Sometimes you play the fuck the out of a game to the point that there’s literally nothing else, you’re left still wanting more. Sadly, if there was more, it probably wouldn’t be as good, maybe some tacked on at the last minute DLC or whatever, but what about a sequel? Ahhh, but only if it could be as good as the original, right? Well, how about…

Bully 2 – Community College

I loved the original Bully. The very idea that you get to beat the hell out of all the assholes that used to torment you through highschool? Oh hell yeah. But more than that, Bully allowed for an open world school system with day/night progression, many missions that were more adult in nature, and semi-realistic problems that bullied kids and cliques in general go through on a regular basis, regardless of how immature or overly mature it came off at times.

I thought that maybe a Bully sequel would work, but exactly how would that work? Would we have a new main character at Bullworth or something similar? Nah, I thought, let’s have Jimmy going to a community college full of all the same problems along with brand new ones as he pursues relationships, starts his own fraternity, and deals with more adult problems in general, while still having the whole college thing going on.

Think of how many parodies and homages Rockstar could go through: Animal House, PCU, Oldschool, Accepted, American Pie…the list goes on and on. Plus, they wouldn’t even have to go to the movies, Rockstar could just go through real life crazyness that goes on everyday or even consult the fine folks at College Humor. All in all, if it kept the humor and lightheartedness of the original, I think this would work out very well.

Tales of Vesperia – Guild Management

One of the biggest letdowns of Tales of Vesperia was the ending. There was so much shit left unresolved and I’m not going to get into all of it, but one thing I was hoping would eventually happen in the game was the official creation of a guild and managing such. That never really happens. Karol just kinda pitches the idea, Yuri goes along with it, but ultimately if the guild idea was never even mentioned in the game, it would have had no effect on the story, characters, or outcome.

So my thought was wouldn’t it be fun to have an afterstory of sorts where you get to revisit all the characters and brand new ones while travelling the countryside forming a guild and managing it? In fact, it could even play out like FF10-2 and 13-2 where you kinda warp around between locations to resolve missions, gather ingredients (which is an idea derived from Xillia), and so on.

It sounds very basic, but honestly, keeping it basic might be a good idea if, I don’t know, it were to be a more casual experience playable on a portable or even an iPhone. I’m not talking MMO shit here, but a bonafide Tales experience, just with a strong focus on many, many side missions similar in vein to Skyrim. Honestly, I think that would work well, especially if you could have regular DLC and user-created content.

Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas Stories

While I am happy to see a return to Los Santos (technically San Andreas), stats, and gang activity (sorta) with GTA5, I can’t help but wonder why Rockstar never considered bringing back an encore to San Andreas on portable? They did Liberty and Vice City Stories, but not San Andreas? Why? It honestly doesn’t make any sense.

Especially now that we have GTA5, we should see a return to something at the very least for the portables. Who knows? Maybe it’s already in the works and I’m just blowing smoke. That would be fantastic, but I very seriously doubt it. Rockstar has been sparing at best when it comes to portables, let alone PC ports (seriously why is there no Red Dead Redemption PC).

Even if it was kept light and in the same vein as the other portables, I’m sure people would appreciate it. I know it certainly killed a many boring night for me working security playing both of them on my PSP. It doesn’t even matter who the main character is…hell, it could just be a full remake of the original San Andreas, this is a great idea one way or the other.

Actraiser 3

This is another portable idea. Why? Honestly, I miss oldschool Quintet. Along with Enix, they made a lot of great older games like Illusion of Gaia, Robotrek, Terranigma, Soul Blazer, and yes, Actraiser. The thing is Actraiser kinda ended on a sour note. The second Actraiser was little more than an action game with no amount of sim stuff, poor controls, and a stronger focus on graphics and difficulty that turned off many players.

For some reason, Enix never bothered making another Actraiser and I’m not 100% sure why. For this incarnation, Enix could have it where there was a strong God sim focus while also having to zip down to fight in dungeons every so often to level up, gain followers, and gain praise from followers, which could act as experience or skill points or whatever.

And sure, this could work on a console too, but the main reason I want to have a stronger focus on portables is that would be the best way to get a wide audience quickly to attract more attention to Enix’s older works so that hopefully they would go back and revisit other titles such as Illusion of Gaia and so on.

Ogre Battle Wii

The easy answer is because there hasn’t been a new Ogre Battle or Tactics Ogre game in America since 2001. Another easy answer is why the fuck not? But I digress, the main reason we need another Ogre Battle is because we’re seeing more and more games LIKE Ogre Battle, but aren’t quite Ogre Battle, such as Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Revenant Wings, Growlanser, etc.

It’s proof positive that there’s definitely a market for it, so why the wii? Well, the wii has the exact type of control that would work well for this, though honestly portables and computers would too (hint hint). The best part is Ogre Battle smashes up RPG and strategy just right with a lot of open elements that very little would actually have to be done above creating a great story and characters (I realize that’s harder than I made it sound).

So yeah, I actually want TWO things out of Enix that revolve around their past that has magically disappeared for seemingly no reason. Come on, man! You’re not only a shadow of your former self, you’re letting Squaresoft overshadow you. Don’t let it end like this, you still have a lot to give. Not trying to be all…whatever…I just hate it when I don’t see anything awesome out of a company for a while.

Conclusion

Sequels aren’t always a bad idea. Sure, sometimes they’re AWFUL (I’m looking at you Dirge of Cerberus), but not always. Especially if a game was so great, at least at one time, and we want so much more of it, why not make a sequel? Honestly, I don’t think this will be a one time article because I have plenty more I’ve thought about recently. Thanks for the read!