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Hey Design Doc, wanna let you know that I'm not a creative, I have no intention of ever working on a game, or any other form of art. I enjoy playing video games but that's it. And even still, your channel is absolutely fascinating to me and I deeply enjoy every video you make and put out for us to watch. Thank you for doing what you do, I hope it's paying the bills. Keep up the amazing work.

Oh the irony that the company which initially shelved the series ended up buying the studio 🤣

Psychonauts was such a good yet infuriating game. I’m glad they made a sequel, and I can’t wait to get it.

i think a very important thing to mention about psychonauts 2 is how it handles mental health issues way better than the first one

> ... Mini Motorways, the potholes they could've fallen into... that got me too bad lmao

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles really shows what a long way the Ace Attorney series has come throughout its 20-year history! While the first game was outstanding in its own right, pretty much all the major complaints with it have been tackled one-by-one throughout the subsequent instalments, paving the way towards TGAAC. While it takes the approach of telling a story from more than 100 years before the other games, almost completely disconnected from them, there are definitely times where it seems the developers have intended for you to be familiar with the earliest (and best-known) entries in order to set up some expectations that are later gloriously subverted! Not to mention that after a rough transition period, TGAAC is the first game in the franchise where the 3D graphics adopted a couple games earlier have risen to the level of the 2D spritework in the original trilogy :D

In my opinion, the biggest improvement psychonauts 2 made, was utilizing the abilities more. From fighting enemies with different weaknesses to expanding on exploration. They used the abilities very well this time around and I had reason to switch them out more regularly.

I love the idea of a 15-year-old getting to your bit about a mistake made 16.5 years ago and being like, "Yeah, relatable."

One of my favorite sequels to talk about is Sly 2. The first Sly Cooper game was good, but it was pretty much just a standard 3d platformer with a little bit of stealth. it followed the format of hub worlds with disconnected levels within them, some being bad controls minigames (curse you piranhas). but with 2, each chapter is 1 open level with a series of missions that take place IN the level, and all of them are important because it culminates in an epic heist. very good game. makes you feel like a master thief way more than the original

I completed NEO The World Ends With You yesterday. It’s amazing how good of a sequel it was! I didn’t think it was possible, but there it is. It’s never gonna be quite as unique as the original, but they didn’t have to be (I’m glad they noticed this instead of trying to force it like Solo/Final Remix). I really like the twist they brought to the gameplay, and the amount of detail in the game is staggering. The game isn’t without flaws, but it was definitely much better than I expected. It’s currently my second favourite game of the year, losing to another sequel in Yakuza 7.

Little Big Planet 2 is my favorite game of all time, and an amazing sequel. Thousands of new items and mechanics for level creation, and an amazing story mode filled with imaginative settings and characters. It took everything the first game did and expanded on it in the best possible way.

Danganronpa 2 is a good sequel. They pretty much redo a bunch of their ideas from 1, but manage to keep it always fresh and enthralling. Plus all the characters pop out that much more and feel more like a genuine friend group

One of my favorite sequels is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (which I was playing recently). It took the basic gameplay mechanics of the original, and added features that rounded it out well, such as: - Dixie's hair spin - New collectables to hunt for (like DK coins and usually-more-fair-to-find Bonus Barrels) - A fairly consistent pirate theme - Better animal buddy mechanics - More interesting bosses - And more!

Psychonauts as a concept is such a good one since it takes one of the most important things about the genre, the levels, and one of the most important things in any media, the characters, and smashes them together! Genius!

the more psychonauts videos i see on youtube the happier i get. so glad this underrated gem of a game is getting the attention it deserves!

The figments are still occasionally bastards to find. See the infamous two in Bob's level. Still, visibility wise, they're usually great. It's just a couple of standouts that are incredibly hard to identify.

Risk of Rain 2. It refines the game's core down to a point and keeps the same aesthetic but just puts it in 3D.

Neo The World Ends With You was a great sequel

Recently I played both Ori games, and while The Blind Forest was great, The Will of the Wisps blew me away in every sense, it added some more elements to the gameplay, and the visuals were even more stunning, something I thought was really difficult to pull off since the first game looked so good already

Fire Emblem Awakening. It was my introduction to the franchise, and the game that may have saved it. How? Probably a lot of factors, but I think a big one was making Permadeath optional. Permadeath can definitely be intimidating for new players, and make them less likely to pick up the title, so making it optional made the game more accessible.

A series that is worth looking at in terms of its' sequels and how its' evolved over time is the Burnout series. The original was a basic street racing game with an interesting crash mechanic, where every time you crashed your car it showed a triple-replay of the crash in an attempt to make it seem more 'epic'. The problem was that sometimes the crash was so minor that the triple-replay seemed more patronizing than anything. In Burnout 2: Point of Impact, they doubled-down on the crashes with a new game mode where you tried to make the biggest crash you could, while also making improvements to other areas as well. Then, in Burnout 3: Takedown they came up with the titular takedown, where players were rewarded for causing the other racers to crash, and as such the races became much more aggressive and distinct from other racing games.

I was in full on "IT'S SO PRETTY!!" while going through Psychonauts 2. Thank you for giving voice to how much better looking and better implemented the figments are!

Devil May Cry 3 and 5 deserve a mention for the genius ways they improved on the foundations laid by the previous entries in the franchise

I feel like Spelunky 2 was one of the best sequels ever made. The way it retained the feeling of discovery and adventure from the original made it feel like re-experiencing what made the first one a classic, but with much more content and diversity, which is rare for a lot of sequels.

God, I LOVE the Psychonauts universe. Psychonauts 2 blew me away, especially! I'm glad the game's being used as an example of how to make a great sequel

I like how Xenoblade Chronicles 2 handled itself. It managed to tie the stories together in a way that made it so you didn't miss out if you've never played the first game and it also adapted the gameplay to work better with the portable/handheld nature of the switch.

When I get Portal 2, I will make a comment talking about Portal 2. Keep an eye out for that. Love to see the love Psychonauts 2 is getting, though. Rightfully deserved, too. You want a good idea for a topic? How about Simple Controls? Warioware Get it Together just came out with control that amount to control stick and one button, and did it very well. Compared to Balan Wonderworld, where it did it very bad. Why not talk about it?

One of my favorite sequels that came out recently is NEO: The World Ends With You. Take some hanging plot threads from the first game's updated rerelease, throw some brand new protags into said plot threads to give a fresh viewpoint so those new to the games aren't completely lost (which is appreciated since we waited 14 years since the original version of the first game), give us a great mix of both new songs & remixes of the OG soundtrack when the first game was praised for that aspect, translate the stylized 2D visuals of the first game into cell-shaded 3D models damn near PERFECTLY, & keep the combat combo focused while streamlining it in the right ways to not alienate either newcomers or veterans (as much as I love the first game there's no denying that the very unique combat controls makes it hard to get new people into it no matter which version you play). Easy contender for game of the year for me & it felt like I had never left that version of Shibuya when I booted it up.

Sly 2 was an amazing sequel, taking what was made before, perfecting it, and building it into a new and original idea.

Psychonauts is one of my favorite games of all time. I'm so sad the sequel isn't on the Switch.

Hey Design, I’ve watched through most of your videos at this point, and wanted to let you know how much I’ve listening in! Keep up the good work! 🙂

My one problem with how they redid the figments is that the figment album now groups together all figments of the same image instead of listing them all out individually. Plus figments don't show up until you find them at least once. It makes looking at the album much neater, but now it's almost impossible to figure out which one exactly you're missing.

Zelda Twilight Princess was a good sequel to the zelda games that came before it. Link is more mobile in Twilight Princess, than he is in any game. He can perform special moves with the iron boots on to make the special techniques get executed quicker. You can run while slicing your sword, dashing against enemies who have melee attacks before they can land a hit. Every enemy has a chance to respawn, so no enemy goes extinct. And even items that seem useless outside their dungeons have a unique use: You can use the dominion rod as an emergency flare if your lantern goes out.

I feel like Borderlands 2 is worth mentioning. It seems to be seen as generally the better game. You don’t even need to play BL1 before jumping into BL2

Okay, so I love Transistor for its aesthetic and story and it's probably always going to be my favourite SuperGiant game. I'm biased. But if you look at Bastion, Transistor, and Hades as a series, each one is a similar but wildly different take on "custom loadouts." Bastion has great binary weapon customizations, giving each weapon essentially multiple modes. Players can mix and match weapon combinations like "short+long range" or "fast and weak+slow and strong" or "dumb easy+complicated awkward." Transistor makes every tool both a verb and an adjective and they all mix together. High experience levels start granting multiple copies so a newgame+ player can make previously impossible combinations. Mixing and matching is integrated into the lore, the gameplay, and the strategy. Hades focuses on making one build that grows over a single playthrough and then asks you to do it again, but different. You get some weapon customizing, and a whole lot of adjectives, and being a roguelite (with _juicy_ meta-progression between runs) simmers everything together into delicious comfy stew.

I was literally just playing this game when I got the notification and thinking about how worthy of a sequel it was to, from what I had heard, a 20-year-old cult classic

Psychonauts does the best representation and accuracy of Mental Disorders, Conditions and Illnesses, it actually points out a lot of things that aren't really talked about in the Psychology Community and such, I'll bring out a few examples. (SPOILERS FOR THE PSYCHONAUTS 1 GAME BY THE WAY!) | | | V Edgar Teglee (Psychonauts 1) He represents the problem of OCD obsessing over his girlfriend and a prisoner of his rage against the man who took his love interest or simply put High School Crush, Lampita. He cannot get over the loss of his wrestling career when his OCD started to put him in harms way. His world or Black Velvetopia, is basically where people are trapped in one place which they cannot escape due to a bull, this is meant to represent Edgar's rage and OCD from his Teenhood. The bull that keeps everyone away from him and trapped by him is his own rage or El Odio (roughly translated to hatred or the rage, correct me if I'm wrong.) which is very ironic. Every time, he tries to get away from the memories it only ends up in him being more angry and angrier, until you or the main character makes him realize that he was never meant to be with her and he must let go of her, which he did. In the world, you have to fight 4 wrestlers, obviously being the people he has wrestled with in High School, and in the final part of the world, you have to fight the bull which later the character realizes that he is only worsening it and he must take out Edgar's sworn enemy, and also protecting El Odio. Gloria v. Gouten (Psychonauts 1) Gloria is basically the issues of Mood Swings caused by Bipolar Disorder, this was caused by her mothers suicide and her forcing her into a career which she did not want to be, in one of her dialogue she says the following "Do you think I wanted to be famous?" which caused her performances and such to be disrupted after her mothers death, which led her to be put in an Asylum. She is only comfortable when she is under a spotlight and happy, though when she leaves the spotlight she will become sad or angry, which is followed when Raz attempts to take her trophy which she comes closer and then the following dialogue "Hey... you're supposed to be dead!" Which Gloria mistakes Raz as her own mother. In her world or Gloria's Theater she has 3 people (4 if you count the younglings), The critic or the phantom (later revealed in the final part of her mind) is only focused on berating and taking away her confidence and her source of mood swings, and there is Bonito, or simply her youth is too afraid to perform because of the Phantom that always ruins her performances and lastly the Stage performer which is to represent her career, When you beat the critic her mood swings finally stop, you also work through her mind as to perform certain scenes in certain stages which represent her memories. Boyd Cooper (Psychonauts 1) Boyd represents Paranoia, as he always feels like he is being watched, when you first encounter him he seems like a conspiracy theorist, he is also a guard of the asylum you try to get in and promptly states dialogue referring to the "Milkman" and his milk of course being delicious and that everyone wants it. (Kind of weird when you think about it). When you enter his mind it is very divided and messed up, this is his Paranoia kicking in, you also have to find the Milkman in his mind. He is also cooped (pun intended) up inside his house refusing to leave since he is hiding from the Government Men or G-Men who are also looking for the Milkman. In his past he was fired from his job which set him to rage and burned down the workplace with molotovs disguised as milk bottles. He also feels like he has no privacy and that he is being watched everywhere he goes the main source of his Paranoia, though he is also implanted as the Milkman in his head which is also the reason he wants you to find the milkman to trigger his implant and burn down the asylum. Boyd also has no control of himself, which is why sometimes when you progress through him you will get dragged into a place (this could be him panicking or paranoia) where you will have to do a Mini Boss (only happens twice) When you beat the actual boss The Mother, his implant is triggered as his Milkman Persona is now who he is and now his task is to burn down the asylum (which he actually doesn't do he just stands there waiting to burn it down for something)

I gotta be honest. I love this channel so much. Sometimes I would like a more in depth analysis of the games in engine design choices. Like, we see the theory and philosophy of their design here... but what about when the design process helps to solve a problem instead of being the main vision u are trying to reach, u know? Great job as always!

Thank you for the Psychonauts. Very happy to see one of my favorite game series.

The Golden Bolt has a great retrospective on how Ratchet and Clank 2 is a great sequel, despite the flaws.

For me that amazing sequel in recent years (besides Psychonauts 2) was Devil May Cry 5. After the decisive DMC reboot and the fourth game in the main series was back when the 360 and PS3 were new, the series future wasn't looking good. So to have it return with fanfare was amazing! The thing I wanted to highlight was Nero's devil breaker mechanic being an evolution to his devil bringer skill introduced in 4. It adds so much more variety and player customization to Nero's moveset, without sacrificing his core gameplay

As a creative with plans of making a trilogy of games one day, I absolutely LOVE how informative your videos have!

A couple of series with noteworthy sequels, that show things done well. 3D Mario (64 -> Sunshine -> Galaxy -> Galaxy 2-> Odessey), keep the core idea of "Mario's Movement must be fun. 64 was all about the novelty of 3D, Sunshine had FLUDD for really fun acrobatics, Galaxy's had funky gravity and planetoids, Odessey had Cappy. Each is unique and fun to platform in with steadily improving storylines. Pikmin (1, 2, & 3) a console RTS about collecting McGuffins and murderizing things with your army of up to 100 pikmin. Each had a different time limit with the first being fix your ship by gathering 30 parts in 30 days (12 or 15min each) which is a speedrunner's dream. The second removes the timelimit and focuses on gathering treasure and introduces 2 new types of pikmin and caves (procedurally generated dungeons where time pauses on the surface) and gives you a second captain. And 3 which is super pretty, makes the timelimit influencable by the player, and has much more epic boss fights. The series is also notable for the depth of its sound effects are dynamic soundtrack. Pokemon, you know what its about. Generally they improve the plot with each generation but also make the handholding worse, everyones favorite is their first. An example of a series afraid to take major risk and suffering for it. Paper Mario series, mario as a self aware RPG where everything is obviously made of paper and the game is super self aware. never player the original but TTYD is amazing and follows closely in its footsteps. The rest of the series was hyped for each release, but avoided the rpg elements and generally lost the core of the series (super fun combat) much to their detriment. While Origami King has the self aware comedy its combat system is just a puzzle that had me bored by the time a reached the hub. I think that generally a good sequel needs to identify what the true core of the predecessor is (be it fun movement, puzzle solving, exploration, combat, collectathoning) and reuse that core. But then it needs to set itself apart in a good way, and with more than just graphics and quality of life. Think how Sunshine -> Galaxy kept the movement is fun idea but replaced FLUDD and normal gravity with spin attack/jump and space gravity. But then Galaxy -> Galaxy 2 mainly made minor changes (levels, smaller hub, story, yoshi) and to me it didn't have the same magic as Galaxy. (Also if you have a hub it needs to be fun and a place to run around like Delfino Plaza or the Observatory, not like the Mario Head ship) PS: i know my opinion of Galaxy 2 is unpopular but its genuine.

With the recent(?) release of tears of the kingdom, I love the way it introduced a whole new map(the depths) while still having the original Hyrule feel new

Thanks a bunch for this video, it highlights a few very important points. I liked old sequels like Banjo-Tooie and others from the N64 era, but the score of art necessary and budget necessary was much smaller back in the day

I always saw sequels as an opportunity for rework the non-story elements, taking away what didn't work and expand upon what did, while also experimenting with new stuff to do, like, if we take a game that was really popular by its exploration but got tedious because the map was big then it needs a fast traveling option, and the reverse can apply too, imaginé making a really fun to explore game that has a fast travel option, but you discover almost none of the players used it so it leaves you with 2 option, rework it so it is more appealing to use or directly remove it and use the space for more explorable areas.

A good example of course-correction in a chain of sequels in my opinion was Devil May Cry V. They took concepts from previous games, and turned them all of the way up. VI introduced the idea of playing as different characters with different combat styles. V improved on this by making those stories more-inter-connected, having character switching happen earlier and more often, and giving each character a distinctive thing that differentiated them - they all control pretty differently. They took the stylish intros and some of the otherworld look from the reboot and put it into the game for neat visual flourishes. And while the story is pretty simplistic, the emotional stakes and acting performance were ratcheted up from previous games. There was also a pretty big quality of life improvement in the form of game continues. Previous entries would boot you back to the start of a level if you didn't have extra lives in the form of yellow orbs. DMC V gives you the option to spend gold orbs, items that you unlock by either finding them on the map or getting issued for logging on, or spending red orbs, the in-game currency that you use to level everything up.

Really awesome and inspiring video :)

Ooh, the list of great sequels can stretch for so much for this. But Psychonauts 2 really has been a great sequel and could be my GOTY right now.

If you ever do a second one of these, definitely look at TWEWY's follow-up, NEO: The World Ends with You. The original team from the DS game fourteen years ago came back to do a sequel, and they did a lot of work on creating the game's combat; since they couldn't do the same thing due to the control methods, they focused on emulating the feeling and the mechanical depth of the controls into a new system, so even though the two games play differently they feel like they belong together. Lot of interviews with them to reference online to read more about the choices and background into the combat system, even up to how it incorporates part of their original vision for the first game that they ultimately scrapped due to not being feasible on the DS.

Possible sequals to Mini Motarways- air traffic, pedestrian traffic, mail room, bike couriers...

To me Doom Eternal is a perfect sequel. Doom 2016 was such an awesome and fresh experience and they upped it so much with Eternal by making it feel more like a character action game but as an fps.

Portal 2 would be my vote for best sequel. The first game was already revolutionary with a unique concept, excellent tutorial levels, and a great story. The second game added more novel game mechanics and another great story line. I didn't have high hopes for it because I thought it would be a repeat of the first game, but I was blown away at how well they pulled it off.

Thanks for the vid

I loved that you showed Chrono Cross bc it is one of my favorite games and playing Chrono Trigger right now, makes me value it more and less at the same time. I love how the game works with a big number of elements to get away from MP bars and allows for auto healing after battles, and it also gives a greater focus to your party story arches then to the world. But Chrono Trigger did so many things right that it's hard to beat.

A really good sequel is Endless Ocean 2. It takes all the same ideas from the first game and expands them into more realized gameplay elements

The play station two’s exclusive games history with sequels

The GOAT sequel is Half-Life 2, of course))) Not sure I can call Mass Effect 2 a sequel, since it's more of a continuation of a series, but it was a great 2 of the more modern times. Personally, the only other one I can think of right now is Ori and the Will of the Whisps.

Wow Playframe literally did Mini Motorways as a bonus episode before starting Psychonauts 2 and then here they both are together again.

sneaky psychonauts background music is the best :D

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Darkness/Time/Sky had a TON of improvements compared to Blue/Red Rescue team. The game just felt a lot more polished and smooth and the story is and characters are amazing. The first Mystery Dungeon game is still great to play, but you can feel that they're not 100% sure what to do with it. With Darkness/Time/Sky they just went all out. Sadly the games after that, just haven't been that great.

Megaman Legends 2 from MML1 took a great game and made it so much greater. It breathed new life by expanding the word to multiple continents and you got to experience a much deeper narrative. Sadly, I don't remember much from combat improvements, but I still feel like it should be mentioned. Ditto for Golden Sun 2 from GS1.

Consider this a formal request for a "How Do You Make a Mediocre Sequel" followup video, featuring Banjo-Tooie.

TTYD and Half-Life 2 will always be the most near-perfect sequels to their predecessors in my eyes

"Hylics 2" Is an incredible sequel to the first "Hylics". The dev Mason Lindroth made everything better the story, gameplay, the stop-motion animation, and the music which just got an expansion "Moonage Lobotomy" which is fantastic. Just all round a great sequel.

Bug Fables and Sly 3 are my go to for this sort of thing. Bug Fables improved everything in the paper Mario formula with every similar mechanic it copied over. Cooking is even more of a breeze, backtracking is super easy and you unlock things as you go when you need it. Creepy Steeple, and Shy Guys Toy Box and their backtracking aggrivation just don't exist. The party system is way more refined and 3 instead of 2 adds way more elements of strategy. Each party member being distinct w development helps a ton too. Its my favorite game of all time right now for a good reason. So many little qol updates that make the experience just amazing. Sly 3 is my favorite of the sly games. I know most people say 2 was the peak, but I disagree. While its plot was great and there were notable upgrades to sly 1, 3 refined it even more so with its only major problem being a lack of clue bottles. The writing is at its best and the plot is tight. Nothing outstays its welcome (did Jean and Rahsaan need 2 chapters each???) I also found myself enjoying the gameplay way more in 3 as there's a few sections in 2 that just suck on a replay every time. Sly 3 takes was wasn't broken from 2 and then adds new things only when necessary and it totally works 99% of the time.

You could prob do an entire separate video on JROG sequels. From franchises that keep improving like Persona, Shin Megani Tensei, and Disegia, to the dozens that tried to make the transition from turn based to action RPG, and classic long standing franchises like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

Your videos always make me want to get new games LOL

locoroco 2 comes to my mind. it took the original game's incredibly solid gameplay foundations and built a world around it, with its lore and story instead of being just an abstract collection of levels. plus the crafting and metroidvania-like mechanics actually pushed you, without ever forcing you, to do the levels again, finding all the collectables and beating your high scores. it's such a complete esperience that made the first game just obsolete in my eyes.

The first sequels that come to my mind are Kingdom Hearts 2 and Portal 2, which just so happen to be 2 of my favorite games of all time!

not sure if this would count but Rhombus of Ruin was also really good. It was a pretty short game, mostly to test out VR mechanics and shit but it was so good and actually had impact on the story for Psychonauts 2. I'm not really sure how the controls are though mostly because I don't have a VR headset but to those who have VR and have played it, do tell me how it was!

Sweet Monkey Ball music in the background 👍

For a sequel, assuming the first game was at least good, I would use a general rule of thumb and go for quality of life improvements and more polish first. Then I would add a couple to mechanics so the gameplay is expanded. Everything else depends on the genre of the game. If it's a narrative-heavy game, dive deeper into the struggles of the characters and touch on deep topics, etc. A great example I can think of is Pokemon Gold/Silver, basically improving in every aspect of the original game: more Pokemon, a new region (while keeping the original one), expanded story, better graphics, and sound design, etc. Another example of a great sequel would be Super Smash Bros Melee. The jump from the original to Melee is astronomical. Many types of single-player activities were added, tons of collectibles, unlockable characters, stages, and way better graphics. Also, added a lot of mechanics that, while some not intended by the developers, made the game one of the most played at a competitive level to this very day.

A good one: Paper Mario TTYD versus two of it's sequels: Super Paper Mario, which took a wild spin, and Sticker Stars, which is a huge failure to capture what the original was about. An interest case of sequels.

Pokemon Gold and Silver are amazing improvements to Red and Blue/Green I love those sequels, both og and remakes

One thing I appreciate about Kingdom Hearts 2 is how much smoother it feels. One of the biggest issues for the original Kingdom Hearts 1 is the unskippable cutscenes. These made losing to a hard boss pretty punishing, because you had to watch the cutscene again... and again... and again... (I'm looking at you, Dragon Maleficent!) This was fixed in Final Mix and later installments. In addition, KH2 fixed the magic system, so you can't just spam Cure. It expanded the Gummi Ship system, something that felt like wasted potential in KH1. It also improved on the progression system for movement. In KH1, you got Dodge Roll, High Jump, and Glide, and that's it. In KH2, you get several upgrades as the game goes on, giving you that sense of "overpowered" at the end of the game that is so, SO satisfying. In all, KH2 is, in my opinion, the overall best game in a great series.

Someone in Steam reviews for Psychonauts 2: "It's the Shrek 2 of gaming."

Refinement/expansion sequels - I think Sims 2 is one of my favourites here. The original Sims caught on for good reason, but mechanically it wants to be entirely around crises management (at least, in the base game) - find an equilibrium that has enough room for development to progress your Sim to the next promotion criteria, get a promotion which results in your sim having more money... And a completely different work schedule which often requires going to work a few hours after getting home leading to you needing to deal with another crisis throwing your equilibrium completely out of whack before you can even find a new one for that sim. Sims 2 really nails down what the fun in the sims is (aside 'drowning people by removing pool ladders') - telling stories - and adds mechanics to enable that better - ageing, the wants/fears system (fears got dropped for 3, wants and aspirations got further refined) that mechanically incentivizes you to do that. (Sims 3... Was a sideways step there, for me, it's harder to do some kinds of story because the game poorly handles swapping between households, mid file, but locations outside of the house being loaded in the same map as the house means that storytelling within a single household was better integrated. The loading times when you got more than about 2-3 expansions just got silly, though.) Sidestep sequels - I'm going to go with Startopia as my example. What's it a sequel to? Theme Hospital. Sort of. It's an early example of 'half a studio leaving en mass due to EA buying the studio they work for and forming a new studio' and in tone and mechanics it feels like What The Theme Hospital Devs Did Next, and I think shares more DNA with theme hospital than Dungeon Keeper does. And one of the early levels in the campaign, the one that introduces the greys, feels like 'Theme Hospital In Miniature' since it's focused around the Grey's core building of 'they run the med-bay' - Cure 100 patients before 10 die before any of the game's other mechanics are around to distract you so you're just focusing on keeping your Grey workers happy while curing a bunch of patients.

Drop some bad sequels in the replies here! It would be a pretty fun not only talk about sequels that understood the original and improved on it, but also those that didn’t and pushed the franchise in a weird direction.

Honestly, some really great sequels you could add to this video's 'sequel' were already shown; Sonic 2 and Metroid Prime 2, for example. Speaking of which, it's easy to see how much Metroid has improved and evolved with each sequel (maybe not so much the second one, but that's more due to the Game Boy's limitations).

The praise on the improvements between Psychonauts and its sequel kinda makes me hope they go back and make a "Psychonauts 1.5", which takes the Psychonauts 2 engine and aesthetic, and recreate the original to create a more enjoyable experience for new players, without making returning players feel it's just a hd paint on the original with one or two quality of life changes, like the auto target. I'm not sure how they could do it, but I think it would be cool, would be enjoyable to play both for the first time, I was really interested in the game when I saw a streamer play the first bit (basically up to the tutorial for pyrokinesis iirc), and something like that could be cool to bring even more players in

Arc the Lad 2 comes to mind. There are 3 games (I repeat : there are ONLY THREE games !) and the second one is the most highly regarded.

I think the Trails series does amazing sequels, they add new gameplays mechanics that are also attached to the story and helps to keep the games interesting, along with a story that becomes even better that the first game (the first game of each arc it's like a long prologue to set up the world and characters, and then go wild with story, drama and gameplay). I really loved Cold Steel 2 for adding the mecha battles and the arcus improvements, along with the ride in motorbike, it's like exploring Erebonia again but different, and Sky 2 was a great sequel with new gameplay and the best story so far of the saga (I haven't played CS 3 and 4 and Azure). Falcom really puts heart and love with this saga

Trials of mana fixed every single issue i had with secret. Just a better game overall imo, more replayable, and visually beautiful.

One of the most impressive sequels to me is Klonoa 2, and a lot of that is because of how complete the first Klonoa is. It pretty much exhausted every scenario for the mechanics without repeating itself, and that's the biggest reason I keep replaying the thing. That combined with the crazy woooaah twist ending made me think that Klonoa 2 would feel super redundant because I couldn't really imagine what else to do with the game. Yet somehow Klonoa 2 sticks the landing and possibly even better than it's predecessor. On the most basic level it is clear that the game has added new enemies which each vary up the game in all of the best ways, forcing you to approach stages in fresh ways that you wouldn't get in the previous game. There has also been an increased emphasis on next-gen-in-2001 spectacle that lends the game an even stronger cinematic flair than the previous game. Obviously the environments can't help but feel a bit dated here and there, but the game more than makes up for it in scale, which lends it a decidedly different feel than the previous game. The levels in the previous game were pretty small in terms of actual on-screen geometry, which granted is certainly a concession to keep 60fps at least to some degree, but I think it also forwards the dream-like atmosphere. Klonoa 2 doesn't have this and thus can't help but loose a degree charm but I think it's admirable how the game still has that abstract dream-like feel in it's environments while also managing to show off the artist's prowess to this degree. It communicates those same emotions despite the changes and I think that goes for the whole game, really. The story is a quite literally about emotions, and the way the game presents it makes it feel kinda down and melancholic which, again, can't help but loose a bit of charm from the last game, but it still lifts the game up in a bold new way. I keep saying "feel" and for a good reason. I, uh, feel like that's the most important thing to making a sequel justified and fresh. I'm not the kind-of person who subscribes to the Mega Man type of sequel, where the only real factor in me deciding which to replay is "which one do I like the most?" Yakuza is about as iterative as it gets but I'm fine with it there because each game feels sufficiently different. Also there should totally be a Design Doc video on Devil May Cry 2 that'd be great

Would you count Ocarina of Time as a sequel to Link to the Past, Doc? I'd love to see you talk about the 2D and 3D Zelda games and their respective strengths and weaknesses at some point.

I really hope that Psychonauts 3 realeases someday

Bug Fables, though. Goddamn. What a great spiritual successor. It took everything about og Paper Mario and developed in it in great ways. In terms of literal sequels, Smash Bros. Melee was so impressive for its day, in and of itself, but was SUCH a leap over its predecessor despite not that long a gap inbetween.

Feel like there is a lot more to Cassie's library than just it being a library, what with how connected the books are to each part of her life, the focus on the concept of archetypes with the new Psi-Power Mental Projection, and the area itself is portrayed nicely what with the inky waters and many characters representative of the books she collected. It may be the most simple concept used to portray a character, but I rather a simple concept done well than a complex one done poorly, and Cassie's Collection is a simple but good representation of who Cassie is. Otherwise, this was a great video about improving upon sequels.

Personally, I think that changing the entire style of a game can make or break a sequel. A few examples I've noticed were with Risk of Rain and Helldivers, where going from 2D and top-down respectively to third person shooters made the game infinitely more fun while keeping the soul of the original. With Risk of Rain specifically, they did a good and bad sequel, with Returns feeling like a "same game more stuff" sequel and RoR2 feeling more like a faithful reboot.

I’d like to see what you have to say about paper Mario as a whole(do it however you wish) and then talk about one or more of it’s spiritual successors. I understand if you can’t though.

Both Psychonauts games blew my mind. I loved both stories and I'm not sure which game was better. (Milkman is still best level tho. lol)

I don't like how psychonauts 2 took away from some of the abilities though. Like the float from levitation is objectively worse. It fizzles out. And from my experience you MAAAAYBE can use it to cheese something, but most of the times it just makes normal platforming less fun. Like I get giving limitations but like I honestly loved the flying mechnic in yooka laylee, the pure freedom of it. The fact I can't have a float that doesn't cut out after a few seconds feels so bad. Also the fact that I can't hurt any enemies with the levitation upgrade in 2, while the wreckingball in 1 would always hit an enemy. Like I get changing it a bit but I have tried, with a lot of windup, and havn't been able to hit a single enemy. It's not even like it'd be overpowered if it worked.

Sequels? I guess most of the great ones I can think of are mostly quality of life improvements. Or small mechanic changes to make it feel better to play. The etrian odyssey series is essentially the same from the original to the latest one, its really just quality of life changes. More map option, the skill tree being stream lined, and better visuals to help you see and notice shortcuts or special environment things you can interact with. As for mechanic changes side of things. I want to say monster hunter, but im gunna use resident evil instead, specifically from 4 and on since I consider the ones before to be a different type of game. Anyways starting from re4 the game became a 3rd person shooter, but it still retained alot of what made the older re games what they were with the tank controls and needing to stand still to aim and shoot. While re5 was pretty much the same thing but can be done in co-op. They soon after let you move and shoot at the same time becoming more like the standard 3rd person shooters you think of, but its with re2 remake where I feel those changes are truly used at its best. The let Leon move while aiming his guns, but to make sure you still feel the tension and make sure you are still considering when you are aiming. They have Leon move slowly. Preserving some of what made old re old re, but also giving you the ability to do things you would expect for modern games. Add on a map that actively changes as you explore it and even labeling doors that are locked blocked and even the item you need to open said doors and it all becomes pretty friendly to first time players who may rely on the map way more if they need it.

I think it would be interesting to look at games that were very different from their predecessors, like Sly 2 or Jak 2. How they stayed the same, what was thrown out, and why.

Sequels are great, but is there going to be a video about remakes/remasters? I'm thinking things like Pokémon, comparing both remakes like Red/Blue into FireRed/LeafGreen and further into Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee. There's also Pokémon's "third versions", like Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald, where the existing game is remade with enhanced elements and story tweaks. Not quite a sequel, but also not a complete remake. How does one even decide if a game needs to be remade? What distinguishes a remake from a port or remaster? How faithful do the remakes need to be and how much can they add? Do you use a remake as a chance to do all the things you didn't get to do in the original? Do you simply want to breathe new life into an old favorite? Are there cases where a remake is a bad thing? (Warcraft 3's remaster actually ruined a lot of what made the original great, like worse storytelling, legal nonsense in the editor, and the fact that it replaced the original so you can't even go back and play the old version) I'd love to see your take on this recent trend of re-releasing old classics with a new paint job, rather than creating new games or sequels.

It's not quite the same problem as making that first sequel, but the longer I continue into my career, the more I am impressed by series that release a new installment that totally innovates on the original mechanics and adds something new. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Fire Emblem: Three Houses come to mind as recent successes that elevate an already stellar legacy. BTW, not sure if I've said this before, but as a professional UI Artist, your channel gives me life. I can easily point friends who are unfamiliar with the industry to your videos and tell them "that's what I do, right there".

While this is a great video as usual, I think that some of the background to the production of Psychonauts wasn't all that relevant to the rest of the video. I think that time could've been better spent on another deeper example or some quick shallower ones. Of course, I realize that that probably takes more work. Keep up the good work.

Little Nightmares 2 is a sequel that when compared to Little Nightmares is similar to Mini Motorways compared to Mini Metro