Board 8 > Sequels that are worse than a prior game, but also better in a way...

(+) Yeah! (+)

That makes you like the first game less.

The first game to do this to me was KotOR 2, where everything was a little worse than the first in terms of characters and story, but training your crew to be force sensitive and the lightsaber mechanics made the first feel so restrictive.

Fire Emblem Fates recently did this to me too. Awakening has maybe my favorite video game cast of all time, while fates might objectively have the worst video game cast by average in history. But as I went through hard and lunatic I realized how rich and deep the gameplay has the potential to be and now it's hard for me to go back to Awakening
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Mega Man 10: Better mechanics than MM9, worse levels.
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Dark souls 2 missed the mark in atmosphere and themes, but the pvp was the best of the series
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FFTA had some good ideas but also some bad ones

and was significantly easier than FFT

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MGSV
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-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Mega Man 10: Better mechanics than MM9, worse levels.

I mean, one mechanic, sure. Shoulder button weapon switching is always nice.
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Final Fantasy X-2

Hella more fun to replay than X because the gameplay rocks, but gosh literally everything else is a gigantic step down.
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kevwaffles posted...

MGSV

Great answer. The gameplay is insanely good, like the mechanics are top tier.
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arkham city
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I also agree with mgsv. I was stuck thinking of 2nd games specifically
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JFA added Psyche-Lockes, a better penalty system, and the best case in the series (2-4) yet PWAA is still the more solid game from start to finish (ignoring Rise)
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Mario Kart Double Dash

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Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 had worse scenarios and general design, but it also had a sandbox mode and better UI.

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Sonic 3 introduced the save battery and had some good levels and music. But it was shorter than the first two games.

Sonic and Knuckles fixed that, but still.

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Devil May Cry 4 is worse than DMC3 in most ways but man I really like the ability to swap styles on the fly as Dante.
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Pokemon Super mystery dungeon.
It added so many more quality of life changes to make the combat easier. But Pokemon mystery dungeon time/darkness/sky had a better plot. But I really have a hard time going back to play Sky due to the changes in Super mystery dungeon.
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shadow hearts 3 refined the battle system and actually had good balance

sh2 is a lot of fun but was hilariously easy
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Hot take: FFX's battle system is better than FFX-2's
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LeonhartFour posted...

FFX's battle system is better than FFX-2's

Agree

And I'd put FFX-2's over most of the series
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Tales series is like the poster child for this imo. The battle systems (generally) improve but the rest of the game doesn't necessarily, so most games in the series age weirdly.

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