Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Difference between revisions

{{quote|(talking about ''Superbabies: [[Baby Geniuses]] 2'') "Y'know, I want to write and direct the third installment of this franchise, and make it the best thing anyone has ever seen, just so I can force critics to say "My god, you have to see ''Baby Geniuses 3''!"|Ash, The Shitty Movie Night Podcast}}

In actual fact, the book, film, or game may even have been pretty good in itself, it doesn't have to be bad, it's just that after reading it you try out the [[Sequel]] and you're completely blown away. It's much better. The story is more original, the pacing was fixed, the characters who seemed so flat before are now more fleshed out and interesting in their own right. If it's a video game, the gameplay has been much improved and everything comes together more tightly. All in all, you weren't expecting the next product to be this good, but it seems the creator(s) did indeed learn from their mistakes. You're rightly impressed.

* ''[[Vampire Hunter D]]: Bloodlust''

* Apparently, ''[[Stratos 4]]'' falls under this trope, what with ''Advance'' having a better, more sensible plot that the [[Mind Screw|original]].

* ''[[Birdy the Mighty]]: Decode'' is widely regarded as a vast improvement over the original four-episode OVA.

** Interesting mention of those movies, considering that [[Leslie Nielsen]], most famous for them, is also in ''Scary Movie 3''.

* ''[[The Pink Panther]]'' is widely regarded as a slightly above average '60s caper film, elevated by the presence of Capucine, [[David Niven]], and [[Peter Sellers]] in the (supporting) role of Chief Inspector Clouseau. Its sequel, ''A Shot in the Dark'', performs a bit of a genre shift (it's a [[Dolled-Up Installment]] that shifts the focus to Clouseau), and is widely regarded as one of the best comedies of that particular decade. It also introduced characters and elements that became series staples: manservant Cato and his karate attacks, former Chief Inspector Dreyfus and his being driven to madness by Clouseau, etc.

* There is this German teen comedy called ''Knallharte Jungs'' (''More Ants in the Pants'' in the English dub) about a boy whose penis can talk. It was actually brilliant and hilariously funny. Now, this movie was actually a sequel to another movie called ''Harte Jungs'' (''Ants in the Pants'' in the English release) And my god, was that one lame!

* Although not as well-regarded as the original trilogy, critics generally gave much better reviews to ''[[Star Wars]] Episode III: [[Revenge of the Sith]]'' when it was released in comparison to the first two prequels.

* ''[[Saw|Saw VI]]'' was regarded by fans and critics alike as a huge improvement over the two previous sequels and generally regarded as a worthy successor to the original trilogy.

* ''Bloody Murder 2: Closing Camp'' was seen as a vast improvement over the original, not that that's very surprising, since the original was godawful.

* The third and especially fourth ''[[Final Destination]]'' films are considered a [[Dork Age]] for the franchise... a [[Dork Age]] that many critics deem to have ended with the fifth film, which has been called the best since the original.

* R.A. Salvatore's ''The Crystal Shard'' reads, especially in its first hundred pages, like it was written by a sixteen-year-old who'd just read ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. His later novels are a marked improvement in comparison.

** A sixteen-year-old who just ''loves'' brainwashed sluts. [[Sarcasm Mode|Though who doesn't?]]

* The first ''[[The Culture|Culture]]'' novel, ''Consider Phlebas'', is a passable science fiction novel. The next, ''The Player of Games'', is the first in which the whole impact of what the Culture is like can be felt, and is usually the one recommended to read first.

* Arguably, [[Dan Brown]]'s ''[[The Lost Symbol]]'', sequel to ''[[The Da Vinci Code]]'' - he breaks away from a lot of the cliches that had bogged down his earlier books (the formulaic opening sentence, the first good guy mentioned dying, a [[Token Romance]]) - and spins a thriller that ends up not postulating a likely incorrect view of history, but one that hinges on the idea that wisdom lives inside us.

== Music ==

* Tends to be extremely common with a lot of bands, and quite often the first album most bands actually make are never released by the label that signs them or is cannibalized to make their first official album.

** Similarly, Van Morrison, which like Radiohead got a debut with a [[Signature Song]] that the band/singer doesn't like very much ("Creep" for Radiohead, "Brown Eyed Girl" for Morrison), earned more acclaim with a highly experimental second album.

* [[Motley Crue|Mötley Crüe]]'s debut album, ''Too Fast for Love'', was a decent glam metal album, held back by inexperience on behalf of the band and rather inept management. Their next album was expected to be more solid, but when ''Shout at the Devil'' was released it blew said expectations out of the water. This happened again later, twice. After Vince Neil killed someone in a car crash and served a jail term, no one expected much out of the Crue, but ''Girls Girls Girls'' ended up being a great album. Unfortunately, the band's well-publicised substance abuse problems made the tour complete crap, and between Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear's marriage, Nikki Sixx's near-fatal heroin overdose, Mick Mars' struggle with alcoholism and ankylosing spondylitis, and Vince Neil effectively leaving the band for a time, they were pretty much dismissed as washed-up former stars. Then, they released ''Dr. Feelgood''. In just over a month they were number one on the charts. ''Dr. Feelgood'' is still considered their best album by most fans.

* [[Zig-Zagging Trope|A rollercoaster]] with ''[[Ace Combat]]''. The localization of ''Electrosphere'' had its [[Macekre|entire plot surgically removed]]. ''Shattered Skies'' fared better, and had a better plot to begin with, but its strength was in the delivery. ''The Unsung War'' brings everything together with sympathetic characters, a clever plot, and the astounding, epic presentation the series is known for, which it continued with for ''The Belkan War'', except bigger. ''Fires of Liberation'', however, goes a step back with a textbook, straightforward plot and a cast consisting of only supporting characters, none of whom get much individual screen time or, indeed, even matter until the very end.

* The original ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' game on the Nintendo [[Game Boy]] was clunky, with minimal plot and a ''lot'' of [[Guide Dang It]] moments. Each game's taken steps since then, with its first sequel actually using the pilots and storylines from the series' in question, and producing Banpresto's first [[Original Generation]] batch, featuring Masaki Ando, Bian Zoldark, and Shu Shirakawa.

* ''[[Saints Row]]'' was your stereotypical [[Wide Open Sandbox]], released to faint praise for having a solid, fun game, but still being a shameless GTA clone. Only one thing really changed between its release and its sequel - GTA decided it wanted to be taken seriously, and we got GTA 4. ''Saints Row 2'' went the other path - the main character became an over-the-top [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]] and the game took [[Refuge in Audacity]]. Critics loved it, as did players.

** Even [[Caustic Critic|Yaht]][[Zero Punctuation|zee]] loved the sequel. He even called his review of it an "overly long wedding proposal".

* The original ''[[Star Control]]'' was a 2D space combat sim with hardly any story elements (at least not [[All There in the Manual|in the game.]]). ''[[Star Control]] 2'' kept the good parts (the space combat, aka Super Melee) and added a surprisingly complex and fun story mode.

* Think about this one for a second: the original NES ''[[Bomberman]]'' didn't have ''multiplayer''. Considering the multiplayer is often considered the backbone of the franchise's popularity...

* The original ''[[Killzone]]'' was a heavily hyped [[PlayStation 2]] shooter that ended up falling quite short of expectations, though it wasn't bad at all, just mediocre. ''Killzone 2'', on the other hand, has been well received by both critics and gamers, and "lived up to the hype".

* The first two ''[[Wangan Midnight]]'' arcade games were basically just ''[[Tokyo Xtreme Racer]]'' with ''Wangan Midnight'' characters and stage-based gameplay, with few players remembering or thoroughly enjoying them. ''Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune'', on the other hand, gave ''[[Initial D Arcade Stage]]'' a run for its money.

* ''[[Harvest Moon Frantic Farming]]'' is a Surprisingly Improved Sequel to the confusing and disappointing earlier ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' [[Puzzle Game]], ''Puzzle de Harvest Moon''.

* ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Basketball]]'' on the [[PlayStation 2]] improved on everything ''Backyard Basketball'' on the PC, released two years earlier, had. There were no glitches, the game never freezes, there are NBA teams, and there are 9 more playable characters (while removing 1). There are even unlockable powerups!

* ''[[Mega Man X]]'' had a nearly universally despised seventh game (an unusual instance in the extremely [[Broken Base|divided fanbase]] that ''Mega Man'' has); but the eighth game is considered a vast improvement.

** ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'s'' second game was hard to take even for the people who liked the first one, but the third game made up for it in incredibly unexpected ways, to a degree that some consider it the best in the entirety of the ''Battle Network/Star Force'' continuity.

** And then, the relatively few flaws and lack of depth found in ''Legacy of Goku II'' were completely gone in ''Buu's Fury''.

* ''Astonishia Story'' was an RPG originally made for PCs in the mid-1990s and remained exclusively a Korean property until 2006, when the game was remade for the PSP and distributed worldwide. The port hadn't aged well at all, and the lackluster localization effort by [[Ubisoft]] didn't help. Three years later, ''Astonishia Story 2'' (titled ''[[Crimson Gem Saga]]'' in non-Asian countries) was released to a much warmer reception, with tighter character development, a retooled battle and skill system that emphasizes [[Combination Attack|combination attacks]], much less [[Forced Level Grinding]], and a better translation by the team at [[Atlus]].

* ''[[Thunder Force]] III'' was a huge improvement over its rather average predecessor ''[[Thunder Force]] II'', they got rid of the annoying overhead scrolling stages, improved the graphics and [[Awesome Music|music]], and made the gameplay a lot better. ''[[Thunder Force]] IV'' and ''[[Thunder Force]] V'' continued on the tradition of awesomeness and were pretty much the peak of the franchise. Unfortunately, [[Sequelitis]] took effect after that.

* ''[[Assassin's Creed (video game)|Assassin's Creed I]]'' had really good [[Le Parkour]] gameplay and the beginnings of an interesting [[Ancient Conspiracy]] story, but was burdened with boring characters and levels, padding, and repetitive side quests and assassinations. ''[[Assassin's Creed II]]'' had a likable main character, levels that were memorable, and missions that were actually fun.

* The original ''[[Fallout]]'' was a solid, if slightly glitchy RPG whose primary claim to fame was being violent enough that Steve Jackson withdrew the GURPS license during development. ''Fallout 2'' is a classic, and defined the open world, dark humor, pervasive bugs, and surreal special encounters that would become hallmarks of the sequel.

** In a similar vein, ''Fallout3'' was a good game, with a visually impressive world, but suffered due to flat characters, lack of meaningful interaction, almost pointless social skills, and deviating from the source material quite a bit. ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', with the reins handed back to the original team, was more linear, but much more widely praised for retaining the feel of a ''Fallout 1'' and ''Fallout 2'', while adding interesting new mechanics to the ''Fallout 3'' experience and making characters and interactions much more vibrant and rewarding while making a social character more viable.

* ''Outpost'' was a turn-based colony management game that was well hyped before its release, but it turned out to just be [[Recycled in Space|Simcity IN SPACE!]] Not only that, it had several bugs, and was basically unfinished. ''[[Outpost 2]]'' on the other hand, took some of the key plot elements from the first, and made it into an enjoyably complex real time strategy game with a heavy focus on colony management. The story (which ignored the first in almost every conceivable fashion) was very detailed and interesting, becoming a tale told from the point of view of two factions, both trying to survive and avoid extinction. The inclusion of the story in the form of a novella, along with all the well-researched science (the game leans heavily towards hard science fiction), makes the game more enjoyable than one would expect from its predecessor.

* The original ''[[Warcraft]]'' was an unimaginative [[Real Time Strategy]] with two cosmetically-different sides and little backstory. This is justified because the people at Blizzard had a contract with [[Games Workshop]] on making a ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'' game. When the contract fell through, they decided to release the game anyway under a slightly-different name (that's why ''Warcraft'' has green orcs). Then came ''Warcraft II'', still with very similar sides (except for mage spells and archer enhancements) but a fairly well-developed backstory. Along with ''[[Dune]] II'', ''Warcraft II'' is considered to be one of the progenitors of the [[Real Time Strategy]] genre. ''Warcraft III'' has 4 ''very'' different sides and an even richer backstory, the success of which prompted Blizzard to make [[World of Warcraft|the most successful MMORPG in history]].

* ''[[Mario Party]] 9'' is this among many people. The series had a total off 10 parties before the 9th installment (8 of them going from the N64, to Gamecube, and the Wii while the other two were on the GBA and DS) and the most common complaint where how the games were more about luck than skill and how each game was just a rehash from the last game. The 9th installment changes up a ton of things to make the games a bit more fair by greatly reducing the amount of luck based events, scrapping the coins, stars, and items system for a mini-star system that allows players to collect them very frequently or lose them just as fast so games are more close, and the mechanic of all players moving on the board at once creates new strategies in turn order and what types of dice blocks you should use. Of course, people who grew up with the series [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|may not like the new direction of the 9th party]].