One i NEVER understood was the start of Super Metroid since that literally takes place right after Metroid 2 and yet Samus starts with a basic Power Suit and Power Beam with no explanation at all
speaking of megaman, in megaman 9 megaman doesnt have his slide and charge shot for no reason, also what happens to all the armor upgrades for megaman x in each game ?
@@rossman8919 If i recall it's canon that X aside from his dash upgrade in X1 removes his gained weapons and armour parts because he fears he'll get too powerful
No More Heroes 3/ Travis Strikes Again. Travis got a sweet twin blade katana in 2 as well as the katanas he got in NMH1 and 2 but after that he just decides to use the weakest one for both TSA and NMH3 especially with an incoming alien invasion. That just seems kind of stupid if you ask me.
seeing Roll say she sold all of Megaman's weapons immediately made me think of the Devil May Cry series because the very reason you don't have all the weapons from the previous game is because Dante sells the weapons, which is so funny to me not only because despite him selling the weapons he is still basically broke but the idea of some random getting a super powerful demon weapon for probably the cost of a medium-large pizza is just as if not more funny
Dante's financial woes are completely self-imposed. Anytime he gets money, he sends it to people displaced by Demons, like Grue's family or Enzo, after he lost his arm. He doesn't have any money because he doesn't care about money. In DMC1, you come across chests filled with gold. Dante's reaction is, "There's treasure here, but nothing that can be used as weapons."
@@nicholasfournier9842 as dumb as a lot of people felt it was, i love dante's coinflips in 2, i absolutely love the idea of him having already made up his mind on helping and just kind of playing the worlds smallest heel
@@ThatRandomDude204 it's great, its rough that the game has some cool enemy designs and ideas but they didn't get any time to shine or be reused for anything, but I do be loving Dante and Lucia for being great characters
GoW II's reset is perfect because it doesn't feel like the devs forcing it for gameplay reasons. It feels fully in character for Zeus to do, and sets into motion all of the events of not only the game, but the next game as well. I also love how your abilities get replaced by Titan themed abilities instead of God themes abilities, as you work with Gaia to get your revenge. Ie, in God of War I you had the Rage of Olympus ability, but in GoW II you unlock the Rage of the Titans ability. I'm fully willing to forgive it because of how natural it feels and how perfectly it sets up GoW II and III's stories.
@@CaptainEffort He pretty much lose everything except the wings and Golden Fleece, even the Blades of Athena got turned into rust before Athena repaired it into the Blades of Exile
Then there's Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel, Banjo-Tooie which does the opposite. Banjo-Kazooie sees Banjo and Kazooie start with a basic moveset. By the end, Banjo-Kazooie feel relatively kitted out, able to use eggs, fly, jump high, and more. Then Banjo-Tooie starts with the duo KEEPING every single move learned from the previous game immediately usable right from the start, and they learn even crazier moves and abilities throughout that game too.
And may i say, the game does that flawlessly. Until you get to use the upgrades significantly, you already had a large tutorial area / jinjo village and before stage 1, which has you solving basic puzzles with the toolset from kazooie, forcing new players to learn it, and refreshing old players memory. Thank you, botles ghost.
Then there's nuts and bolts, where they got waay too abstract with the concept of a sequel. The worst part about nuts and bolts is that it's actually a great game that pioneered many things in the build and battle genre.(haven't seen anything like it since) only Banjo Kazooi was never anywhere near that genre, so the reaction to it makes sense. It's like trying to introduce Civilization 7 as a call of duty sequel, no matter how good it is, thats not what your audience was looking for.
@@entrippyZThe sad thing is I don't think it was what Rare wanted to make, I'm pretty sure the Game Master was meant to be a stand-in for Microsoft meddling
One game that does a reset really well is INfamous 2. In the first game, Cole builds up his super powers due to the machinations of the first games main antagonist. It is revealed at the end of the game that the main antagonist of the first game was preparing Cole to stop an all powerful entity simply called 'The Beast', where all the horrible things the final boss does was to make sure Cole could defeat this 'beast' when he finally arrives. So the start of the second game begins with the Beast arriving in the city with Cole rushing to go and fight it, having all the abilities from the first game and...he loses. He throws everything he had at the Beast and not only does it not work as The Beast just regenerates from all the damage, it even grabs Cole and absorbs his power, resetting Cole to level one metaphorically. This opening validates the first game's final boss' fear of the Beast because even with being fully upgraded and strong, you can't defeat the Beast and he even depowers you. The fears were justified and a very powerful threat brought you back to zero, not some random thing that was never established.
I think Psychonauts 2 is an effective example of (sort of) avoiding a reset. It lets you play with the best abilities in the first game right from the get-go, and they feel way better to use, too. You get little briefings on how to use each one as you go through the first level, and after that, they trust you to use everything as you see fit. It does take away a few powers that were in the original, like the shield or invisibility, but those were so situational that you hardly miss them in the sequel anyway. It was a pleasant surprise when I was expecting them to have some reason that you suddenly can't use anything you learned in the predecessor.
I guess thats one way of doing it. Though I like that every-time Sora relearns his abilities, he improves on them, making it feel like he is getting stronger despite losing all his moves each time.
I personally really liked how Metroid Fusion handled it. Samus' loss of power is entirely self-inflicted. If she didn't eradicate all the metroid, then the X would have never invaded her bodies so she would have never lost her Suit. Personally i didn't really like how little they explored how Samus felt about losing the suit, the last gift of her adoptive father, but that's a matter of taste
Samus still has the suit in Fusion, the Federation just cut off most of the upper layers to mitigate her X infection. And those layers are regrowing in Dread, as mentioned in prerelease material.
I like how Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided justify their RPG upgrade systems in-universe. Adam Jensen suffered severe physical trauma prior to his cybernetic augmentation, and his brain and nervous system steadily adjusting to his cybernetic parts across the narrative/gameplay is a clever contextual way to explain XP and unlocking new abilities.
Meanwhile Pillars of Eternity 2 be like: "Remember that giant statue buried below your castle? Yeah, a fucking god who was supposed to be dead just possessed it and started walking. It destroyed e everything you had, killing you and over 300 people in the process. Oh, it also absorbed half of your soul, that's why when I send you back to your body you'll feel weaker "
It's funny, I feel like I must have been one of the only kids to have read in a magazine that they were making chain of memories and got my dad to buy it for my 11th birthday. I was never confused about what had happened between the two games, but it does suck that it took me reading a magazine to figure out there was a sequel.
Shadow Hearts did a great power reset. You had this thing called the Mistletoe shoved into your body and it was meant to basically kill you but instead it closes off all the parts of your soul that you developed in the first game. The game gave you a plot based reason to find out what happened to you. You aren't the kindest guy, but you're also not a BAD guy. You are deeply flawed and the Mistletoe takes your soul back to a point before you had all the internal growth. So not only do you have to regrow your powers but also come face to face with MORE inner demons because of the choices you made in the first one. Shadow Hearts 1 & 2 are some of the best and most underrated turn based RPGs!
the battle themes from those two games (and penny blood) go harder than they need to, but also props to those games for being the first turn based RPGs to make me scared of the enemies designs, idr count parasite eve but yeesh, some of those enemies
It's kind of a halfway point though. Aloy accidentally dropped all her gear in a ditch or whatever, but you do have all the skill tree unlocks from the first game by default.
They’ve done sequel resets pretty much every Ratchet & Clank game, but to be honest I’m never really mad about it cause it just makes me look forward to what weapons they’ll give me this time, the evolutions and modifications they may hold, that said one of my personal favorites funnily enough might’ve been the most low effort in Deadlocked with the weapons that had the modifications you could use on every weapon for different damage types
Ironicaly, the transition from God of war 2018 to God of war ragnarok is one of my favourite. During 2018, we collect new weapons, tools, uprades and artifacts. We rise to a high level, but not the highest (lore wise). When we come back in Ragnarok, we kept all our weapons and artifacts. The even brought back some "metroidvania locked doors" from the first game that needed some special artifacts but now it's just trivial since we already possess it. It feels great to know that all my efforts spent exploring the 9 realms are still useful in the sequel. There are some shenanigans to still make us lvl 1 game wise, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like I could just take on a major god from the start. Lovely
The kingdom hearts thing goes one step further: they dont just make a game justifying the reset, they then give sora CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT based around the reset (and all subsequent ones via dreams, norting, etc). Sora has actual character stuff going on because of the toll having to relearn everything takes on his self esteem and its kinda neat
chain of memories plot is one i absolutely love, but it's also a game i replay yearly; I've gotten to the point when giving a rough synopsis of the game it's usually just saying "Sora gets gaslit by an E-Girl." It's really nice to see that while Sora did get a reset going from 1 > 2, you can still see some adaptations of certain abilities he used to have in his more advanced moveset- if you want the real KH3 reset experience though, disable all abilities and play like it's KH1
This is why deadspace 2 impresses me so much. Your weapons and armour, while not being entirely what they were before, retain some of the strength they had. Like how starting oxygen in DS2 is the maz oxygen in DS1. And you can upgrade them further to make your weapons and armour even further to be even stronger than last time. To balance this, they added new enemies, more enemies per room, and had Isaac just having to deal with more stuff in general. They bring you back down, not by removing your powers, but by raising the enemies to your level. It is genius.
I wanna add one: You have a really cool beam saber by the end of No More Heroes 1 - you unlocked 3 after your base. In No More Heroes 2? You still have your base, but your first unlocked beam katana is a renamed version of the third katana from nmh1, with 2 new ones unlockable. By the final games, Travis is so used to beam katana’s that he doesn’t actually need to get any new ones
Gothic 3 made it with a funny twist - a good character (for Gothic2 standards) with 100 Strength/Dexterity and decent weapon is just a starting LVL1 character in G3. And your inventory and armors? Stolen by pirates - the ship that took you to final map in G2 is gone along with treasures and armors. And then there's Eye of Beholder trilogy along with Wizardry 6-7-8 where you can import the whole team to the next game(s).
The Bard's Tale Trilogy also did that. You can import your team wholesale from one game to the next and breeze through a certain amount of the content that was designed to powerlevel new characters. That's why there's a super powerful weapon hidden near the final boss of game 1 ;)
I always believed the company is in problems because olimar was gone for a whole month, it gives the game a reason for going with the idea of coming back to the planet
Meanwhile, in the Trails series: Yeah you get to keep your levels, skills and quartz, but we raised the ceiling so your endgame gear gets outclassed after chapter 1
For me, KH3 was the most egregious. Not only is there no reason for Donald and Goofy to be rested, but they keep emphasizing how weak you are in a mission where you're fighting GOD ENSLAVING TITANS! Big Hero 6 should've been the first world imo, having you relearn stuff next to a bunch of other newbies would've been much more fitting. Edit: 3D is up there as well for having Yensid rid you of your stuff b4 a literal war against the Darkside for your masters exam, ESPECIALLY when it's so different from the one in BBS
Yep KH3 and 3D were so incredibly stupid with the power reset reasons. 3D especially because at least 3 had the excuse, stupid as it was, of the ending of 3D as a 'reason' for why Sora lost all his power yet again. But Yensid stripping you of all your power for no reason and having you 'learn from scratch' is just idiotic, because they're both self taught and Yensid if giving precisely zero instruction for helping them actually learn proper forms for combat and magic, so they're just having to learn self taught yet again
@@MarkofWisdom The power reset in 3D Happens because they're practicaly sent back in time into their younger bodies It makes sense to strip them of their powers, because they are the bodies of them at the time before KH1 even happened They HAD to lose their powers, they couldn't keep em, and they couldn't travel through the sleeping worlds without that
@@julienserriere2395 It's not that nothing happened Sure he was asleep, but a part of him/his heart was still sent back in time, it was only his physical body in the PRESENT that was asleep After that, his soul/heart/whatever got nearly taken over by Xehanort, and during that process Xehanort was stripping him of all his powers, presumably to give him more "suitable" powers as one of the 13 darknesses
As a whole though, I've liked how the series has gone with these resets. Sure, Sora gets a _statistical_ reset for every title, but watching the animations and looking at abilities it becomes clear that in every game Sora has become more capable. eg. combos flow a lot better in 2, and in 3 Sora uses a discount version of flowmotion despite that actual ability only being usable in the Sleeping Worlds iirc.
My favorite sequel reset is Fire emblem Radiant dawn. The returning characters from Path of Radiance are all promoted, competent fighters when you meet up with them again, and transfer bonuses make that even nicer. The powering down effect is the fact that the enemies now a more dangerous foe than the last game, and will require even more growth.
Atelia Ryza's sequels don't even start you off at level 1, in the second game you're in a new region with new alchemy recipes to discover and the new combat mechanics get across that she's somewhat experienced in fighting, the 3rd game from memory does the same, but because you're back in your home region you already have a bunch of alchemy recipes unlocked. That just blew me away, a sequel that doesn't start you back at level one what actually shocking to me.
The first thing that came to my mind at the start of the video was the original ratchet and clank trilogy too haha, it's weird that he couldn't bring any weapon, but they brought the swing shot and the grind boots, and left them in Clank's apartment Edit: at least when you rescue Clank he already has the helipack, thrusterpack and hydropack
Put me in the club for "I played KH2 as a tween and also had no idea there was a KH1.5 on a completely unrelated platform until at least 3 years later and was thoroughly confused by the beginning".
Speaking of mass effect, from 1 to 2 they reset EVERYTHING, new ship, new crew aside from 2 people, new employer, you could even completely redo your first game choices, down to your character's gender and appearance. Then, me 3 does not reset ANYTHING. Same ship, same level, same powers, almost the same crew from the first game, surprisingly, back to the alliance instead of Cerberus...it's a pretty interesting journey.
They did get rid of all your weapons and armor though. I joke about System Alliance selling it off because that's how you get it back even stuff that shouldn't be on the open market stuff that was made for Shepard specifically.
Playing King Hearts II it seemed kinda obvious WHY somebody would want to brainwash, de-power, and contain Sora, like any Hero he had the potential to wreck somebody's (er, nobody's) evil plans. The question of HOW didn't seem as important, especially since that universe already has lots of magics based around the inner workings of a person's soul/mind, and the nobodies seemed like a powerful faction. I said I would play KH3 when it came out, but it feels necessary to play all of side games, so I am not sure if I will every actually play any Kingdom Hearts again despite liking the series.
Shiren 4 and 5 kinda play around with this. In 4, you're handed a magical necklace which allows the protagonist, Shiren, to harness the powers of night to cast special abilities, and he's able to kit out his necklace with whatever he wants. After the events of 4, he goes on another adventure in GB2/DS2, which took place in a desert and had no nighttime to use the magic with. By the time Shiren arrives at the Tower of Fate for 5 and he's about to encounter nighttime again, his travel buddy, Koppa, mentions that they already possess the necklace to harness the night power. However, the desert time in GB2 results in the necklace being overloaded with sand, and resetting Shiren's kit back to basics and have him relearn night magic to make a new skillset. This is on top of Shiren's natural habit of being reset to level 1 after leaving the dungeons.
@@AeirEclipseHayastin Ys isn't much better about that since they are pretty constrained in how much narrative time they have for Adol to adventure. It's been set in stone for a long time that Adol left his mountain surrounded village in Europa at 16, being 17 by the time he got to Esteria for the adventures in the actual Kingdom of Ys; and that he retires in his mid-late 50's to write his memoirs (Ys as an IP has been framed as Adol's adventures recounted through his travel journals since the PC-88 release of Ys 1) and he dies at 63 where it's currently presumed he died in an unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole. So they keep new sticking new adventures in random points while Adol's still in his most prime of youth...nevermind he's currently 24 as of the furthest set game, which is Ys 9...because Ys 10 happens after Ys 2... 1, 2, 10, 4, 3, 5, 8, 6, 7, 9 is the current order, with Ys 1, 2, and 10 all happening within one year.
Honestly my favourite "reset" a sequal has would be Path of Radience to Radiant dawn where the units you promoted, level capped and had capped stats would get transfer bonuses going into the sequal game in the form of a boost to the capped stats and a weapon exp boost aswell (it also helps that the units are generally better too in that game too compared to others)
Which is also not overpowered, given how huge the game is, how gaining XP is relative to current level, and how you can usually cap them eitherway through base exp.
If you think MegaMan Legends was bad, classic MegaMan and MegaMan X NEVER explain why MegaMan loses all the boss weapons he took from the previous game. Never. Not once. You are literally just expected to accept that you start every game with just the Buster and a prayer. And this trend continues in the Battle Network games. None of the battle chips you earned in previous games get to carry over, and it's NEVER explained why.
Sometimes I try to think of game design ideas in my free time (despite not having the programming skill or ambition to make them reality), and one idea I've always been curious to see made was a power regression system. Most games get progressively more difficult by adding stronger enemies to counteract the new powers/weapons a player gains throughout their journey. I was wondering if it would be possible to have enemies that are relatively similar in strength throughout the story, but you start with all the power and abilities and lose them through the game. This escalates the difficulty by tying an increasing amount of hands behind your back. You can even add strategy to it by allowing people to choose what abilities they want to lose in what order, although forcing the order could be a design choice as well. By the time you reach the final boss, you will hopefully be skilled enough that you're able to defeat him despite the lack of your training wheels. People already do this to an extent when replaying games with challenge runs (pokemon nuzlockes, "no items" runs, "no healing" runs, etc.), so I would assume there would be a way to bake it into a proper gameplay system. This video made me realize that a power regression could *potentially* be the perfect solution for sequel resets. Instead of losing all the Mcguffins you spent the first game collecting at the beginning, instead you slowly reset your power through the entirety of the sequel by giving your Mcguffins away (maybe leaving them behind to protect the places you save after you move on, idk). Then if they make a third entry in the series, viola it's already reset the power to do a standard progression. I suppose if people like the power regression system of the second more, you might be stuck with a power reset problem again in the opposite direction (how did you get your power back in between games?). Oh well, I guess no solution is perfect. I don't know of any specific games that have a power regression system in them, but if anybody knows please tell me. I'd be curious to see how they play in reality.
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption has it but it’s fairly short, it’s a boss rush and each boss you defeat removes some abilities or powers you have. You can defeat them in any order so you can kinda choose what you want to deal with when you’re stronger and what downsides you stack on first. Honestly it’s probably the most basic you could go with the idea and still have it be fun. Sifu also has something like power regression but I don’t really know much about how it works.
How Ys handles resets is always funny. Adol goes onto a ship. Ship sinks. Adol loses all his equipments and items. It became a running gag to the point where characters are commenting on that in some games.
He also tends to kill or destroy whatever was powering his new trinkets by the end of the adventure anyway. Like all the magic of Ys stops existing when Darm was killed and the Goddesses reseal the Black Pearl with themselves- so the cool magic of the Priests of Ys can't be used anymore, and Cleria lost all its magical properties and turned back into the normal, base silver Cleria was made from.
I would have loved for you to touch on how the .hack series approached sequels beyond just power scaling to your end game level but actually giving you a full sequel that continues directly from where you left off so even if you were at max level, you still stay overpowered. It presents a sequel exactly how an expansion to an MMO would be which is such a flavor win because the game is supposed to feel like an MMO. It’s beautifully handled.
@yourdad5799 In Xenoblade 2 at the end you hear of what happens in 1, implying both games happen in paralel universes, and Xenoblade 3 is a direct continuation of BOTH games, as the universes stopped being paralel ones and converged into one, with cathastrofic consequences.
@yourdad5799 All of them except X do. 1 and 2 occur at the same time while 3 is a direct sequel to both. You even get to have both Shulk and Rex in your party (at the same time) in the DLC of XC3. Oh, and that same DLC confirms that the Xenoblade series takes place in the larger Xenosaga universe.
This reminds me of something I always thought was neat when I was a kid. In the original Spyro trilogy you keep your power ups. In the first game well you didn't get any, but in the second you gain some new little tricks like learning how to dive, head smash rocks . In the third game you keep all those abilities. It's not much sure but I just think it was neat as a kid.
This is done really well by some games in the same game. Take Fallout, for example, in the begin of Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta, you are abducted by aliens and while unconscious they strip you of everything, making you have to start from scratch with the gear you find until you get your stuff back; in The Pitt you have to give up everything to get in and can only recover your stuff later. In New Vegas you have to only have so much weight going into Honest Hearts; get abducted and stripped in Dead Money; in Old World Blues you get teleported, stripped and they even take your brain, heart, and spine (your stuff is right nearby to recover though).
Honorable mention to ARPG "The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing" where the second game starts with your endgame char from the first and the third starts with your save from the second. You could always roll anew, but it carried over if you wanted. Same level and gear, 30 more levels.
and then there's Banjo Tooie my beloved, the holy grail of "you get to keep all of your powers, and then unlock so much more that the previous powers are literally treated like a tutorial in comparison"
Nobody talking about Tears of the Kingdom is crazy, you're still pretty squishy by the end of BotW, so it really makes no sense why we needed to go back just to be even squishier by comparison in TotK.
I only played one golden sun game, the one with the black holes popping up, and it soured the whole series for me. It stays with basically a fetch quest to grab the glider you lost and when you finally do at the end of the game, it ends. It didn't feel like it had stakes. Yes, you get drawn into all these world events, but it never felt like they mattered to me. It felt more like a last-minute road block. "Oh, there's war and political intrigued going on? Let me solve it so I can get my damn kite back or dad's gonna get the belt" and then at the end you come home and all these black holes you've been forced to deal with, ones absorbed your home and family. Now you might be thinking "wow what a great way to set up the final boss and explain their motives and set up states." Nope. It ends there. No conclusion, no explanation on what caused them or if everyone's okay. Just ends. It's like if Natasha Preston made a video game, but instead of having a great build-up and let down ending, the whole thing is a let down from start to finish. Hell, I couldn't tell you any of the characters except one was a wolf girl named Svetla or something, and that's only because I love werewolves, so I took to her immediately. I Remember thinking if the whole series is like this I dint want to play another which must have been a common thought cause as far as I know they never made another after that.
The first two games, Broken Seal and Lost age (GS1 and 2 in english) are very good even today, though they do show their age with lack of some QOL stuff like it defaulting to defending if a character's target is dead rather than switching to a new target. There is much less idiocy in those games with there being an overarching story/plot you're pursuing the entire time, with there being little side episodes along the way like a cursed forest. GS1 does end very, very abruptly but there is at least the reason for it being cartridge size limitations rather than the stupid crap Dark Dawn pulls, and neither game have any points of no return that permanently cut off djinn or treasure you might have missed while Dark Dawn has like 3 of them
Warcraft 3 and its expansion did the trope masterfully. In the main game, Arthas the death knight, under the influence of his master, the Lich king, reached his potential by the end of the campaign. On the expansion, Arthas started out max-leveled. Then the Lich King was slowly stripped of his power and influence, and so was Arthas, who became gradually weaker throughout the story. By the end of it, he was only as powerful as he was at the beginning of the main game, but now finally with the ability to reclaim his lost power back.
Honestly, if you're playing through Megaman Battle Network it's kind of funny how he has these ridiculously overpowered Chip Folders, and Megaman has gotten to being super duper powerful and then in the next game it's like, he has a new PET, Megaman's given up his powers or something and Lan has to start over with a fresh deck and beginning chips again.
That's why I love Jedi Survivor, yeah you start with decreased health and health replenishing items, but for the most part you start with all the moveset of Jedi Fallen Order, and then the game builds on top of that
In Hero Must Die 2 your protagonist starts at the peak of his power, but gets progresively weaker since he was resurrected for a limited amount of time.
Funny thing about chain of memories........they did it again in KH3 with dream drop distance and Birth By Sleep. Not only does Sora get reset AGAIN. but PLOT CRITICAL DETAILS regarding the story of KH3 are in DDD, and BBS. You think playing 2 is bad without playing Chain of Memories, try even COMPREHENDING 3 without DDD and BBS.
1. Playing KH2 before CoM has it's merits too, Sora is equally as confused as the player so some things just hit different. (in fact, I would argue that the week-long Roxas segment should've been moved out of the prologue to enhance that feeling, then feed the player a couple of Days as the story moves along) 2. Kratos was so depressed at the end of GoW1 he jumped from Suicide Bluffs (yes that's the name of that cliff), what part of that was worthwhile? 3. Alucard losing his equips was a reset for him, but for the player it was actually not starting the game with Bat Form, Stopwatch and they nerfed Hellfire into the ground. (Castlevania 3)
There's an odd case in God of War 3 where the game begins literally where GoW2 ended. Kratos and the Titans are fully powered and storming Mount Olympus When gameplay starts though, Kratos only has the Blades of Athena, Blade of Olympus, and 1 magic spell. Where did everything else go? All this is before he gets booted off the mountain and is officially level drained again
The previous gen Armored Core games all had a mechanic similar to the one in Golden Sun: The Lost Age where you could transfer parts you'd earned from a previous game in the generation to the next to give yourself more options in the garage from the get-go, and while they're definitely helpful to have, they actually weren't game-breakingly overpowered because of how the Armored Core games are balanced. Really ahead of their time, and I'm hoping to see the tradition continue with any potential follow-ups to AC6.
For me my favorite game series that deals with this is the trails of cold steel series cause they don't reset your level. They just throw stronger monsters in new dungeons and stronger enemies. Any old areas that exist in both games are still at the level you left them. The narrative of the game treats you like the level you are, so by the fourth game the narrative acknowledges how strong you are.
Then theres doom eternal. You keep your abilities, so you still feel like a god at first but lose your weapons but get most of them early. In exchange, the game is a fuckton harder after the 2nd level
I always thought the opening of pikmin 2 kept the tone of the first one with the humour. In pikmin 1, Olimar keeps thinking about surviving and his family but he just keeps getting useless stuff to build his ship. There are many pieces of the ship that are straight up pointless, like the comfortable seat and the geiger counter. Think about it, what's the last part of the dolphin Olimar gets? The piggy bank. Money. He was more worried about his money than returning home.
A lot of the games I played solved the problem simply by having you be another person. In Armored Core 4 Answer, you’re not the same mercenary as in 4, but you do find and fight against/with them later in the game. One of the most memorable power resets for me is Infinity Blade 2, where you start with the Infinity Blade, and some of the best armour in the game, but end up losing it later in a cutscene that also finally answers a secret that’s been going on since the first game.
You know, if I didn't just happened to be browsing the GBA games in Target while Christmas Shopping in 2004, I probably would have missed Chain Of Memories for a good...several months or so.
When it comes to power scaling, you can either up the power of the enemies or lower the power of the players. To me, the biggest issue with GoW's resets was there simply wasn't a reason for it. Kratos' enemies would be stronger as the original trilogy wore on, going from mythical creatures, to demigods, to the gods themselves. While I'll always love the original big 3, I'll never understand why they bothered to nerf Kratos when you could better explain his present weakness by simply pointing out he's a young, inexperienced god with a lot to learn coming up against greater and greater foes.
My favourite video game starts with a sequel reset. Gothic 2 is maybe one of the finest and jankiest action RPGs ever made. Tough as nails, incredibly immersive and beautifully paced. It starts with you running away from goblin and sheeps and ends with you killing an immortal undead dragon. And the journey between the two is just perfect. But its the second game of the series and they way they reset the power of main character actually makes sense. The main character was powerful in the end of the first game, but a lot of it was the magical weapon and armour he was wearing. The game ended with a Forbidden Temple TM fell on top of him and he was buried under the rubble. A month later your buddy Xardas manages you teleport you out from under the rubble, but you've spend nearly a month in coma and you lost your swanky armour and weapon, so it makes sense in both gameplay and in-world logic that you are really weak. And it really works. One of the first quests you can get is picking turnips for a farmer. You get paid in stew. In another game i will feel this is a waste of my time. In Gothic 2 its world building. You are working for the farmer because the guards in the nearby town will not let a vagabond/begger into the city. Narratively you are a nobody and the world treats you appropriately. If you are still a capable warrior the stoty would not make sense.
One of my favorite examples of sequel justifying keeping all the old skills is in banjo tooie, if you played banjo kazooie then you most likely remember every skill in that game and you have all that from the start, banjo and his bird buddy gain newer skills that allow them to progress in the game while also utilizing the older skills in various ways.
You do actually get mail from Olimar’s family in Pikmin 2, they might not have gotten to see him before he left again, but he does communicate with them
My favorite reason even though it's retroactive and not included in the games themselves is that the devs said Dante sells all his weapons between games for pizza money.
I liked that Baldur’s Gate 2 didn’t take away your levels. Losing the gear and gold collected in Baldur’s Gate 1 hurt but gave you plenty of incentive to pursue epic magic items.
I think I see why the Dragon Age series always changes the protagonist in each game instead of sticking with either the Warden, Hawke or the Inquisitor, mainly because they don’t want to go through to process of leveling up all over again in any sequel. Same could be said for the Fable series and Assassin’s Creed series.
The Legacy of Goku series of games for the Gameboy Advanced, which tells the story of DBZ, doesn’t reset you in the sequels The first game as a level cap of 25, the second a cap of 50, and the third a level cap of 200 When you finally get to play as Goku in the 2nd game (near the middle) he starts at level 35 Goku starts at level 65 in the beginning of the third game
The Mario and Luigi series has interesting resets, it’s mostly standard reset but there is always a narrative moment in each game of Mario and Luigi receiving their hammers. Superstar Saga: crafted by two hammer smiths Partners in Time: given to baby Mario and baby Luigi by two hammer bros Bowser’s Inside Story: found within Bowser among other junk he inhaled Dream Team: found someone’s lost pair of hammers, got to keep them because that person already bought replacements Brothership: they are crafted Funnily enough Paper Jam is the only game where Mario and Luigi have their hammers from the start, and despite their hammers being crafted in Brothership the hammer is an equipment piece so those handmade hammers will soon be replaced by stronger store bought hammers
Tears of the Kingdom reset is pretty good as it shows not only a new thing [Gloom] but also makes the antagonist look impossibly strong compared to you
I remember playing Banjo Tooie and being impressed by the fact that it doesn't do any of this, you start out with all the same moves you had in the original game and you get new ones throughout the game. That game went out of it's way to really feel like it takes place some time after the first game. I can't think of any more examples of the exact opposite of the topic of this video but I'm sure there's plenty more. I think maybe the Golden Sun games do it because they kinda do a Mass Effect kinda thing but I didn't really play them yet despite owning both of them so I don't know for sure
The reason why there isn't a reset between Golden Sun and The Lost Age is that TLA isn't a sequel. It's one game split over two cartridges because they couldn't fit it all on one. This is why they put so much effort into being able to transfer your characters, djinni and items over to TLA. If the GBA could have handled the game as it were ambitiously intended, you wouldn't have needed to transfer, it'd have all just been there. On that tangent, what I'd love to see is a Golden Sun remaster/remake which combines the two GBA titles into the one game they were meant to be, with some obvious QoL features added to update it for modern sensibilities.
One series that make something interesting with this concept is the trails series. In the first trilogy, Trails in the Sky, Second Chapter and The 3rd when you go from one game to the nex you keep you level, your stats and your craft (basically unique techniques of the characters that can be used to attack, defend and support) but you lose your orbal arts that is the magic system based in technology that you can equip in each character. So when you go from one game to another you have some kind of soft reset to your characters.
The reset from FC to SC is particularly well handled too Like, what do you mean I have to choose between keeping my old battle orbment or abandoning all the quartz I collected during the first game? Of course I want to keep... Wait that's that? Yeah, I remember that guy that whooped my ass at the end of the first game with strange arts that I don't have access to, what about it? Oh. Oooooh. So yes, while the game does force your hand and it kinda sucks, it also really motivates you because you got a taste of what's coming. Except this time, *you* will be the one to dish out pain to your ennemies.
@@frankieyuen9363 in regards to orbments, if I remember correctly, there was an upgraded orbment equipment in which they can upgrade and equip even stronger quartz BUT they can't use any orbments from the old one to the new one
@@carlosongxiii Yes, that's how it worked. It hooked the narrative into the reset. "Lorenz" in FC was throwing spells you could not create yourself because he had a tactical orbment even more advanced than yours...which as you were told in the SC prologue shouldn't have been possible because the sole manufacturer of tactical orbments is only just now testing models of this level, they're not formally rolled out yet- it meant the enemy either had incredibly dangerous inside access or had their own R&D on the same level, which was just as big of a deal. Estelle opts to take the new model, which would not be compatible with the old quartz, because the extra power spike was plain on its face needed.
We want to know, what's a sequel reset you can't forgive?
One i NEVER understood was the start of Super Metroid since that literally takes place right after Metroid 2 and yet Samus starts with a basic Power Suit and Power Beam with no explanation at all
speaking of megaman, in megaman 9 megaman doesnt have his slide and charge shot for no reason, also what happens to all the armor upgrades for megaman x in each game ?
@@rossman8919 If i recall it's canon that X aside from his dash upgrade in X1 removes his gained weapons and armour parts because he fears he'll get too powerful
lot of people still haven't gotten over the "sequel reset" that is MGS2 lol
No More Heroes 3/ Travis Strikes Again. Travis got a sweet twin blade katana in 2 as well as the katanas he got in NMH1 and 2 but after that he just decides to use the weakest one for both TSA and NMH3 especially with an incoming alien invasion. That just seems kind of stupid if you ask me.
seeing Roll say she sold all of Megaman's weapons immediately made me think of the Devil May Cry series because the very reason you don't have all the weapons from the previous game is because Dante sells the weapons, which is so funny to me not only because despite him selling the weapons he is still basically broke but the idea of some random getting a super powerful demon weapon for probably the cost of a medium-large pizza is just as if not more funny
Dante's financial woes are completely self-imposed. Anytime he gets money, he sends it to people displaced by Demons, like Grue's family or Enzo, after he lost his arm. He doesn't have any money because he doesn't care about money. In DMC1, you come across chests filled with gold. Dante's reaction is, "There's treasure here, but nothing that can be used as weapons."
@@nicholasfournier9842 as dumb as a lot of people felt it was, i love dante's coinflips in 2, i absolutely love the idea of him having already made up his mind on helping and just kind of playing the worlds smallest heel
@@elivcdxv1852 The best part is that the coin's both sides are heads so he's always willing to help regardless
@@ThatRandomDude204 it's great, its rough that the game has some cool enemy designs and ideas but they didn't get any time to shine or be reused for anything, but I do be loving Dante and Lucia for being great characters
GoW II's reset is perfect because it doesn't feel like the devs forcing it for gameplay reasons. It feels fully in character for Zeus to do, and sets into motion all of the events of not only the game, but the next game as well.
I also love how your abilities get replaced by Titan themed abilities instead of God themes abilities, as you work with Gaia to get your revenge. Ie, in God of War I you had the Rage of Olympus ability, but in GoW II you unlock the Rage of the Titans ability.
I'm fully willing to forgive it because of how natural it feels and how perfectly it sets up GoW II and III's stories.
And in GOW III Kratos simply loss his power by accidentally falling into the River Styx, why doesn't he use Icarus Wings to avoid it I don't know
@ Does he lose his abilities? I didn’t remember that, like he keeps is wings from GoW 2, did he lose everything else?
@@CaptainEffort He pretty much lose everything except the wings and Golden Fleece, even the Blades of Athena got turned into rust before Athena repaired it into the Blades of Exile
It did the same purpose in gow 3 with the progress you had then transition to godly items
@@CaptainEffort all titan gifts stripped
Then there's Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel, Banjo-Tooie which does the opposite. Banjo-Kazooie sees Banjo and Kazooie start with a basic moveset. By the end, Banjo-Kazooie feel relatively kitted out, able to use eggs, fly, jump high, and more. Then Banjo-Tooie starts with the duo KEEPING every single move learned from the previous game immediately usable right from the start, and they learn even crazier moves and abilities throughout that game too.
And may i say, the game does that flawlessly. Until you get to use the upgrades significantly, you already had a large tutorial area / jinjo village and before stage 1, which has you solving basic puzzles with the toolset from kazooie, forcing new players to learn it, and refreshing old players memory. Thank you, botles ghost.
Then there's nuts and bolts, where they got waay too abstract with the concept of a sequel. The worst part about nuts and bolts is that it's actually a great game that pioneered many things in the build and battle genre.(haven't seen anything like it since) only Banjo Kazooi was never anywhere near that genre, so the reaction to it makes sense. It's like trying to introduce Civilization 7 as a call of duty sequel, no matter how good it is, thats not what your audience was looking for.
The Soul Reaver Legacy of Kain games mostly do this too, sort of.
@@entrippyZThe sad thing is I don't think it was what Rare wanted to make, I'm pretty sure the Game Master was meant to be a stand-in for Microsoft meddling
I am so invested in seeing the tarny mass effect 2 and 3 playthroughs. And that little bit at the end has just doubled my investment.
Yeah at the end there I was like, wait did I miss something lol
You are talking about the remaster of 2 ya?
@@mega-eevee7no
@@BearWith_You agreed. Same lol
@@mega-eevee7 yes, so she can transfer her character with the decisions that were made to the next game.
One game that does a reset really well is INfamous 2. In the first game, Cole builds up his super powers due to the machinations of the first games main antagonist. It is revealed at the end of the game that the main antagonist of the first game was preparing Cole to stop an all powerful entity simply called 'The Beast', where all the horrible things the final boss does was to make sure Cole could defeat this 'beast' when he finally arrives.
So the start of the second game begins with the Beast arriving in the city with Cole rushing to go and fight it, having all the abilities from the first game and...he loses. He throws everything he had at the Beast and not only does it not work as The Beast just regenerates from all the damage, it even grabs Cole and absorbs his power, resetting Cole to level one metaphorically. This opening validates the first game's final boss' fear of the Beast because even with being fully upgraded and strong, you can't defeat the Beast and he even depowers you. The fears were justified and a very powerful threat brought you back to zero, not some random thing that was never established.
I really need to play those games.
I was literally just thinking this same thing as I was scrolling. Such a great game
Roll's "I sold all of your stuff because you were asleep" and "No worries, I'll repair you by putting you to sleep" has always been... Worrying.
Arkham City was an excellent example. You kept most of the abilities you gained in Asylum and gained new ones over the time.
The thing is, Batman was around for years before asylum, he should have already had all of his gear!
@@Matasuhthat’s why he calls that gear in as he needs in asylum
He was taking a normal trip to ensure joker was locked up it doesn’t stand up that he would be geared for war at that time 🤷🏻
I think Psychonauts 2 is an effective example of (sort of) avoiding a reset. It lets you play with the best abilities in the first game right from the get-go, and they feel way better to use, too. You get little briefings on how to use each one as you go through the first level, and after that, they trust you to use everything as you see fit. It does take away a few powers that were in the original, like the shield or invisibility, but those were so situational that you hardly miss them in the sequel anyway. It was a pleasant surprise when I was expecting them to have some reason that you suddenly can't use anything you learned in the predecessor.
Banjo Tooie did this, too! I guess narrative 3D platformers are great for this.
Looking back it is kinda wild that Kingdom Hearts made an entire game to explain the power reset
Twice.
1st was Chain of Memories
2nd was Dream Drop Distance
Everytime when KH goes to the handheld it is time to lose powers 😂
I guess thats one way of doing it. Though I like that every-time Sora relearns his abilities, he improves on them, making it feel like he is getting stronger despite losing all his moves each time.
And thus, it is officially Sunday.
I personally really liked how Metroid Fusion handled it. Samus' loss of power is entirely self-inflicted. If she didn't eradicate all the metroid, then the X would have never invaded her bodies so she would have never lost her Suit. Personally i didn't really like how little they explored how Samus felt about losing the suit, the last gift of her adoptive father, but that's a matter of taste
Samus still has the suit in Fusion, the Federation just cut off most of the upper layers to mitigate her X infection. And those layers are regrowing in Dread, as mentioned in prerelease material.
I like how Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided justify their RPG upgrade systems in-universe. Adam Jensen suffered severe physical trauma prior to his cybernetic augmentation, and his brain and nervous system steadily adjusting to his cybernetic parts across the narrative/gameplay is a clever contextual way to explain XP and unlocking new abilities.
Giving how much trouble the ship's busted engine gave us in MegaMan Legends 1, I was completely okay with MML2's easoning for the reset
Facts
I'm completely on board because it fits her character tropes.
Meanwhile Pillars of Eternity 2 be like: "Remember that giant statue buried below your castle? Yeah, a fucking god who was supposed to be dead just possessed it and started walking. It destroyed e everything you had, killing you and over 300 people in the process. Oh, it also absorbed half of your soul, that's why when I send you back to your body you'll feel weaker "
It's funny, I feel like I must have been one of the only kids to have read in a magazine that they were making chain of memories and got my dad to buy it for my 11th birthday. I was never confused about what had happened between the two games, but it does suck that it took me reading a magazine to figure out there was a sequel.
Shadow Hearts did a great power reset. You had this thing called the Mistletoe shoved into your body and it was meant to basically kill you but instead it closes off all the parts of your soul that you developed in the first game. The game gave you a plot based reason to find out what happened to you.
You aren't the kindest guy, but you're also not a BAD guy. You are deeply flawed and the Mistletoe takes your soul back to a point before you had all the internal growth. So not only do you have to regrow your powers but also come face to face with MORE inner demons because of the choices you made in the first one.
Shadow Hearts 1 & 2 are some of the best and most underrated turn based RPGs!
Fingers crossed for Penny Blood...
the battle themes from those two games (and penny blood) go harder than they need to, but also props to those games for being the first turn based RPGs to make me scared of the enemies designs, idr count parasite eve but yeesh, some of those enemies
I’m glad I’m learning about many games I’ve never heard of, I definitely want to look into this series
6:37 it also makes a lot of sense here that he wouldn’t see the hand slap coming since, at this point, the godly power made Kratos really cocky.
Horizon: Forbidden Wests's excuse always makes me roll my eyes
It's kind of a halfway point though. Aloy accidentally dropped all her gear in a ditch or whatever, but you do have all the skill tree unlocks from the first game by default.
Wasn't it basically that she had to travel light so she only brought what she absolutely needed?
Did she also drop her ability to whistle on the way?
They’ve done sequel resets pretty much every Ratchet & Clank game, but to be honest I’m never really mad about it cause it just makes me look forward to what weapons they’ll give me this time, the evolutions and modifications they may hold, that said one of my personal favorites funnily enough might’ve been the most low effort in Deadlocked with the weapons that had the modifications you could use on every weapon for different damage types
Ironicaly, the transition from God of war 2018 to God of war ragnarok is one of my favourite. During 2018, we collect new weapons, tools, uprades and artifacts. We rise to a high level, but not the highest (lore wise). When we come back in Ragnarok, we kept all our weapons and artifacts. The even brought back some "metroidvania locked doors" from the first game that needed some special artifacts but now it's just trivial since we already possess it. It feels great to know that all my efforts spent exploring the 9 realms are still useful in the sequel. There are some shenanigans to still make us lvl 1 game wise, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like I could just take on a major god from the start. Lovely
The kingdom hearts thing goes one step further: they dont just make a game justifying the reset, they then give sora CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT based around the reset (and all subsequent ones via dreams, norting, etc). Sora has actual character stuff going on because of the toll having to relearn everything takes on his self esteem and its kinda neat
chain of memories plot is one i absolutely love, but it's also a game i replay yearly; I've gotten to the point when giving a rough synopsis of the game it's usually just saying "Sora gets gaslit by an E-Girl." It's really nice to see that while Sora did get a reset going from 1 > 2, you can still see some adaptations of certain abilities he used to have in his more advanced moveset- if you want the real KH3 reset experience though, disable all abilities and play like it's KH1
This is why deadspace 2 impresses me so much. Your weapons and armour, while not being entirely what they were before, retain some of the strength they had. Like how starting oxygen in DS2 is the maz oxygen in DS1. And you can upgrade them further to make your weapons and armour even further to be even stronger than last time. To balance this, they added new enemies, more enemies per room, and had Isaac just having to deal with more stuff in general. They bring you back down, not by removing your powers, but by raising the enemies to your level. It is genius.
I wanna add one: You have a really cool beam saber by the end of No More Heroes 1 - you unlocked 3 after your base. In No More Heroes 2? You still have your base, but your first unlocked beam katana is a renamed version of the third katana from nmh1, with 2 new ones unlockable.
By the final games, Travis is so used to beam katana’s that he doesn’t actually need to get any new ones
Gothic 3 made it with a funny twist - a good character (for Gothic2 standards) with 100 Strength/Dexterity and decent weapon is just a starting LVL1 character in G3.
And your inventory and armors? Stolen by pirates - the ship that took you to final map in G2 is gone along with treasures and armors.
And then there's Eye of Beholder trilogy along with Wizardry 6-7-8 where you can import the whole team to the next game(s).
The Bard's Tale Trilogy also did that. You can import your team wholesale from one game to the next and breeze through a certain amount of the content that was designed to powerlevel new characters. That's why there's a super powerful weapon hidden near the final boss of game 1 ;)
I always believed the company is in problems because olimar was gone for a whole month, it gives the game a reason for going with the idea of coming back to the planet
The company is having problems because Louie ate a huge load of golden carrots he was supposed to ship somewhere.
You know it's going to be a good video when it opens with that Brawl track.
Sora might have lost his powers from KH1, but the movement, combat, and camera upgrades alone make up for it.
Meanwhile, in the Trails series: Yeah you get to keep your levels, skills and quartz, but we raised the ceiling so your endgame gear gets outclassed after chapter 1
For me, KH3 was the most egregious.
Not only is there no reason for Donald and Goofy to be rested, but they keep emphasizing how weak you are in a mission where you're fighting GOD ENSLAVING TITANS!
Big Hero 6 should've been the first world imo, having you relearn stuff next to a bunch of other newbies would've been much more fitting.
Edit: 3D is up there as well for having Yensid rid you of your stuff b4 a literal war against the Darkside for your masters exam, ESPECIALLY when it's so different from the one in BBS
Yep KH3 and 3D were so incredibly stupid with the power reset reasons. 3D especially because at least 3 had the excuse, stupid as it was, of the ending of 3D as a 'reason' for why Sora lost all his power yet again. But Yensid stripping you of all your power for no reason and having you 'learn from scratch' is just idiotic, because they're both self taught and Yensid if giving precisely zero instruction for helping them actually learn proper forms for combat and magic, so they're just having to learn self taught yet again
@@MarkofWisdom The power reset in 3D Happens because they're practicaly sent back in time into their younger bodies
It makes sense to strip them of their powers, because they are the bodies of them at the time before KH1 even happened
They HAD to lose their powers, they couldn't keep em, and they couldn't travel through the sleeping worlds without that
3D works fine... But the ending doesn't. He was just asleep, nothing happen to him but he loses his power? Don't work for me
@@julienserriere2395 It's not that nothing happened
Sure he was asleep, but a part of him/his heart was still sent back in time, it was only his physical body in the PRESENT that was asleep
After that, his soul/heart/whatever got nearly taken over by Xehanort, and during that process Xehanort was stripping him of all his powers, presumably to give him more "suitable" powers as one of the 13 darknesses
As a whole though, I've liked how the series has gone with these resets. Sure, Sora gets a _statistical_ reset for every title, but watching the animations and looking at abilities it becomes clear that in every game Sora has become more capable. eg. combos flow a lot better in 2, and in 3 Sora uses a discount version of flowmotion despite that actual ability only being usable in the Sleeping Worlds iirc.
My favorite sequel reset is Fire emblem Radiant dawn. The returning characters from Path of Radiance are all promoted, competent fighters when you meet up with them again, and transfer bonuses make that even nicer. The powering down effect is the fact that the enemies now a more dangerous foe than the last game, and will require even more growth.
This was an amazing video. Great job with narration and discussing the point from your thesis. I would love to see more of these kind of videos!
Atelia Ryza's sequels don't even start you off at level 1, in the second game you're in a new region with new alchemy recipes to discover and the new combat mechanics get across that she's somewhat experienced in fighting, the 3rd game from memory does the same, but because you're back in your home region you already have a bunch of alchemy recipes unlocked. That just blew me away, a sequel that doesn't start you back at level one what actually shocking to me.
The first thing that came to my mind at the start of the video was the original ratchet and clank trilogy too haha, it's weird that he couldn't bring any weapon, but they brought the swing shot and the grind boots, and left them in Clank's apartment
Edit: at least when you rescue Clank he already has the helipack, thrusterpack and hydropack
Playing the GS soundtrack right before showing it. That gave me the feels
I would kill tosee you two play Banjo kazooie and Banjo Tooie.
Fantastic continuation and series.
Someone who actually remembers there are Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. You are a rare breed and I respect that.
Those are still some of my favorite games ever, beaten them quite a few times
@@MarkofWisdom Mine too. Glad that I don't have to feel alone.
Put me in the club for "I played KH2 as a tween and also had no idea there was a KH1.5 on a completely unrelated platform until at least 3 years later and was thoroughly confused by the beginning".
"They were on the hook waiting for some clarity..." Going into kingdom hearts and expecting an ounce of clarity was your first mistake
Speaking of mass effect, from 1 to 2 they reset EVERYTHING, new ship, new crew aside from 2 people, new employer, you could even completely redo your first game choices, down to your character's gender and appearance. Then, me 3 does not reset ANYTHING. Same ship, same level, same powers, almost the same crew from the first game, surprisingly, back to the alliance instead of Cerberus...it's a pretty interesting journey.
They did get rid of all your weapons and armor though. I joke about System Alliance selling it off because that's how you get it back even stuff that shouldn't be on the open market stuff that was made for Shepard specifically.
Playing King Hearts II it seemed kinda obvious WHY somebody would want to brainwash, de-power, and contain Sora, like any Hero he had the potential to wreck somebody's (er, nobody's) evil plans. The question of HOW didn't seem as important, especially since that universe already has lots of magics based around the inner workings of a person's soul/mind, and the nobodies seemed like a powerful faction.
I said I would play KH3 when it came out, but it feels necessary to play all of side games, so I am not sure if I will every actually play any Kingdom Hearts again despite liking the series.
There is the collections, which include the Chain of Memories remake. But there's no denying that the collections are a massive time sink.
I'm just sitting here wondering why Death can't just yank off the powerups again, because it was that easy the first time.
First quest being some sort of protection to shield against it surprising death would be so cool
Shiren 4 and 5 kinda play around with this. In 4, you're handed a magical necklace which allows the protagonist, Shiren, to harness the powers of night to cast special abilities, and he's able to kit out his necklace with whatever he wants. After the events of 4, he goes on another adventure in GB2/DS2, which took place in a desert and had no nighttime to use the magic with.
By the time Shiren arrives at the Tower of Fate for 5 and he's about to encounter nighttime again, his travel buddy, Koppa, mentions that they already possess the necklace to harness the night power. However, the desert time in GB2 results in the necklace being overloaded with sand, and resetting Shiren's kit back to basics and have him relearn night magic to make a new skillset.
This is on top of Shiren's natural habit of being reset to level 1 after leaving the dungeons.
To say nothing of how NONE of Shiren's entries are chronologically in order.
In order of age, you have
2, 1, GB1, 6, 4, GB2, 5, 3
@@AeirEclipseHayastin Ys isn't much better about that since they are pretty constrained in how much narrative time they have for Adol to adventure. It's been set in stone for a long time that Adol left his mountain surrounded village in Europa at 16, being 17 by the time he got to Esteria for the adventures in the actual Kingdom of Ys; and that he retires in his mid-late 50's to write his memoirs (Ys as an IP has been framed as Adol's adventures recounted through his travel journals since the PC-88 release of Ys 1) and he dies at 63 where it's currently presumed he died in an unsuccessful expedition to the North Pole. So they keep new sticking new adventures in random points while Adol's still in his most prime of youth...nevermind he's currently 24 as of the furthest set game, which is Ys 9...because Ys 10 happens after Ys 2...
1, 2, 10, 4, 3, 5, 8, 6, 7, 9 is the current order, with Ys 1, 2, and 10 all happening within one year.
@@gtf234 To say nothing of how frequently Adol loses all his shit, to the point it's one of the crimes he's charged with in 9.
Honestly my favourite "reset" a sequal has would be Path of Radience to Radiant dawn where the units you promoted, level capped and had capped stats would get transfer bonuses going into the sequal game in the form of a boost to the capped stats and a weapon exp boost aswell (it also helps that the units are generally better too in that game too compared to others)
Which is also not overpowered, given how huge the game is, how gaining XP is relative to current level, and how you can usually cap them eitherway through base exp.
If you think MegaMan Legends was bad, classic MegaMan and MegaMan X NEVER explain why MegaMan loses all the boss weapons he took from the previous game. Never. Not once. You are literally just expected to accept that you start every game with just the Buster and a prayer.
And this trend continues in the Battle Network games. None of the battle chips you earned in previous games get to carry over, and it's NEVER explained why.
Golden Sun! YESSSS!
Though the lost age sequel and the first golden sun was ment to be one big game instead of two 😅
Sometimes I try to think of game design ideas in my free time (despite not having the programming skill or ambition to make them reality), and one idea I've always been curious to see made was a power regression system. Most games get progressively more difficult by adding stronger enemies to counteract the new powers/weapons a player gains throughout their journey. I was wondering if it would be possible to have enemies that are relatively similar in strength throughout the story, but you start with all the power and abilities and lose them through the game.
This escalates the difficulty by tying an increasing amount of hands behind your back. You can even add strategy to it by allowing people to choose what abilities they want to lose in what order, although forcing the order could be a design choice as well. By the time you reach the final boss, you will hopefully be skilled enough that you're able to defeat him despite the lack of your training wheels. People already do this to an extent when replaying games with challenge runs (pokemon nuzlockes, "no items" runs, "no healing" runs, etc.), so I would assume there would be a way to bake it into a proper gameplay system.
This video made me realize that a power regression could *potentially* be the perfect solution for sequel resets. Instead of losing all the Mcguffins you spent the first game collecting at the beginning, instead you slowly reset your power through the entirety of the sequel by giving your Mcguffins away (maybe leaving them behind to protect the places you save after you move on, idk). Then if they make a third entry in the series, viola it's already reset the power to do a standard progression. I suppose if people like the power regression system of the second more, you might be stuck with a power reset problem again in the opposite direction (how did you get your power back in between games?). Oh well, I guess no solution is perfect.
I don't know of any specific games that have a power regression system in them, but if anybody knows please tell me. I'd be curious to see how they play in reality.
Sinner: Sacrifice for Redemption has it but it’s fairly short, it’s a boss rush and each boss you defeat removes some abilities or powers you have. You can defeat them in any order so you can kinda choose what you want to deal with when you’re stronger and what downsides you stack on first. Honestly it’s probably the most basic you could go with the idea and still have it be fun.
Sifu also has something like power regression but I don’t really know much about how it works.
@ Thanks. I will check it out.
How Ys handles resets is always funny.
Adol goes onto a ship. Ship sinks. Adol loses all his equipments and items.
It became a running gag to the point where characters are commenting on that in some games.
He also tends to kill or destroy whatever was powering his new trinkets by the end of the adventure anyway. Like all the magic of Ys stops existing when Darm was killed and the Goddesses reseal the Black Pearl with themselves- so the cool magic of the Priests of Ys can't be used anymore, and Cleria lost all its magical properties and turned back into the normal, base silver Cleria was made from.
Jedi survivor does something abit different and you keep all of your abilities but you can get even stronger
I would have loved for you to touch on how the .hack series approached sequels beyond just power scaling to your end game level but actually giving you a full sequel that continues directly from where you left off so even if you were at max level, you still stay overpowered. It presents a sequel exactly how an expansion to an MMO would be which is such a flavor win because the game is supposed to feel like an MMO. It’s beautifully handled.
Is the Pikmin clip a teaser for a upcoming video?
Im just gonna come out and say it
Xenoblade didnt do this
THE PREVIOUS PROTAGS GOT STRONGER in nearly every way when sequel landed
Wait Xenoblade games have a continuity? From the outside they look like standalones
@yourdad5799 In Xenoblade 2 at the end you hear of what happens in 1, implying both games happen in paralel universes, and Xenoblade 3 is a direct continuation of BOTH games, as the universes stopped being paralel ones and converged into one, with cathastrofic consequences.
@yourdad5799 theyre connected but i wont spoil it
@yourdad5799 All of them except X do.
1 and 2 occur at the same time while 3 is a direct sequel to both. You even get to have both Shulk and Rex in your party (at the same time) in the DLC of XC3.
Oh, and that same DLC confirms that the Xenoblade series takes place in the larger Xenosaga universe.
This reminds me of something I always thought was neat when I was a kid. In the original Spyro trilogy you keep your power ups. In the first game well you didn't get any, but in the second you gain some new little tricks like learning how to dive, head smash rocks . In the third game you keep all those abilities. It's not much sure but I just think it was neat as a kid.
This is done really well by some games in the same game. Take Fallout, for example, in the begin of Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta, you are abducted by aliens and while unconscious they strip you of everything, making you have to start from scratch with the gear you find until you get your stuff back; in The Pitt you have to give up everything to get in and can only recover your stuff later. In New Vegas you have to only have so much weight going into Honest Hearts; get abducted and stripped in Dead Money; in Old World Blues you get teleported, stripped and they even take your brain, heart, and spine (your stuff is right nearby to recover though).
Honorable mention to ARPG "The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing" where the second game starts with your endgame char from the first and the third starts with your save from the second. You could always roll anew, but it carried over if you wanted. Same level and gear, 30 more levels.
6:44 I have to give it to you, that was a brilliant place for an ad.
and then there's Banjo Tooie my beloved, the holy grail of "you get to keep all of your powers, and then unlock so much more that the previous powers are literally treated like a tutorial in comparison"
Nobody talking about Tears of the Kingdom is crazy, you're still pretty squishy by the end of BotW, so it really makes no sense why we needed to go back just to be even squishier by comparison in TotK.
I only played one golden sun game, the one with the black holes popping up, and it soured the whole series for me. It stays with basically a fetch quest to grab the glider you lost and when you finally do at the end of the game, it ends. It didn't feel like it had stakes. Yes, you get drawn into all these world events, but it never felt like they mattered to me. It felt more like a last-minute road block. "Oh, there's war and political intrigued going on? Let me solve it so I can get my damn kite back or dad's gonna get the belt" and then at the end you come home and all these black holes you've been forced to deal with, ones absorbed your home and family. Now you might be thinking "wow what a great way to set up the final boss and explain their motives and set up states." Nope. It ends there. No conclusion, no explanation on what caused them or if everyone's okay. Just ends. It's like if Natasha Preston made a video game, but instead of having a great build-up and let down ending, the whole thing is a let down from start to finish. Hell, I couldn't tell you any of the characters except one was a wolf girl named Svetla or something, and that's only because I love werewolves, so I took to her immediately. I Remember thinking if the whole series is like this I dint want to play another which must have been a common thought cause as far as I know they never made another after that.
The first two games, Broken Seal and Lost age (GS1 and 2 in english) are very good even today, though they do show their age with lack of some QOL stuff like it defaulting to defending if a character's target is dead rather than switching to a new target. There is much less idiocy in those games with there being an overarching story/plot you're pursuing the entire time, with there being little side episodes along the way like a cursed forest. GS1 does end very, very abruptly but there is at least the reason for it being cartridge size limitations rather than the stupid crap Dark Dawn pulls, and neither game have any points of no return that permanently cut off djinn or treasure you might have missed while Dark Dawn has like 3 of them
@@MarkofWisdom Amen, dark dawn was a great deception and not worthy of his predecessors.
Ys series boats to adol: we've been here before yet you keep coming back for more.
1:02 Oh hey, I see me!
Warcraft 3 and its expansion did the trope masterfully. In the main game, Arthas the death knight, under the influence of his master, the Lich king, reached his potential by the end of the campaign. On the expansion, Arthas started out max-leveled. Then the Lich King was slowly stripped of his power and influence, and so was Arthas, who became gradually weaker throughout the story. By the end of it, he was only as powerful as he was at the beginning of the main game, but now finally with the ability to reclaim his lost power back.
Thank you so much for the wonderful videos they always make my day!
Honestly, if you're playing through Megaman Battle Network it's kind of funny how he has these ridiculously overpowered Chip Folders, and Megaman has gotten to being super duper powerful and then in the next game it's like, he has a new PET, Megaman's given up his powers or something and Lan has to start over with a fresh deck and beginning chips again.
That's why I love Jedi Survivor, yeah you start with decreased health and health replenishing items, but for the most part you start with all the moveset of Jedi Fallen Order, and then the game builds on top of that
My favorite Samus powerdown moment is the start of Prime 1 where she just...hits a wall really hard...
In Hero Must Die 2 your protagonist starts at the peak of his power, but gets progresively weaker since he was resurrected for a limited amount of time.
Funny thing about chain of memories........they did it again in KH3 with dream drop distance and Birth By Sleep. Not only does Sora get reset AGAIN. but PLOT CRITICAL DETAILS regarding the story of KH3 are in DDD, and BBS. You think playing 2 is bad without playing Chain of Memories, try even COMPREHENDING 3 without DDD and BBS.
1. Playing KH2 before CoM has it's merits too, Sora is equally as confused as the player so some things just hit different.
(in fact, I would argue that the week-long Roxas segment should've been moved out of the prologue to enhance that feeling, then feed the player a couple of Days as the story moves along)
2. Kratos was so depressed at the end of GoW1 he jumped from Suicide Bluffs (yes that's the name of that cliff), what part of that was worthwhile?
3. Alucard losing his equips was a reset for him, but for the player it was actually not starting the game with Bat Form, Stopwatch and they nerfed Hellfire into the ground. (Castlevania 3)
There's an odd case in God of War 3 where the game begins literally where GoW2 ended. Kratos and the Titans are fully powered and storming Mount Olympus
When gameplay starts though, Kratos only has the Blades of Athena, Blade of Olympus, and 1 magic spell. Where did everything else go?
All this is before he gets booted off the mountain and is officially level drained again
The previous gen Armored Core games all had a mechanic similar to the one in Golden Sun: The Lost Age where you could transfer parts you'd earned from a previous game in the generation to the next to give yourself more options in the garage from the get-go, and while they're definitely helpful to have, they actually weren't game-breakingly overpowered because of how the Armored Core games are balanced. Really ahead of their time, and I'm hoping to see the tradition continue with any potential follow-ups to AC6.
You're right, they're not op because they're damn near necessary in some of the games
For me my favorite game series that deals with this is the trails of cold steel series cause they don't reset your level. They just throw stronger monsters in new dungeons and stronger enemies. Any old areas that exist in both games are still at the level you left them. The narrative of the game treats you like the level you are, so by the fourth game the narrative acknowledges how strong you are.
Then theres doom eternal. You keep your abilities, so you still feel like a god at first but lose your weapons but get most of them early. In exchange, the game is a fuckton harder after the 2nd level
Immediate like because I love hearing your takes on stuff!
Kingdom Hearts is just funny to me
CoM: We use cards here
2: Amnesia
3Ds: You have to retrain from 0
3: Training got ruined, go ask Herc how to hero
I always thought the opening of pikmin 2 kept the tone of the first one with the humour. In pikmin 1, Olimar keeps thinking about surviving and his family but he just keeps getting useless stuff to build his ship. There are many pieces of the ship that are straight up pointless, like the comfortable seat and the geiger counter.
Think about it, what's the last part of the dolphin Olimar gets? The piggy bank. Money. He was more worried about his money than returning home.
A lot of the games I played solved the problem simply by having you be another person. In Armored Core 4 Answer, you’re not the same mercenary as in 4, but you do find and fight against/with them later in the game.
One of the most memorable power resets for me is Infinity Blade 2, where you start with the Infinity Blade, and some of the best armour in the game, but end up losing it later in a cutscene that also finally answers a secret that’s been going on since the first game.
I always liked that Sly Cooper didn't really do a power reset
You know, if I didn't just happened to be browsing the GBA games in Target while Christmas Shopping in 2004, I probably would have missed Chain Of Memories for a good...several months or so.
When it comes to power scaling, you can either up the power of the enemies or lower the power of the players.
To me, the biggest issue with GoW's resets was there simply wasn't a reason for it. Kratos' enemies would be stronger as the original trilogy wore on, going from mythical creatures, to demigods, to the gods themselves.
While I'll always love the original big 3, I'll never understand why they bothered to nerf Kratos when you could better explain his present weakness by simply pointing out he's a young, inexperienced god with a lot to learn coming up against greater and greater foes.
Really lol ving these duscussion style vids, theyre very insightful!
My favourite video game starts with a sequel reset.
Gothic 2 is maybe one of the finest and jankiest action RPGs ever made. Tough as nails, incredibly immersive and beautifully paced. It starts with you running away from goblin and sheeps and ends with you killing an immortal undead dragon. And the journey between the two is just perfect.
But its the second game of the series and they way they reset the power of main character actually makes sense. The main character was powerful in the end of the first game, but a lot of it was the magical weapon and armour he was wearing.
The game ended with a Forbidden Temple TM fell on top of him and he was buried under the rubble.
A month later your buddy Xardas manages you teleport you out from under the rubble, but you've spend nearly a month in coma and you lost your swanky armour and weapon, so it makes sense in both gameplay and in-world logic that you are really weak.
And it really works. One of the first quests you can get is picking turnips for a farmer. You get paid in stew. In another game i will feel this is a waste of my time. In Gothic 2 its world building. You are working for the farmer because the guards in the nearby town will not let a vagabond/begger into the city. Narratively you are a nobody and the world treats you appropriately.
If you are still a capable warrior the stoty would not make sense.
One of my favorite examples of sequel justifying keeping all the old skills is in banjo tooie, if you played banjo kazooie then you most likely remember every skill in that game and you have all that from the start, banjo and his bird buddy gain newer skills that allow them to progress in the game while also utilizing the older skills in various ways.
You do actually get mail from Olimar’s family in Pikmin 2, they might not have gotten to see him before he left again, but he does communicate with them
My favorite reason even though it's retroactive and not included in the games themselves is that the devs said Dante sells all his weapons between games for pizza money.
Metroid: you will be reset and you will enjoy it
I liked that Baldur’s Gate 2 didn’t take away your levels. Losing the gear and gold collected in Baldur’s Gate 1 hurt but gave you plenty of incentive to pursue epic magic items.
I think I see why the Dragon Age series always changes the protagonist in each game instead of sticking with either the Warden, Hawke or the Inquisitor, mainly because they don’t want to go through to process of leveling up all over again in any sequel. Same could be said for the Fable series and Assassin’s Creed series.
Wooo Golden Sun mentioned!
Do you know where I can watch them play it?
@@Shanehudson27 I have no idea, but I wanna watch too!
The Legacy of Goku series of games for the Gameboy Advanced, which tells the story of DBZ, doesn’t reset you in the sequels
The first game as a level cap of 25, the second a cap of 50, and the third a level cap of 200
When you finally get to play as Goku in the 2nd game (near the middle) he starts at level 35
Goku starts at level 65 in the beginning of the third game
The Mario and Luigi series has interesting resets, it’s mostly standard reset but there is always a narrative moment in each game of Mario and Luigi receiving their hammers.
Superstar Saga: crafted by two hammer smiths
Partners in Time: given to baby Mario and baby Luigi by two hammer bros
Bowser’s Inside Story: found within Bowser among other junk he inhaled
Dream Team: found someone’s lost pair of hammers, got to keep them because that person already bought replacements
Brothership: they are crafted
Funnily enough Paper Jam is the only game where Mario and Luigi have their hammers from the start, and despite their hammers being crafted in Brothership the hammer is an equipment piece so those handmade hammers will soon be replaced by stronger store bought hammers
"Great! i'll grab my stuff!"
"there isn't time, your sword is enough!"
Bro, not even the heart containers?
Tears of the Kingdom reset is pretty good as it shows not only a new thing [Gloom] but also makes the antagonist look impossibly strong compared to you
I love the more scripted videos with clips from your playthroughs. adds a lot of personality to an otherwise matter of fact format
wonderful video. Also when is the Disgaea Video seriously, we need more people to know about it!
I remember playing Banjo Tooie and being impressed by the fact that it doesn't do any of this, you start out with all the same moves you had in the original game and you get new ones throughout the game. That game went out of it's way to really feel like it takes place some time after the first game. I can't think of any more examples of the exact opposite of the topic of this video but I'm sure there's plenty more. I think maybe the Golden Sun games do it because they kinda do a Mass Effect kinda thing but I didn't really play them yet despite owning both of them so I don't know for sure
The reason why there isn't a reset between Golden Sun and The Lost Age is that TLA isn't a sequel. It's one game split over two cartridges because they couldn't fit it all on one. This is why they put so much effort into being able to transfer your characters, djinni and items over to TLA. If the GBA could have handled the game as it were ambitiously intended, you wouldn't have needed to transfer, it'd have all just been there.
On that tangent, what I'd love to see is a Golden Sun remaster/remake which combines the two GBA titles into the one game they were meant to be, with some obvious QoL features added to update it for modern sensibilities.
watching GoW footage like "Why is there BG3 music here?" and then u remember it's a video essay
One series that make something interesting with this concept is the trails series. In the first trilogy, Trails in the Sky, Second Chapter and The 3rd when you go from one game to the nex you keep you level, your stats and your craft (basically unique techniques of the characters that can be used to attack, defend and support) but you lose your orbal arts that is the magic system based in technology that you can equip in each character. So when you go from one game to another you have some kind of soft reset to your characters.
The reset from FC to SC is particularly well handled too
Like, what do you mean I have to choose between keeping my old battle orbment or abandoning all the quartz I collected during the first game? Of course I want to keep... Wait that's that? Yeah, I remember that guy that whooped my ass at the end of the first game with strange arts that I don't have access to, what about it? Oh. Oooooh.
So yes, while the game does force your hand and it kinda sucks, it also really motivates you because you got a taste of what's coming. Except this time, *you* will be the one to dish out pain to your ennemies.
@@siragon756 I thought it was agreeded that joshu just enequiped everything from the leaving party member before leaving
@@frankieyuen9363 in regards to orbments, if I remember correctly, there was an upgraded orbment equipment in which they can upgrade and equip even stronger quartz BUT they can't use any orbments from the old one to the new one
@@carlosongxiii Yes, that's how it worked. It hooked the narrative into the reset. "Lorenz" in FC was throwing spells you could not create yourself because he had a tactical orbment even more advanced than yours...which as you were told in the SC prologue shouldn't have been possible because the sole manufacturer of tactical orbments is only just now testing models of this level, they're not formally rolled out yet- it meant the enemy either had incredibly dangerous inside access or had their own R&D on the same level, which was just as big of a deal. Estelle opts to take the new model, which would not be compatible with the old quartz, because the extra power spike was plain on its face needed.
Fortunately in Pikmin 3 there is a datafile of Olimar saying that he plans to buy back his ship "The SS Dolphin" after collecting enough treasure