Sequels Better Than Originals? For Games, Hopefully Always.

by Andrew Hagan

With the recent news of the next-gen consoles, people (who will remain nameless) had told me that as games become more like movies, eventually they will adopt the trend of movies, originals being better then sequels. And I must say that this idea does make sense but I don't agree with in anyway.

First, with the introduction of Playstation 2 and Dolphin (Nintendo's new system), they will have the power to turn games into an interactive movie. The key word in this is interactive. As long as new ideas are being used in the gameplay, the games will always prove interesting, if not addictive (or terrible, can you say Saga Frontier).

Second, movies decline because they try to use the same characters to make a second story and it fails in comparison. With most games, new characters are created to keep giving it a new feel. Sure, it FF7 is a sequel but it relationship to FF6 is very small. The only things that are alike are the same genius that made the games. Sure, they both have some of the same spells and other things in common, but the stories are completely different. This is not true in all RPG sequels but for the most part, it helps to create a fresh story.

Movies also have one more flaw, acting. In a video game, the acting the is done is voices, while movies have to have total acting, voice and body language. Final Fantasy doesn't even have voices, they complete slip that part so they can create a perfect atmosphere, with weak links. Games become more convincing then movies because the animators can get the exact guesture from a character that they want instead of hoping some overpaid pretty-boy(or girl) can pulloff a half decent expression of hate or love.

In short, games will aways have the abiltity to become better, as long as the write people are in charge.