GAMES SEQUELS, STAY THE SAME OR GO DIFFERENT? WHY AND HOW?

My point exactly:) Before, Mario could stay underwater forever, then they introduced realistic concepts in which he can drown. Mario's HP is no longer based on power ups, but a healthbar instead. You have a single level map, but you reach different sections of that map through missions. There is no longer a timer in stages and there were several moves added such as punching, triple jump,backflip, wall jump, and an assortment of other moves. That was indeed a huge transition not only for Mario, but for 3D games worldwide. You still jump on everything, but in a different, full-scale 3D world.

So its good to try different things and explore with a character or a game because you never know how successful it may become. Just don't try anthing like Sonic 06 or Final Fantasy 14.

Why make a sequel? because your original gameplay was solid and you can improve on that. That should be the ONLY reason to make a sequel.
if you do it for the story, stop. Just stop. Your irst story was not that good to begin with, no matter how good you think it was.

Create something new instead. Heck, even use the same characters for all I care but if you ever do a sequel, do it because the gameplay can be perfected further. That's the only reason to do it...

RPGs and deep stories? Haha.