The turn-based nature of many RPGs is a style of gameplay that is still enjoyed by a lot of fans to this day, with games like Octopath Traveler keeping the genre alive and proving that there is still a strong thirst for fantasy RPGs.
There are some companies that created RPGs due to the technical limitations of older systems preventing them from making the kinds of games that they wanted to make, which led to them abandoning the RPG genre in favor of more action-oriented titles.
We have seen many classic RPGs receiving lackluster and terrible sequels due to developers wanting to move in a drastically different direction from the original game or trying to switch over to new genres entirely.
The drastic changes in hardware over the years have also caused quite a lot of sequels to end up inferior, due to developers not having the time necessary to properly learn how to use the newfangled technology that was now available to them.
We are here today to discover which great RPGs were followed by trash - from Vincent Valentine’s bizarre adventure, to the sequel that destroyed the story of one of the best games of all time.
Here are Twenty Notoriously Bad Sequels To Awesome RPG Games!RPG
Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 3 is an amazing game… until the last ten minutes. The last ten minutes of Mass Effect 3 are so bad that they retroactively ruin an entire trilogy of games.
The entire trilogy of Mass Effect games was boiled down to a single choice between three different outcomes, which resulted in three slightly different cutscenes that offered no explanation as to the final fate of Commander Shepard.
The fan backlash against the terrible Mass Effect 3 ending resulted in the developers adding additional cutscenes to try and expand on them, but the damage to the series’ reputation had already been done.
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age 2 was rushed into development following the success of Dragon Age: Origins, which may be why it is so half baked.
One of the worst problems with Dragon Age 2 is the lack of dungeon variety, to the point where you can see where parts of the dungeon have been sealed off, as those sections are planned to be used in different quests.
Dragon Age 2 also ignored a lot of the choices you made at the end of the first game (such as freeing the mages from the Chantry if you asked the ruling monarch for that favor) and the two factions that you can side with are led by characters who decide to go full JRPG villain and transform into horrible monsters for no good reason.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Super Paper Mario on the Nintendo Wii was a departure from the earlier games in the series, as it downplayed the RPG elements by focusing more on action and exploration.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star went back to the series’ roots by being a full RPG, but it drew criticism for the changes it introduced to the battle system.
Sticker Star allowed the player to use stickers in battle, which you only had a finite number of at any one time. The stickers made the battles too easy, save for the boss battles, which dragged on forever due to their high HP counts that forced you to chip away at them with stickers.
Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
The fans have been waiting a long time for Kingdom Hearts III, which recently released at the end of January. They have spent the best part of fifteen years playing spin-off titles during the wait, with Kingdom Hearts Re:coded being one of the worst.
The fact that Re:coded was released on the Nintendo DS was a big problem, as the lack of joysticks made the already difficult combat system of the Kingdom Hearts series trickier to control.
The story of Re:coded is composed of retreads of sections from other Kingdom Hearts games, with the only real entertaining new addition being an improvement system that was similar to the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII was a polarizing game, which led to Final Fantasy XIII-2 being a vast improvement over its predecessor, as the developers listened to the complaints of the fans and made a game that met their expectations.
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII tried to create an action RPG version of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, while also piling on the fan service for Lightning, a character who had avoided that kind of attention in the past.
The real problem with Lightning Returns is its confusing story and an ending so nonsensical that many fans felt insulted after seeing it.
Star Wars Knight Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
The first Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic game was one of the best RPGs of its time, to the point where some fans put it alongside the original movie trilogy when describing the best Star Wars stories of all time.
It’s obvious to those who played it that Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is an unfinished product, which was due to the fact that it was rushed out the door way too early in order to be out in time for Christmas.
People may have complained about Mass Effect 3’s bad ending, but at least it had one, unlike Knights of the Old Republic II which concluded with a brief cutscene.
Dirge Of Cerberus
The fans of Final Fantasy VII had been crying out for a sequel for almost a decade before Square finally answered their wish with Advent Children, which was a movie that answered some of the lingering questions surrounding the ending of Final Fantasy VII but wasn’t the true sequel that fans had been asking for.
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII was released a year after Advent Children and it was a mediocre action/shooter title, which was even less relevant to the fans of Final Fantasy VII than Advent Children was.
Parasite Eve II
The original Parasite Eve is one of the unsung gems of the original PlayStation, as it brought an exciting RPG storyline to a contemporary setting while mixing gunplay and body horror monsters with the ATB system made famous by the Final Fantasy series.
Parasite Eve II dropped everything that made the original game so unique in favor of turning it into a mediocre Resident Evil clone with a few RPG elements and some fan service thrown in for good measure.
Do we even need to mention how bad The 3rd Birthday was?
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
There have been several sequels to Final Fantasy games, some of which have been good (like Final Fantasy X-2) and some that were bad (like Dirge of Cerberus.)
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years falls squarely into the second category, as it comes off like a lengthy piece of fan fiction that was turned into a game using RPG Maker.
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is just a retread of the first game and reuses most of the dungeons, enemies, and storylines from Final Fantasy IV.
The After Years’ real crime has less to do with its self-indulgent story than with the implications of its villain, as it’s hinted that The Creator went back and destroyed the worlds of the pre-Final Fantasy VII games in the series in order to claim their crystals.
Neverwinter Nights 2
Neverwinter Nights 2 adapted the rules of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons into a video game, while also attempting to be a more technically and visually impressive game than its predecessor.
There are two reasons why Neverwinter Nights 2 has landed on this list, with the first being that it may have the worst camera controls in video game history. The real enemy in this game isn’t dragons or orcs, but the disobedient camera.
The second reason is that the final dungeon and end boss battle are so frustratingly difficult that most players resort to cheats in order to win, just so that they can see one of the most insulting endings in video game history.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor for the Nintendo DS has an awesome premise, with the main characters trapped in Tokyo with a clock above their head that tells them how many days they have left to live. The only way they can increase the time is by completing quests and saving the city.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 uses the exact same premise without adding anything new to the table. The real reason why it’s considered to be a step down is due to the brutal difficulty of the battles, which were already tough in the original Devil Survivor but reached new levels of frustration in the sequel.
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings started out as a totally unrelated game that wasn’t even part of the Final Fantasy series… and it shows.
Revenant Wings takes place on a floating continent that is unrelated to the events of the previous game, with the characters from Final Fantasy XII stumbling across a supernatural Judge.
The gameplay of Revenant Wings is totally different from Final Fantasy XII, as the game belongs to the real-time strategy genre, meaning that there isn’t much here for fans of the original game.
Eye Of The Beholder III: Assault On Myth Drannor
The city of Myth Drannor from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting in Dungeons & Dragons was once a haven for all kinds of demons and powerful monsters, which made it a popular site for adventurers, as much of the treasure of the lost elven civilization was said to still be within the boundaries of the city.
The third game in the Eye of the Beholder series was set in Myth Drannor, which may explain why the game is so brutally hard (even for the series) due to the fact that you have to control an entire group of adventurers in real time while the computer controls groups of enemies at once, which now consist of powerful high-level monsters.
Vandal Hearts II
Final Fantasy Tactics is often regarded as the best tactical RPG on the PlayStation, but there was a strong contender in the form of the original Vandal Hearts, which shared a lot of the political intrigue within a fantasy setting of its more famous contemporary.
Vandal Hearts II was criticized for having a less interesting story than its predecessor, which was made worse by the fact that it was much longer.
The combat system in Vandal Hearts II was also criticized for its clunky controls and for battles taking far longer than they needed to.
Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter
The Final Fantasy series has done its best to make all of the games feel distinct from each other, which is the same principle that destroyed the Breath of Fire series when Capcom attempted the same thing.
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is the fifth game in the Breath of Fire series and it was a huge departure from the earlier games.
Dragon Quarter may have done better if it was sold as an entirely new franchise, but Breath of Fire fans didn’t know what to make of a game that was so different from the rest of the series.
The reaction to Dragon Quarter was so negative that it has often been cited as the reason why the series went into hibernation for so long, with the Breath of Fire name only being used for subpar mobile games in recent years.
Suikoden IV
The first three Suikoden games are some of the best JRPGs of all time, with Suikoden II being singled out as one of the best games on the original PlayStation.
Suikoden IV is the point when most fans agree that the series started to diminish in quality, due to the fact that the game was incredibly short (especially by JRPG standards), yet had terrible pacing that had no respect for the free time of the player.
Suikoden IV was also harshly criticized for the high enemy encounter rate, which turned the few dungeons in the game into a slog.
Ultima IX: Ascension
Ultima IX: Ascension was meant to bring the series into a true 3D world, but it ended up burying the Ultima franchise outside of the online spin-offs.
Ultima IX spent years in development hell and went through numerous different revisions before it was released, which led to a product that barely worked and wasn’t fun to play. The production of Ultima IX was so troubled that numerous staff members walked out during the development cycle.
The biggest problem with Ultima IX was its total lack of respect for the lore of the series, which it often outright contradicted, as can be seen in Noah Antwiler’s scathing video review of the game.
Deus Ex: Invisible War
It is said that anytime Deus Ex is mentioned on the internet, it will prompt someone to reinstall it on their computer. The same is not true for its sequel, Deux Ex: Invisible War, which is easily the most forgettable game in the series.
Deus Ex: Invisible War is more technically and visually advanced than its predecessor, but the gameplay and story are far below the standards of the first Deux Ex.
The fans believed that Deus Ex: Invisible War had been dumbed down for a more casual audience, which may have been influenced by the success of the original Deus Ex on the PlayStation 2 and a desire for the game to be more accessible to console players.
Wild Arms 2
The first Wild Arms games combined the 2D sprites of old JRPGs for its overworld with 3D models for its battle system, resulting in a hybrid style of game that hasn’t been seen since.
Wild Arms 2 abandoned much of what made the first game unique and toned down the difficulty to the point where the player could spam the regular attacks in order to win every battle, eschewing the need for any kind of strategy or preparation.
Wild Arms 2 also never bothered to update its visuals much from the first game, making it look outdated compared to the Final Fantasy titles on the system at the time.
Chrono Cross
One criticism that you will commonly hear about Chrono Cross is that it’s an excellent game, but a terrible sequel.
If you play Chrono Cross without ever playing Chrono Trigger, then you may find a lot to enjoy in the game. If you play Chrono Cross after playing Chrono Trigger, then you will likely despise it for what it did to the cast of the first game.
Chrono Cross undoes all of the happy endings from Chrono Trigger and doles out brutal fates to Crono, Marle, Lucca, and Robo, with Frog going missing and Magus never succeeding in his quest to save his sister.
Chrono Trigger has some of the most heartwarming endings in video game history and Chrono Cross tramples all over them for shock value.
