What? Another list of games that deserve sequels? Has Bagogames.com gone mad? Nope, not at all. Great minds think alike with articles, but think differently on what games need a sequel. So here’s a different take readers, enjoy.
In the medium of gaming there are some games that deserve a sequel due to extreme creativity and financial success, however, some of these games don’t garner the financial success that leads to a sequel. So we are stuck with great, imaginative and unique games that won’t receive the sequel they deserve because they are not Call of Duty clones. Here is a list of five games that deserve a sequel, not on financial merit, but on creative merit, something that this medium needs to do a little more often.
5) Beyond Good and Evil – Ubisoft – November 11, 2003
It has been nearly a decade since Michel Ancel’s opus was released, and fans are still waiting for that ever reclusive sequel that Ubisoft touts every now and then. The title was released to much critical acclaim, sadly that acclaim didn’t come with dollar bills attached to it. The title did very poorly commercially and Ubisoft branded it as a failure. That failure however came from the marketing department at Ubisoft and not on Ancel’s game. At that time Ubisoft was pushing more for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time instead of Beyond Good and Evil. This was the final nail in the coffin for the planned trilogy in 2003. There has been a glimmer of hope thanks to some screen shots and Ancel himself who has stated that work on the sequel was put on hold during the production of Rayman: Origins. Is Ubisoft holding this Ace up their sleeve? Let’s hope so.
4) Jade Empire – Bioware – April 12, 2005
One has to feel sorry for Jade Empire, it was released not too long after Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which is one of the best RPG’s to date, and probably the best Star Wars game ever made. So it was kind of lost in the shuffle, which is very unfortunate. The game was very well received critically, but not as financially well as KOTOR, only moving 700,000 pieces worldwide. This lack of sales may have destroyed the chances of a sequel, however in 2011 Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk said that “It’s an IP, it’s a setting that we were really passionate about, and we still are. Both Greg and I were big believers in that IP… We’re just looking for the right way to deploy it.” Sadly these two men have since left Bioware, so who knows if we’ll ever be seeing a Jade Empire sequel.
3) Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem – Silicon Knights – June 23, 2002
Eternal Darkness was Silicon Knights most critically acclaimed title, it took survival horror enthusiasts and GameCube owners by storm. Selling a nice 440,000 copies worldwide for an exclusive and Mature title is no easy feat, however it wasn’t as much as a financial success as needed. Soon after the games release Silicon Knights rounded out that generation with Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, which also did fairly well. This current generation hasn’t been too kind to Denis Dyack and team. In 2007 Silicon Knights sued Epic Games for the supposed sabotaging of the Unreal Engine, Epic counter-sued and won in 2012, leaving the fate of Silicon Knights in the dark. All of the programming done in the Unreal Engine was ordered destroyed by the courts, including what work was done on Eternal Darkness 2, Too Human 2 and a few others. Dyack left Silicon Knights to form Precursor Studios which were said to be developing Shadow of the Eternals, a spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness. He even started a Kick-starter for it, which was ended on June 6, due to overwhelming support. What is going on with the sequel, no one seems to know. Ironically we all are just being left in the dark on this one.
2) Mega Man Legends – Capcom – December 18, 1997
MegaMan Volnutt needs a conclusion, this game has received a sequel that came out on October 24, 2000 and ended with a cliffhanger, which won’t be spoiled here for those who’ve not played the game to completion. However, thirteen years have passed and Mega Fanatics want to see what happens to Volnutt. Both games received critical praise, number 2 garnering more than number one, and combined they sold 1.25 million on the PlayStation worldwide. Why Capcom won’t let Keiji Inafune finish his opus is something we may never know. On September 29, 2010 Nintendo announced Mega Man Legends 3 for the 3DS, they planned on releasing a prequel, Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version for the eShop and then the main game at a future date. Even after Inafune left Capcom it was said that development on the game continued. It wasn’t until July 18, 2011 that it was announced that production on the game had been cancelled, and neither the prequel nor the game itself would see the light of day. Inafune was disappointed with the cancellation of the game and offered to put together a team to finish it, Capcom declined his offer. Will we ever see the fate of MegaMan Volnutt or will it be just as unknown as this game’s future?
1) Shenmue – Sega – November 6, 2000
Shenmue is the other game on this list that has received a sequel, but once again that sequel didn’t finish out the story. Ryo Hazuki’s story is far from finished, and Shenmue fans are rabid to see its completion. Shenmue received critical merits, but was considered a financial flop since it cost $70 million, which was unprecedented at the time. In layman’s terms, every Dreamcast owner would have had to have purchased two copies for Sega to have turned a profit. Shenmue 2 was released exclusively for the Xbox on October 28, 2002 and received very good reviews critically, the only major complaints being the lack of visual upgrades and the English voice conversion. Sadly the game sold very poorly in America, mainly due to the fact that most Dreamcast fans did not own (or want to own) an Xbox and the fact that the game didn’t possess the same kind of fan-base in America as it did in Japan. Since 2002 there have been rumors a-plenty about a sequel being in the works, Sega even announced Shenmue 3 but it never came to fruition. In recent months however, the rumors are becoming more and more solid. On January 4, 2012 Yu Suzuki hinted that he may be able to obtain the rights to Shenmue from Sega. Then a few weeks before E3, Corey Marshall (Ryo Hazuki’s voice actor), posted pictures of himself at a Sega recording booth on Twitter. This reignited the Shenmue rumor mill, was he there to record for Shenmue 3 or possibly a HD remake of the first two games? We still don’t know for sure, Marshall has stated he did not record for Shenmue 3, but that doesn’t count out the possibility of a HD remake for the WiiU, since lots of Sega love seems to be going that consoles way.
What games would you like to see sequels to? Leave your ideas in the comment section below.
Related articles
