make the previous game better,
10:23it makes the original trilogy and wider series essential by its existence,
10:27as Kratos' past in Greece is constantly brought up, both literally and thematically.
10:32It really does feel as impossible as that obviously is,
10:35that it was always going to end this way.
10:38And that's the list!
10:39Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below.
10:41Which of these sequels did you like the best?
10:43And of course, let us know of any others that would fit in with this theme.
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10:54I've been Si for WhatCulture and have a good week.