Or, games desperately in need of a sequel.
Portal now has Portal 2, Rez has a "spiritual successor" in Child of Eden, Ico and SotC have one in The Last Guardian, and apparently critical darling Beyond Good and Evil will soon have an HD revamp and/or sequel on the way.
But what about games that had no sequels, revamps, or "spiritual successors"? My top five would be as follows (in no particular order):
Skies of Arcadia-Yes, Valkyria Chronicles is considered by some to be its "spiritual successor," but as that has one sequel already, and a second on the way, I'm gonna count that as its own series. And yes, it did receive an enhanced port to the Gamecube, but it's still basically the same game. Jet Grind Radio had a sequel. Shenmue had a sequel. Powerstone had a sequel. Soul Calibur (obviously) had many sequels. But of all the games that sorta defined the Dreamcast, SoA still exists without a sequel. I've read that some fans want one very badly, but do not necessarily want one with Vyse, Aika, and Fina, as their story pretty much came to a satisfying conclusion. Which I can agree with to an extent. To me, it's more of the overall vibe I got from the game that needs to be put into a sequel.
Yeah, it's sorta clichéd. But dammit, it was fun, excessive random encounters be damned. I actually ENJOYED upgrading the characters' skillsets and magic based on the color of their equipped weapons. I ENJOYED grinding those colors (Moonstones?) for each character. I enjoyed spending my time with these characters. I enjoyed the generally light-hearted nature of the storyline (with an underlying dark edge), and the banter and cameraderie between the characters. I enjoyed that the combat setup was flexible enough to allow you to make your own (albeit simple) character builds, but not so convoluted that you got lost in the minutiae. It struck (for me) a perfect balance between enjoyable combat, interesting characters and plot, and just enough depth to allow you to enjoy tinkering with magic, weapons, and ship builds (including crew), but not so much that you got bogged down in it. I really have not seen all of these elements combine so perfectly in a JRPG since then.
Whew...that was some text. I'm gonna post this now and edit in the rest, lest I hit one wrong key and lose all of that.
Portal now has Portal 2, Rez has a "spiritual successor" in Child of Eden, Ico and SotC have one in The Last Guardian, and apparently critical darling Beyond Good and Evil will soon have an HD revamp and/or sequel on the way.
But what about games that had no sequels, revamps, or "spiritual successors"? My top five would be as follows (in no particular order):
Skies of Arcadia-Yes, Valkyria Chronicles is considered by some to be its "spiritual successor," but as that has one sequel already, and a second on the way, I'm gonna count that as its own series. And yes, it did receive an enhanced port to the Gamecube, but it's still basically the same game. Jet Grind Radio had a sequel. Shenmue had a sequel. Powerstone had a sequel. Soul Calibur (obviously) had many sequels. But of all the games that sorta defined the Dreamcast, SoA still exists without a sequel. I've read that some fans want one very badly, but do not necessarily want one with Vyse, Aika, and Fina, as their story pretty much came to a satisfying conclusion. Which I can agree with to an extent. To me, it's more of the overall vibe I got from the game that needs to be put into a sequel.
Yeah, it's sorta clichéd. But dammit, it was fun, excessive random encounters be damned. I actually ENJOYED upgrading the characters' skillsets and magic based on the color of their equipped weapons. I ENJOYED grinding those colors (Moonstones?) for each character. I enjoyed spending my time with these characters. I enjoyed the generally light-hearted nature of the storyline (with an underlying dark edge), and the banter and cameraderie between the characters. I enjoyed that the combat setup was flexible enough to allow you to make your own (albeit simple) character builds, but not so convoluted that you got lost in the minutiae. It struck (for me) a perfect balance between enjoyable combat, interesting characters and plot, and just enough depth to allow you to enjoy tinkering with magic, weapons, and ship builds (including crew), but not so much that you got bogged down in it. I really have not seen all of these elements combine so perfectly in a JRPG since then.
Whew...that was some text. I'm gonna post this now and edit in the rest, lest I hit one wrong key and lose all of that.
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