Early Installment Weirdness/Video Games: Difference between revisions

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 ** This trope also applies in terms of aesthetics and plot. The Triforce for one originally had only two parts, with the Triforce of Courage and the appearance as flat, golden Sierpinski triangles not featured until ''Zelda II''; in fact, the artwork and the cartoon actually portrayed it as glowing, gem-like tetrahedrons. While the standard look for the Triforce was codified in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'', it was portrayed as actually speaking to Link. Link and Zelda's hair were brown, the expanded Hyrule in ''[[Zelda II: The Adventure of Link|Zelda II the Adventure of Link]]'' (which had [[Death Mountain]] on the southern part of the [[World Map]] instead of the usual northern location and had eastern and western regions separated by water) is never heard of in any other game, and races that became iconic aspects of the series in later games (i.e. Gorons, friendly Zoras, the Sheikah) are completely absent in early games. And then, of course, the early games had zero hints to the eventual timeline issues that would develop in large part thanks to ''[[Ocarina of Time]]'', which would not be settled until Nintendo ''finally'' released an official timeline on the game's 25th anniversary.
 * ''[[Metal Gear]]'':
-** The [[Metal Gear 1987|first game]] for the MSX2 and NES had no crawling, no radar, and a simple straightforward plot. Guards could only see in straight lines and the stages were screen-based (think the original ''Zelda''), allowing the players to escape detection by moving to the next screen (at least in the NES version, which lacked the higher alert phase). It also featured a level-up system that increases your maximum health and item capacity for every five hostages you rescued (and demotes you if you killed one) and multiple cardkeys were needed to open different doors.
+** The [[Metal Gear (video game)||first game]] for the MSX2 and NES had no crawling, no radar, and a simple straightforward plot. Guards could only see in straight lines and the stages were screen-based (think the original ''Zelda''), allowing the players to escape detection by moving to the next screen (at least in the NES version, which lacked the higher alert phase). It also featured a level-up system that increases your maximum health and item capacity for every five hostages you rescued (and demotes you if you killed one) and multiple cardkeys were needed to open different doors.
 ** Although it was a non-canon sequel made by a different team, ''[[Snake's Revenge]]'' played pretty much like the first game, only with the addition of side-scrolling segments.
-** ''[[Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake]]'' is much closer to ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' than the other previous installments, although still limited by the same technical constraints as the first. It also had some of the oddest items and puzzles in the series, such as hideable buckets, poisonous hamsters, and egg hatching.
+** ''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'' is much closer to ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' than the other previous installments, although still limited by the same technical constraints as the first. It also had some of the oddest items and puzzles in the series, such as hideable buckets, poisonous hamsters, and egg hatching.
 ** Up until ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty|Metal Gear Solid 2]]'', the bodies of dead soldiers would simply disappear once they hit the ground. Killing an enemy grunt in front of one of his buddies doesn't cause as much of a reaction as it does in later games. This is also the reason why the tranquilizer gun was introduced in ''MGS2'', as there wasn't much need for one in previous games.
 * ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' is often mistaken as part of the trope outside Japan. In North America, Dynasty Warriors 1 is from a different series than Dynasty Warriors 2 and later. It's not an actual example of the trope because, while sharing a similar setting and even in Japan similar naming, they are still separate series.
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 ** Also, Mario was a ''carpenter'', not a plumber. This characterization carried over into ''[[Wrecking Crew]]''.
 ** Hell, in early versions of the game, Mario ''wasn't even named Mario'' - he was "Jumpman".
-** Unlike in ''[[Mario Bros]]'' and subsequent Mario games, in ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' it's not possible to fall a long way without losing a life.
+** Unlike in ''[[Mario Bros.]]'' and subsequent Mario games, in ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' it's not possible to fall a long way without losing a life.
 * ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'': If not for the common title and character design, you'd hardly believe that the games of the ''three'' continuities were from the same series.
 ** This arguably happened within the original series; while the engine was mostly the same, in ''Spyro the Dragon'' (1998) there were no sidequests to collect the [[Plot Coupon|Plot Coupons]], no Hunter, and the story felt like an [[Excuse Plot]] in comparison to the deeper ''Ripto's Rage'' and ''Year of the Dragon''. Oh, and Spyro [[Super Drowning Skills|can't swim]], not even on the surface.<br /><br />The first game plays with a somewhat melancholic 'Last man alive' feel and you're guided through the level by the dragons you have to rescue, which also function as save points (you can't save via the pause menu). The second introduces goofy cartoon characters who talk to you throughout the levels and the levels mostly consist of helping people out and getting orbs in return.
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 * ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'':
 ** What we'd call "Small Mario" in later 2-D titles appears to be his normal height in [[Super Mario Bros. (video game)|the first game]]. It's also the only game where [[Ratchet Scrolling|Mario can't move back on the levels, only forward]]. It didn't have any vertical areas either (they weren't seen until ''[[Super Mario Bros. 2]]''). The lava also originally worked very differently: it was originally depicted as essentially [[Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid|red-tinted water]] drawn over a [[Bottomless Pit]], and Mario/Luigi would die by simply falling into it rather that either [[Death Throws|dying and being flung off the screen]] or [[Rump Roast|jumping back out and suffering very little damage.]] Last, but not least, the game featured enemies in locations in which they're normally not supposed to be in, such as Buzzy Beetles in full daylight, and Goombas and (live) Koopa Troopas in castles.
-** In the original ''[[Mario Bros]]'' arcade game, the [[Goomba Stomp]] didn't work - you had to knock the enemies on their backs before you could take them out.
+** In the original ''[[Mario Bros.]]'' arcade game, the [[Goomba Stomp]] didn't work - you had to knock the enemies on their backs before you could take them out.
 ** In ''Wrecking Crew'' (released 3 months before ''SMB''), Mario can't jump, and he also wears a hard hat.
 ** ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' is, to this date, the only 3D game where both the oxygen meter (for swimming) and the health meter were the one and same (they get separate meters in ''[[Super Mario Sunshine|Sunshine]]'' and the two ''[[Super Mario Galaxy|Galaxy]]'' games). In addition, the star missions lack introductory cutscenes, which not only renders their locations far from obvious (bar, at times, the missions' titles), but it also allows more freedom in regards of the order in which the stars are collected (naturally, when ''Sunshine'' introduced the opening cutscenes fot the missions, it was mandatory to collect the items in a set order, except for the secret ones).
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 ** Also, if you only count the Phoenix Wright games (the first three), the first one lacks the Magatama and profile presenting. The fourth game removed the latter and greatly reduced the presence of the former.
 * The [[Resident Evil 1|original]] ''[[Resident Evil]]'' featured live-action scenes for its opening and ending sequences, whereas every subsequent installment in the series (including the GameCube version) were entirely computer generated.
-** The first ''Resident Evil'' game also feels very basic compared to the later sequels. The original lacked an auto-aiming function (unless you were playing the [[Difficulty by Region|Japanese version]]) and the weapons came as they appeared without any chance to enhance them. The original game had [[Multiple Endings]] while the sequels only have a single ending each (except for ''[[Resident Evil 3 Nemesis]]'' and ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'', although the alternate scenarios in ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'' serve a similar purpose).
+** The first ''Resident Evil'' game also feels very basic compared to the later sequels. The original lacked an auto-aiming function (unless you were playing the [[Difficulty by Region|Japanese version]]) and the weapons came as they appeared without any chance to enhance them. The original game had [[Multiple Endings]] while the sequels only have a single ending each (except for ''[[Resident Evil 3: Nemesis]]'' and ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'', although the alternate scenarios in ''[[Resident Evil 2]]'' serve a similar purpose).
 * The first ''[[Diablo]]'' was markedly different from its sequel and the upcoming ''Diablo 3''. Aside from the expected differences in scope, lore, balance and gameplay features, the first game was much more survival oriented and featured several instances of ''[[Nethack]]''-style permanent character damage. Shrine effects were irreversible and not all were positive, and there was a monster that would permanently reduce your maximum life. When you died in multiplayer mode, all your gear would end up ''on the ground'' and would be lost forever if you were unable to recover it. This would be unthinkable in the sequels which revolve around [[Min-Maxing]] character builds and [[Item Farming]].
 * In the very first ''[[Street Fighter (video game)|Street Fighter]]'' released in 1987, [[Ryu and Ken]] are the only playable characters (with Ryu wearing red slippers for some reason); their special moves, quite [[Game Breaker|overpowered]] in this game, are almost impossible to pull off consistently; other techniques such as combos, dizzies, and grappling moves are all non-existent; and every opponent has the same winning and losing quote (all spoken with the same crudely digitized voice clip). The game did feature the same six-button configuration used by ''[[Street Fighter II]]'' and its sequels, but it was actually added to the game as an afterthought, created as a cheaper alternative to arcade operators who couldn't afford the original cabinet which used two hydraulic punching pads that determined the strength of the player's punches and kicks based on hard they were pushed down. Additionally, Ryu and Ken's special move yells were dubbed for the overseas versions of the game, resulting in them yelling "Psycho Fire" and "Dragon Punch" instead of "Hadoken" and "Shoryuken".
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 * The original ''[[Don Pachi]]'' has faster but less numerous bullets compared to its successors. It also lacks the crazy numbers of later games in the series: you're lucky to get more than a 20-hit combo, and you can only achieve scores as long as 8 digits, and that's if you're very good at the game; contrast ''Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu'' where a 200-hit combo is trivial and, on a decent run, you have a [[Pinball Scoring|nine-digit score by the end of]] ''[[Pinball Scoring|the first stage.]]'' Notably and entirely absent from ''[[Don Pachi]]'' (as well as its sequel ''[[Do Don Pachi]]'') are the [[Robot Girl|Robot Girls]] that have become a staple of the series.
 ** The first game also averted [[Hitbox Dissonance]] and had a bit of [[Fake Difficulty]] in later levels
-* ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' has no [[Mana Meter|Magic Points]]. Instead, spells are divided into different levels of magic, characters must buy each spell individually at magic shops, and they can only cast spells of a given level a limited number of times before resting, with the amount increasing as the characters' experience levels increase (much like the Sorcerer from ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' Third Edition). The GBA and PSP remakes remove the "X uses per magic level" system for the traditional MP<ref>Which arguably makes the game much easier, as you can spam magic, heralding cries of [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]</ref>.
+* ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' has no [[Mana Meter|Magic Points]]. Instead, spells are divided into different levels of magic, characters must buy each spell individually at magic shops, and they can only cast spells of a given level a limited number of times before resting, with the amount increasing as the characters' experience levels increase (much like the Sorcerer from ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' Third Edition). The GBA and PSP remakes remove the "X uses per magic level" system for the traditional MP<ref>Which arguably makes the game much easier, as you can spam magic, heralding cries of [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]</ref>.
 ** ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'' introduced MP, but also featured a very primitive version of [[Stat Grinding]] rather than the [[Character Level]] system that most games in the series use. It had yet to be refined; attacking your own party members was the best way to develop.
 ** ''[[Final Fantasy III]]'' used the same spell levels/number of uses system as the first game (albeit the number of charges was much more plentiful). It wasn't until ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' that MP became the standard.
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 ** In the second game, the hero is a purely physical fighter; in any other game in the series the hero fits the role of the [[Jack of All Stats]].
 ** You weren't allowed to choose a destination for Return until III. In the first game, it always returned you to Tantegel, and in the second, the last castle you visited.
-** The menus were also quite clunky early on. In all of the NES ''DQ'' games, you had to go into your menu to do something as simple as talk to someone or open a door. it wasn't until ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'' that much of this became more streamlined with an "action" button that had multiple features like in most other [[Role Playing Game|Role Playing Games]].
+** The menus were also quite clunky early on. In all of the NES ''DQ'' games, you had to go into your menu to do something as simple as talk to someone or open a door. it wasn't until ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'' that much of this became more streamlined with an "action" button that had multiple features like in most other [[Role-Playing Game|Role Playing Games]].
 * The first ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' videogame for the NES, ''Dragon Ball: Shenlong no Nazo'', was neither a [[Fighting Game]] nor a RPG [[Card Battle Game]], like almost every subsequent game, but a poorly done action game with long overhead phases a la Zelda and short sideview platform phases and boss battles, with an extremely limited moveset. Justified in that it was based on the first series, less action-packed and more focused on exploration and adventure, but still...
 * The [[Ultima]] series had some bizarre quirks throughout.
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 ** [[Ultima II]] is the only game with dungeon-like "Towers" as well as dungeons -  {{spoiler|and the only installment in the series where the dungeons play no useful part in furthering your quest.}}
 ** [[Ultima III]] introduced a [[Wizard Needs Food Badly|starvation mechanic]], where characters suffer damage over time if they run out of food. [[Ultima II]] just kills you off if the food counter hits zero. This mechanic held on for two more games, until it was retired in [[Ultima VI]], which merely didn't allow you to recover hitpoints or magic while resting if you had no food.
-* ''[[Runescape]] Classic'', the game's original incarnation, is ''massively'' different from its current version. The player characters and NPCs are low-res sprites; the game lacked dialogue boxes, meaning all dialogue is displayed above characters' heads; there was no indication on your progress in a quest, or if you've even ''started'' it in the first place; the camera is more restricted; there is no barrier dividing the Wilderness from the rest of the map; there was no members game in its earliest years (meaning that all skills, features, and areas were open to all players). Jagex has opened this game to members twice, and it can still be played if you logged in during those periods.
+* ''[[RuneScape]] Classic'', the game's original incarnation, is ''massively'' different from its current version. The player characters and NPCs are low-res sprites; the game lacked dialogue boxes, meaning all dialogue is displayed above characters' heads; there was no indication on your progress in a quest, or if you've even ''started'' it in the first place; the camera is more restricted; there is no barrier dividing the Wilderness from the rest of the map; there was no members game in its earliest years (meaning that all skills, features, and areas were open to all players). Jagex has opened this game to members twice, and it can still be played if you logged in during those periods.
 * [[Pokémon]] has an odd variation: Each generation introduces a hundred or more new [[Mons]], but while ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]]'' and ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]]'' show off the new Pokémon as much as possible and ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]'' has ''only'' new Pokémon until after the credits roll, ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'' mostly relies on the original 151 with the others hanging around. Mildly [[Justified]] in-plot because Gen 2 happens right next to the setting of Gen 1, which is actually visited later in the game (the only games with this feature released since Gen 2 are the Gen 4 remakes of those games), while the others are further away, with Gen 5 focusing on new Pokémon more so than usual due to being even further away (Unova is implied to be in a ''different country'', as the foreign Team Rocket Grunt in Gen 2 and their Gen 4 remakes is revealed to be from Unova, with the now-reformed Team Rocket Grunt residing in Unova's Icirrus City in ''Black'' and ''White''). Flipside, it also means Gen 2 has very few [[Expy|expies]] and [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|Suspiciously Similar Substitutes]] compared to later generations, with the the vast majority of new Pokémon with similarities to old ones generally evolving from said old ones.
 ** Don't forget some weirdness from Generation I, such as real-world locations being mentioned, the Pokémon League apparently being a new thing ([[The Rival|your rival]] apparently being the first trainer to ever beat the Elite Four) and all the crazy stuff that happens in the Pokémon Tower (namely, Pokémon, even non-Ghost-types like Cubone, disguising themselves as [[Nigh Invulnerable|utterly untouchable ghosts]] and the player fighting the ghost of a dead Marowak) which are [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment|never mentioned again]] and subsequently forgotten (in later games, one can encounter Ghost-types in the wild and they do not disguise themselves). Not to mention [[The Missingno]] and its glitchy "friends"...<ref>Glitch Pokémon are far more prevalent, well-known and just plain ''weird'' in the Generation I games.</ref>
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 * ''[[Adventures of Lolo|Eggerland Mystery]]'' required you to collect Diamond Framers to open a door, while all other games in the ''Eggerland'' series have you collect Heart Framers to open a chest. ''Mystery'' was also the only game to include a "Type B" mode, in which each level has a time limit, or [[Scoring Points|points]].
 * The first ''[[Wonder Boy (video game)|Wonder Boy]]'' game is nothing like the rest of the series. Whereas all the games from ''Wonder Boy in Monster Land'' and onward are side-scrolling [[Action RPG|action RPGs]] (except for ''[[Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair|Monster Lair]]'', which was an auto-scrolling platformer with shoot'em up segments), the original ''Wonder Boy'' was a stage-based platformer similar to ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]''. NES players will most likely recognize the game under the title of ''[[Adventure Island]]'', a modified port by Hudson Soft that [[Dolled-Up Installment|replaced the original main character]] with Hudson's gaming expert Takahashi-Meijin ([[Dub Name Change|aka Master Higgins]]), which is part of the reason why developer Westone took the Wonder Boy series into a different direction for its sequels.
-* The first ''[[Age of Empires I (Video Game)|Age of Empires I]]'' might be difficult for fans of [[Age of Empires II|the]] [[Age of Empires III|sequels]]: units can only be created one at a time (fixed with the expansion pack ''Rise of Rome''), only by going through the entire map you can find out idle units, farms are perishable buildings... and of course there are oddities such as killing the birds that fly over the screen and the War/Archer Elephant having as many hitpoints as ''buildings''!
+* The first ''[[Age of Empires (video game)||Age of Empires I]]'' might be difficult for fans of [[Age of Empires II|the]] [[Age of Empires III|sequels]]: units can only be created one at a time (fixed with the expansion pack ''Rise of Rome''), only by going through the entire map you can find out idle units, farms are perishable buildings... and of course there are oddities such as killing the birds that fly over the screen and the War/Archer Elephant having as many hitpoints as ''buildings''!
 * ''[[Rhythm Heaven]]'' for the GBA is pretty different than its two sequels. For starters, the mini-games are arranged in eight columns of six instead of ten columns of five, and the [[Final Exam Boss|Final Exam Remix]] is Remix 6 instead of Remix 10. Also, the music for the sequels' mini-games are tailor-made for them while some of the GBA mini-games just have accompanying BGM with the same tempo. Not to mention the [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]] that Quiz brought, while the other games never radically change the rules. The Remixes of the GBA version also doesn't change the artistic theme of the mini-games and one stage actually remixes previous remixes, two things that the sequels don't dabble in.
 * ''[[Pac-Man]] Championship Edition DX'' invokes this with Championship I, a [[Nostalgia Level]] based almost exactly on the Championship maze from the original ''PMCE''. No sleeping ghosts, let alone 30-ghost trains, and the dots are not laid out in an easy-to-follow path.
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 * ''[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]] 1'' actually tried to play the series premise (a battered alliance fighting the onslaught of an invading, tyrannical empire led by an [[Ax Crazy]] dictator) entirely straight, with subtle performances and writing. The rest of the series devolved into high [[Camp]] pretty much immediately.
 ** The first Red Aler game also apparently takes place in the same universe as the Tiberian games, as Kane appears as a Soviet advisor. The second game obviosuly doesn't fit into the timeline of the Tiberian games, so at some point after the firts one, the timeline must have split.
-* The first ''[[Summon Night]]'' has four possible protagonists with similar stat growth to choose from, sort of averts [[Schrodinger's Player Character]], its stat point system resembling that of the first ''[[Black Matrix]]'' game, and starts in a world outside Lyndbaum. Later games would have two protagonists with different stat growth to choose from, follow [[Schrodinger's Player Character]], a stat point system similar yet distinct from the ''[[Black Matrix]]'' series, and stays in Lyndbaum.
+* The first ''[[Summon Night]]'' has four possible protagonists with similar stat growth to choose from, sort of averts [[Schrödinger's Player Character]], its stat point system resembling that of the first ''[[Black Matrix]]'' game, and starts in a world outside Lyndbaum. Later games would have two protagonists with different stat growth to choose from, follow [[Schrödinger's Player Character]], a stat point system similar yet distinct from the ''[[Black Matrix]]'' series, and stays in Lyndbaum.
 * The differences between ''Koudelka'' and the "core" ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' franchise are like night and day, with ''Koudelka'' playing as a strange hybrid of RPG and [[Survival Horror]] ([[Executive Meddling|which it was]]), and the ''SH'' games being straight-up RPG's with a heavy comedic bent.
 ** For that matter, the original ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' is significantly heavier on the horror and lighter on the comedy than the later games.