WHATS IN A SEQUAL?

Oh wow, this topic came up so much in school, it's not even funny.

Okay, where is my take on the idea of a sequel...

Sequels are, in theory, not a bad thing, as they have the possibility of continuing a story further, and enriching characters more deeply. Having said that, those reasons are often not the reasons Game Companies, or likewise Film Companies, create sequels. It's for money, pure and simple, cashing in on a brand already established. And in the pursuit of the almighty profit, often times other things, such as continuity or integrity, are pushed to the side.

This is why a lot of Game Designers, now-a-days, are creating games that don't tie up all the loose ends, leaving some things open for both fan speculation, and for 'bridges' available in case the company decides to make a sequel. A lot of times, this is done without any forethought as to what the sequel will be about. A very good example of this is the epilogue and secret trailer for the first Kingdom Hearts game. It's very obvious that Sora's adventures are not over, and just as obvious that there is a darker side to things, dealing with 'some people' in hooded black cloaks. Nomura stated that he didn't really know where he wanted to take that hook, just that it felt right. He planned on making Kingdom Hearts II, he just didn't know what it was going to be about.

Therefore the first option to creating a good sequel, and my favorite option, is to create the first game with the sequel in mind. Leave hooks to the next game, leave things open ended, even though the main focus of the game is resolved in that games denouement. Decide how many games you want to make to tell this story, or keep adding new stuff in so that your series is ongoing until you want to end it. Note, though, that this is different than making a game series episodic. An episodic game, such as Xenosaga, is really with one long game release a bit at a time. Minute, but definite differences from a sequel.

The other option that Game Designers are opting to go with are to create a series of games that are in the same universe, and often times are influenced by the events of the previous game(s), but are not direct sequels. A perfect example of that is the Elder Scrolls series anything made by Bethesda that has a number in it. Another example is the Silent Hill series, where the only connection between the games (sans the Alessa/Heather connection in 1 and 3) is the town of Silent Hill.

A third option, and a favorite of mine, is to have the sequel focus on an entirely new set of characters, or use minor characters as the major ones, or characters that were relegated to support status set as the main characters. Two examples come to mind: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, in which you play someone not from the first game, but who interacts quite often with the original cast; and Final Fantasy X-2, which shows the life of the co-star, Yuna, after the closing credits of Final Fantasy X. (Note to anyone who hates FFX-2...as much as you may hate the game, the Game Designers followed a sound reasoning to create the game, so on paper it cannot be faulted).

A fourth option, rarely explored by RPGs, is to just create the same hook for each game. Megaman and Megaman X are so guilty of this, it's become a franchise. Dr Wily is always captured at the end of the game, or escapes death, or just plain escapes. You know he's going to be the villain in the next game, but you don't care. It's Megaman. You can do the same thing with RPGs, but it will be more difficult, as people tend to want a bit more meat in their RPGs. Still, it could be done, and endless sequels could be made.

In conclusion, what makes a good sequel is twofold: Does it build upon and strengthen the overall story of the preceding games, and can it stand on its own without any support from the other games in all aspects save the meta-plot (overall series storyline). If the answer is yes to both questions, then it's a good sequel.