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What sequels pulled off tone change well? What sequels failed to do so?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 23850
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Deleted member 23850

Oct 28, 2017
8,689
Tone change usually means "darker and edgier" or "lighter and softer," but realistic to cartoony also works. I dunno, I'm giving a few examples, tone change is endless which makes for endless discussion.

Twisted Metal has been all over the map, and has probably both failed and succeeded in its tone shifts. Black is, without question, a success, but Head On also was a success, taking the series back to the TW2 days.

As expected, Twisted Metal 3 sucked.
 
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Snake Eater

Snake Eater

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Oct 27, 2017
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Harry Potter going "dark" starting with the 5th movie is the classic example of things being worse
 
WestEgg

WestEgg

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Oct 25, 2017
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Majora's Mask from Ocarina of Time is probably the quintessential example.
 

Rob2K19

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Oct 27, 2017
1,646
Jak & Daxter to Jak II.

Kingdom Hearts to Kingdom Hearts II. Went from morning anime to night anime.

Going from any Pokemon game to Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth series. Childrens series to mature series. Habumon does what GameFreak will never do.
 
Loanshark

Loanshark

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Nov 8, 2017
1,637
Blood & Wine isnt a stand alone game, but it might as well be considering its scope. Its tone is completely different from the rest of the game, and they pull it off marvelously. One would think that going from Velen/Skellige to Toussaint would be jarring, but the game just naturally transitions into it in a remarkable way.
 

Deleted member 13798

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Oct 27, 2017
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Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is like the benchmark example of ill advised tonal change.

Saint's Row gaining a sense of humor with 2 was the best thing that could've happened. Unfortunately they went too far with it in 4.
 
Acquiescence

Acquiescence

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Oct 26, 2017
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Jak II is nowhere near as edgy and dark as the naysayers like to make it out to be. It's a lot funnier than the first game and has a vibe similar to a story-heavy saturday morning cartoon from the nineties, like Reboot. So it gets my vote for a tone change done well.
 
Clive

Clive

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Oct 25, 2017
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Ratchet & Clank did it well be de-edgifying Ratchet. He was a pretty selfish, mean and obnoxious douche in the first game but in later games and the game based on the movie based on the game he was the hero we know and love today.
 
Banamy

Banamy

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Oct 27, 2017
1,451
The jump from black and white to XY wasn't the best. Halo 3 to Halo Reach, is a travesty.
 

Deleted member 227

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Kingdom Hearts -> Kingdom Hearts 2 kinda falls in to this for me, because the introductions of the Nobodies and the existential crisis and angst that came with them was kind of a big mood change from the magical adventure of the first game. It felt way more melancholic to defeat Organisation 13 in it too, not knowing what happened with them after disappearing (which of course the later games changed).
 
Yuntu

Yuntu

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Prince of Persia Warrior Within was one of the best changes Ubisoft ever made to something. It makes total sense why it is how it is. Two Thrones then made the edge its own character and it was the strongest part of the game there as well.
 
Combichristoffersen

Combichristoffersen

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Oct 27, 2017
12,756
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow -> Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Yes, going from gothic horror fantasy hack n slash action to sneaking past robots or whatever it was in boring, bland urban areas was such a great idea. Worked out great, that one.
 

Deleted member 9584

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Majora's Mask is the most memorable one for me, and then again with Wind Waker. I hope BotW2 does this type of tone shift.
 
Doober

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Jun 10, 2018
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The idea of a darker, more tense/desperate sequel to Prince Of Persia could have worked really well.

But instead we got steel butt floss, a Prince who curses a lot, and I. STAND ALONE.
 
Duffking

Duffking

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Oct 27, 2017
5,763
Doober said:
The idea of a darker, more tense/desperate sequel to Prince Of Persia could have worked really well.

But instead we got steel butt floss, a Prince who curses a lot, and I. STAND ALONE.
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I also continue to fail to see what people see in the combat system for WW. It's like someone had NG's combat system described to them and then they tried to implement it the next day without understanding what made it fun and visceral. It's one of the worst feeling melee combat systems I've ever used. Shame, as I liked the metroid-y structure of WW a lot.
 
Jimnymebob

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Oct 26, 2017
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Acquiescence said:
Jak II is nowhere near as edgy and dark as the naysayers like to make it out to be. It's a lot funnier than the first game and has a vibe similar to a story-heavy saturday morning cartoon from the nineties, like Reboot. So it gets my vote for a tone change done well.
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Yep, and then Jak 3 goes a step further and lightens Jak up a bit more, and turns both him and Daxter into a double act opposed to the more comedian and straight faced style they had on the first two.
 
Truant

Truant

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Oct 28, 2017
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Evil Within (Cliched and self-serious lame Japanese take on european macho male protagonist) > Evil Within 2 (Embracing the camp while gradually making the protagonist into a real human being at the end)
 
Vague Rant

Vague Rant

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Oct 28, 2017
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Zelda has been at both ends of this spectrum. Link to the Past into Ocarina of Time was a big shift into a more realistic, which was kind of masked by the simultaneous generation shift. Then there's the darker, moodier Majora's Mask. Both of those shifts were extremely well done.

Then you get Wind Waker swinging back to something more like a 3D version of the LttP style, which was controversial at the time but I think today most people agree that it looked great, wasn't "for kids", etc. But then the backlash made Twilight Princess swing too hard in the other direction as the Zelda with the most ... brown.

Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild then shifted into a more painterly style that's probably somewhere between the N64 titles and Wind Waker, aesthetically, and I think they've finally nailed something that's appealing to most people.
 
Glio

Glio

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Oct 27, 2017
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Technically they are not sequels, but Digimon games that try to be "mature" like Cyber Sleuth are completely ridiculous to me. I can't take seriously those hacker stories with Agumon and Gabumon in the middle. It is the same with the new Yo-kai Watch 4 designs. They seem like desperate cries to attract the attention of an aging audience.
 
Jimnymebob

Jimnymebob

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Oct 26, 2017
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Monsoon said:
Kingdom Hearts -> Kingdom Hearts 2 kinda falls in to this for me, because the introductions of the Nobodies and the existential crisis and angst that came with them was kind of a big mood change from the magical adventure of the first game. It felt way more melancholic to defeat Organisation 13 in it too, not knowing what happened with them after disappearing (which of course the later games changed).
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That's a weird change, because it wasn't so sudden, if you count CoM. Even though that added the Org, it still felt closer to the original, and it defintely helped bridge the gap between the two, both story wise (obviously) and tonally.
 
Dust

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Oct 25, 2017
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Jak 2 was hilarious, Jak going from Mickey Mouse tier to "I AM GOING TO KILL PRAXIS".
But it worked, it was till very goofy game just in a more opressive setting.
 
kurahador

kurahador

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Oct 28, 2017
17,656
Infamous ---> Infamous 2
Went from edgy/moody mutant setting to a more upbeat superhero guy. For the most part I feel like it work, but it does so at the cost of the story. The story in 2 feels so disconnected from 1 despite being a continuation of it.
 
Mechaplum

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Oct 26, 2017
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Shadow Hearts 2 shifted in tone considerably from the first entry. Even though it is a better game I much preferred the atmosphere of the first.
 
Camjo-Z

Camjo-Z

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Oct 25, 2017
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Banjo-Tooie starts with having you explore a ruined Spiral Mountain after Bottles gets murdered by Grunty, but stayed silly enough to not come off as one of those cringey darker and edgier sequels.
 
DrHercouet

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May 25, 2018
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Bear with me on this one : Pokémon Red/Blue to Gold and Silver was a GREAT tone shift. It didn't really feel like but the Johto region had so much soul and History flowing through its places... It was great. It really felt like a new world, bigger in pretty much everything. The region wasn't just a pretext, it was the very heart and soul of the game. So, yeah, this shift.

(actually came by to reply "Chrono Cross" but got beaten to it so I had to find something else) (but yeah, Chrono Cross)
 
Squid Bunny

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Jun 11, 2018
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Jessie said:
Speaking of Harry Potter, the Deathly Hallows games came out during peak COD, and they were THIRD PERSON SHOOTERS. God the early 10s were an abomination.
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Rand a. Thor said:
The first 3 Harry Potter 3rd Person adventure games are tonally perfect for the series and I loathe Game 4 going movie accurate. Video Game HP universe was the absolute bomb and killing it off sucks ass.
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Chamber of Secrets was a pretty fun game, and exploring the secrets in Hogwarts was awesome.

Order of Teh Phoenix was pretty good too. Then they went to shit.
 

Deleted member 29691

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Fury451 said:
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is like the benchmark example of ill advised tonal change.

Saint's Row gaining a sense of humor with 2 was the best thing that could've happened. Unfortunately they went too far with it in 4.
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god I loved how whimsical Sands of Time was. Then we get this badass dual wielding swords and hyper sexual women and heavy metal in the sequel. I was so disappointed.
 
dskzero

dskzero

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Oct 30, 2019
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Snake Eater said:
Harry Potter going "dark" starting with the 5th movie is the classic example of things being worse
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That's because both the movies and books peaked at the third book and was one longass decline from there on.

As for the topic, the tone change from Deus Ex "Every Conspirancy Is True" to Deus Ex: Invisible Wars "Every Nutcase Conspirancy is not Only True But Even More Ridiculous" is jarring even when you get used to the levels being so tiny.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein's wacky nazis with these undead and light supernatural ideas to Wolfenstein 2009's whatthefuckisgoingonthisfullsupernatural, with different planes and whatnot, not to mention the open worldish design (haven't finished it), is also weird.

None of those were really pulled off very well though.
 
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