Tired of spoilers? Would you rather listen to me wax poetic about Peggle? Head on over to Nebula for a whole exclusive video on it! nebula.tv/videos/jacob-geller-peggle-might-be-too-pure-for-2024/
Hey as someone sensitive to spoilers but who utterly adores your content. The firing squad idea for including a blank was brilliant. I won't watch this video until I one of the games on that list, and this was a perfect way to warn us.
The firing squad idea is so brilliant, I'm going to play the full video at low volume so I don't get spoiled but the watch time statistics aren't ruined
I've been on a binge of your content recently and halfway through the peggle video I half expected some existential tangent about Iraq or Diogenes, lmao I think it's time for a break.
The best part about The Stanley Parable 2 is that the developers really weren't planning on making a sequel until development was well underway. They were just planning on porting the game to console, using Unity instead of Source because Unity will run on consoles while the original Source engine really doesn't, and maybe adding an extra hour of new content. Then 1 hour became 2, 2 became 3, and by the time they were done, they had rewritten almost every ending and almost every piece of dialogue from the first game because they thought it'd be funny if, when Stanley is holding his 'Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket', the narrator said "Stanley and his Bucket" instead of just "Stanley". So the entirety of the Stanley Parable 2 is basically a joke about how much effort they went to to let Stanley hold a bucket.
I almost don't believe you, nor Geller's 'meh' reaction to UD's announcement. I haven't played it yet, but I have played the original HL2 mod, retail TSP, and retail TSP's demo (since removed from Steam... along with my 100% achievements in it...). I thought TSP: UD was the far-too-obvious 'blank round' in the firing-squad list. Playing any one of the aforementioned iterations just kinda sets up the expectation that a new one is very likely gonna be different and meta. Playing any two so you can compare notes, and you'd be shaking your fist and regretting the purchase if all UD were was an engine change, mild graphical update, and a handful of new endings. I know you're probably right in that's what the original intention was, and it's not like the trailer is lying if that were it, but damn, that's not very Stanley of them.
I just paused the video with the intent of giving my suggestion, before unpausing and realizing my suggestion was the exact thing he decided to do next... great mind things alike. Except in my version, the non-discussed games outnumbered the discussed ones 5 to 1.
I actually ended up playing one of the games on this list because of the spoiler warning, and while it ended up being the blank, it did turn out to be one of my favorite games I've played all year anyways
right? like I respect not wanting to get spoiled, but sometimes people get WAYYYYY too anal about getting spoiled about something they otherwise never would've played in the first place, like people need to chill, spoilers don't mean you can't still enjoy something
I never felt like reading Dragonriders Of Pern until my mom told me the twist of the first book, and it was so cool that I just had to see how it happened. Sometimes spoilers are good marketing!
I didn't watch the video but i have to say that i love that you actually say the idea of what is being spoiled before mentioning the games. I remember getting spoiled hard by a video with the topic of fourth wall breaks and a game i had on my radar was mentioned at the very start to "mention which games are getting spoiled" which upset me greatly. thank you for the huge heads up.
Darryl Talks Games casually spoils things all the time and I actually stopped watching because of it. Stuff like, mentioning a character death in a game while showing their equipment that remains in your inventory. Didn't have to name the game, didn't need the paired visual. So frustrating.
That Dragon’s Dogma 2 transition had my jaw on the FLOOR. I can’t imagine how it would feel to find this after investing a solid chunk of time into the game!!
@emryx the game still plays out, and you have whole new missions to do. It's essentially the end game, and the map is completely changed. It's my favorite part of an already solid game
@@emryx SPOILERS Short version: The world map gets a lot bigger because every previous lake/ocean/river is dried up, revealing new locations and enemies. The rest of the world gets lots of tougher enemy spawns, and the player only has so many in-game "days" (time gets weird in the "unmoored world" as it is called) to save every major city in the game from an incoming storm. You have to complete quests and defeat unique bosses in order to slow down the storm and evacuate the entire world map to a location that can be saved. It is both awesome and... not as awesome as it sounds. A lot of folks chafe against the timer and fail states(s) of the endgame, and unfortunately the newly opened up terrain doesn't hide anything particularly interesting outside some late-game loot. You'll still be fighting mostly reskins of the enemies you fought before. The new boss fights are neat, but also too-little-too-late as up til now you've fought mostly just the same enemies from the original DD ad-nausuem. This coupled with the fact that the game has no hard mode and is brain-dead easy by this point for anyone that spent more than 30 hours playing before hand really takes the wind out of the unmoored world's sails. It is, like almost everything in Dragons Dogma, a really cool idea with pretty rough execution.
1:22 If you ever do a “mixed spoilers” list like this again, you may want to throw in two or three fake spoiler games, especially for people who may’ve played the fake game already
Fair, but from a content creator point of view one is the best move to retain most viewers as well as protect the experience of quite a few people who don’t want to be spoiled
Also should add it to the “Media Shown” section in the description lol, I wasnt going to watch this video because of the ‘fake game’ but found out it was the fake game cause it wasnt there
In the same way that "Jacob Geller Thinks about Superstructures" is a genre with several entries, this essay is definitely a spiritual sequel to "Dark Souls 3 Is Thinking Of Ending Things"
One game I really like that does something similar is the Frog Fraction games where literally one of the games is hidden in a supposedly unrelated game
You stopped playing the game, the game was never won, you never became the hero that saved the world, is "that" how the world died? Because you let it die? Did you let the world become hell like this? This hell is what's become of the world you stopped saving, this is your eternity, in your world, do you want that to just as well be the eternity of the world you live in?" 😂 It's so meta I still have fun playing💕
Same, wog2 would’ve been good if not for that chapter 4 which was very clearly a cash grab and designed to promote Netflix. World Of Goo 21 sucked more though.
This is unironically one of the best video essays I've ever had the pleasure of seeing on this platform. When we got to the Hell moment, I legitimately got full body chills hearing you describe and analyze the events and their significance (for a game I've never played, mind you). The way you weave these disparate games and settings together to connect their messages and themes is, to put it lightly, artful. Hats off to you; please write every video essay I ever listen to for the rest of my life lol.
Honestly surprised Frog Fractions wasn’t at least passingly mentioned in this post when I watched it on Nebula. Can’t think of a game that literally hides its sequels more than that series
I literally thought this video is gonna center on frog fractions and was really confused when it didn't show up on the list of games the video talks about our even on the list of games that were used in the footage
I didn't want to be spoiled, so I changed the video to the Chinese language dub with subtitles off so I couldn't understand anything he was talking about...
@@FullMetalAtheist regardless of whether or not you got the joke...I think your screen name is dope and give you 10 points if you thought of it yourself. Only 5 points if you copied it though lol
Has jacob played nier? I don't think he has talked about it in any video which is such a shame considering the entire world of nier is so deep and it deserves video essays of thos quality
Gotta love how a friend of mine said when seeing the video title: "Hey that's not war crimes, this time" and then not even a minute into the video (00:50) he uses that metaphor for his method of hiding the spoiler, lol.
14:33 It's not the cleverest achievements that made it into the Memory Zone, it's the retired ones. The Memory Zone instances of content directly from The Stanley Parable are exclusively the ones that didn't make it to Ultra Deluxe, such as the photo of the Minecraft segment (retconned to Firewatch) or the relocation of the Serious Room (required Source Engine to access). Granted, "Go Outside" is retired only in the sense that Super Go Outside is technically slightly different, but nonetheless.
I really scratch my head on why the game is being only in Epic. (although I know it was primarily funded by Epic thus that's why). It had 1 trailer only which is fine for its theme. But you can still buy it in their website or Nintendo Switch for 30$ and no DRM. So there's that at least. I wish it had a slight more marketing, more people speak about it, or just be in Steam Store alongside Epic.
Wanna know something else? Pony island 2 also came out recently. Of course I have no idea whether you weren't aware of this yet, liked pony island, or even know what it is, but it would be incredibly funny.
16:45 this hit me for some reason. I think even outside of just videogames, everyone has a sort of physical or mental list of things they want to do, but end up falling in this trap and using their time doing whatever they're used to instead. They forget the drive they felt to try something new, and instead fall back on whats familiar, so the list of new things just keeps growing bigger and bigger without any items being knocked off. Change is difficult.
The whole big gaming industry has become like this. Chasing trends, chasing nostalgia, chasing filler content like achievements and collectables, chasing multiplayer grinds and never ever investing in new ideas that risk the slightest chance at failure. It hasn't helped that gamers have been eating up the same games and experiences for so long now, because it's comfortable and reliable like a McDonalds. But how many years of eating the same foods until your body and mind just start rejecting it outright, even become allergic. Indie creative tonics for all is what this industry longs for.
goddamn. it is very infrequent to find a video that is so incredibly captivating in its analysis, content, and ambience. this felt like a fine dine in Paris at a Michelin star restaurant. I congratulate you for creating such a great video. I've only played the Stanley parable out of the games you talked about, but it holds a very close place in my heart. absolutely beautiful how games can be both the thing, and a satire of the thing. now for a sequel!
i just wanna say how excellent of a touch it was to put the EDF chants as the "music" for the credit sequence. the subtlety of not being alone with the group of voices but the distinct tiredness you can hear with each set of verses as the situation grew more desperate/futile.
One of my favorite things that happens in Kingdom Hearts is that the mobile game port of the lost media browser game spent a good long while appearing to be just a much grindier version of the original game with a lot more filler content, only to never actually get to the ending because it was a sequel all along. It looking like a port was part of the story. The tons of extra filler content? It was all happy memories meant to replace the trauma your character experienced in the Keyblade War, a story event which had been previously implied to be noncanon and solely intended to give an ending to the cancelled browser version.
It's all pretty remarkable and even mind-blowing as a storytelling device... but it's also an experience that was mostly lost on anybody outside of Japan, because that browser version never had a global release.
@@RachelOSullivanI disagree to an extent. I’d argue that most people who had any interest in UX probably had at least a working understanding of what happened in X before going in. Pretty much the only draw the game had was the story since it wasn’t exactly impressive as far as gameplay or gacha goes.
My earliest experience of this was Donkey Kong on Game Boy in 1994. You expect it to be a cheap home console remake of the classic arcade experience, as was common back then. Instead the game surprises you that it's a big puzzle platformer with game save and sprawling levels, featuring brand new moves for Mario like the double jump and backwards summersault. It has that impeccable Nintendo charm of quality animation, memorable soundtrack and fun fair design that teaches you as you play. For a child it was especially challenging, considering my limited logic solving ability and impatience, so the game game lasted me for weeks. It was popular enough that Nintendo made sequels later with the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series.
I love that The Stanley Parable keeps up with their own jokes and themes by basically gaslighting you (or a newcomer) by never drawing the line where the original Stanley Parable ended and where the new content started Like *SPOILERS:* the section of "Stanley Parable 2" is literally an inside joke of the criticisms and what is the point in making sequels if you don't change the formula at least a bit
A someone who has played, like, five video games ever, these videos really make me appreciate them as an art form. There are so many unique aspects about video games, from their interactivity to the endless possibilities of subverting expectations and their almost unique ability to immerse you into a story and give YOU agency and influence in it. And all the while the thing is called something like "World of Goo". So, wow, I'm impressed.
Ultimately World Of Goo 1 had the same twist but without digging into the metanarrative of sequels and the like. The first time I was told "You are not compatible with... the world" I was in the same state of mind as you when you found Dragon's Dogma 2.
as someone who has played every EDF since 2017 religiously, EDF6 really spoke to me. They landed on a story that takes the player's gameplay loop and makes it part of the core narrative In a way that moved me. and the entire notion of the game was the indomitable human spirit.
I love how I'm essentially playing a game of chicken with a youtube video, hoping that the one game I haven't played yet was the blank, makes for a great start to some grade a existentialism.
I got lucky lol, the only game that I have not played and want to play was the one left out. Video spoilers below Although now that I hear about it Dragon's Dogma 2 sounds really cool.
I think the very intimate conversation between developers and players about letting a game rest is itself a sequel to when they first announced the game, except this time it’s not what you wanted to hear. Everyone always “wants” a sequel but in reality, they probably just wanted to experience the game for the first time again. Helldivers 2 is so far from the first game that you can tell which version is which just at a glance, but counter strike two? Someone in the office just wanted to upgrade the graphics and leave it at that.
i literally finished dragon's dogma 2 two days ago and kept thinking that "i think i need jacob geller to talk about this". i think i manifested this in some way. sorry.
@@LoremasterLobsangSame, I was cautiously excited for it but put it on the back burner for money/bad review reasons but now I am sitting here trying to work out if I can afford it asap
I want to say Kid Icarus Uprising kinda does this, but that's just more "you thought the game was over after this boss? there's someone else lmao" than "you thought the game was over? spend the rest of the game thematically recontexualizeing what you just played through"
Inscryption was truly a great and captivating experience. I really dig ARGs and the sheer quality that went into this game (with it's hidden ARG elements) was outstanding.
I agree, but it has nothing to do with the video. ...Actually, upon further consideration, the third act of the game could fit to the topic of the video.
it's wild because inscryption is a stealth sequel to The Hex, but that kind of hidden sequel isnt really what he's talking about here. also why he didn't mention frog fractions
@@longboy5639 they/them, thank you :) but yeah, happy to oblige. i really did just drop by to check the channel too, it was a call from god ig hajsjajs
i just discovered your channel thanks to this video, and i gotta say, watching this has awoken something that hasn't been awake inside me for a long time, the way you portray the themes... how you make them enjoyable, how well edited is... your voice the pacing, amazing work, it must've cost you so much. What i've just watched was something from Peak youtube, keep doing things like this, we need them in this world
I played all of EDF5 with a friend, then we palyed all of EDF6 and were constatly surprised by the twists. The moment when you get to save the guy from EDF5's turorial and then he helps activate Barga early in the invasion blew our minds.
Weird that the misdirecting fifth game in the list that supposedly doesn’t include its sequel literally contains a teaser within it for its actual real sort of sequel. It’s maybe the game to which the title is truest of them all
There's a game that's an indirect direct sequel to it's predecessor in such a way that's not even acknowledged by the characters because at the time its revealed it's incredibly minor, its title doesn't even drop until the 30 hour mark and the story does a hard reset during that title drop that forces you remake your characters with 13 brand new classes. It also combines gameplay and narrative so ambitiously in the last act that it would make Kojima blush with its audacity. It's Labyrinth of Galleria and I wish more people played it because the story is a genuine masterclass.
Labyrinth of Galleria was completely bananas. I played the predecessor but not completely and only half-remembered it, and nobody knew what I was talking about when I was talking about it with them. So I'm over here playing a different game that feels like a sequel, to a game that nobody is able to remember even though I remember talking about it with them while I was playing it. And then to have the game finish, only to title drop into its own sequel afterwards punched me directly in the gut. What the actual fuck was that game
That thing you did with, four games will be spoiled and one will not, was clever because having played the lake house, i know there is nothing like what you explained in it, but i was still excited all through the video to see if you had found something new or interesting. Great video I’ll be sure to subscribe. :)
Earlier this week I mentioned this topic to a friend. We had just completed a game that revealed more video game. I said “Oh this is like another game I’ve played-“ I couldn’t remember it. Just by seeing the title of this video, something flooded all of those games back into my mind… and yet none of them are discussed in this video. What a bizarrely common phenomenon. [for those asking, the game in question is a psycho dungeon crawler. very pomp.]
"Remembering is better than playing something new" wow that describes how i feel about gaming a lot of times It's hard to get into them as much as I used to and would instead rather talk to my friends about old games or watch videos about said games
This was an absolutely beautiful done essay. The pacing, the content, the cadence. Also thanks for making me tear up again at the beauty of Stanley Parable's narrative, appreciate that.
I think the first game I ever saw do this was Space Quest 4, where you steal a time machine and travel to previous and future entries in the series. The title on the window even changes to let you know that you're playing Space Quest 12: Vohaul's Revenge II now.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 (You know, the game taking place after The Arisen ends the cycle) reminds me of Dark Souls 3 (yes, another Dark Souls comparison), except inverted. The cycle of Grigori and The Arisen was what kept the world in balance in the series, rather than what’s keeping the world decaying due to stagnation in Dark Souls. Revoking that cycle entirely, causes the world to destabilize, and morph into a hellish inversion of itself, much like how breaking Fillianore’s Egg in The Ringed City destroys the protective force keeping it alive. Both series are about refusing to continue a cycle, however while Dark Souls depicts it in a canonical, in game sense, Dragon’s Dogma depicts it in both a in game, and meta sense.
I hate to say it but the second game you mentioned did such a good job convincing me it didn't have anything truly new to offer that I stopped playing it entirely. It just goes to show how effective this type of meta-narrative is, without thinking about it, or even realizing it, I still ran face-first into it.
Ōkami is my go to game to reference when it comes to a game having its own built in sequel. It basically having 3 self contained story arcs within a grand narrative and then ending in a purposeful, yet satisfying cliffhanger was something I wish I could experience again for the first time. :-)
I'll never forget defeating orochi for the first time as a kid, so proud of myself that I had finally finished the game... and then realized the game had only just properly started. Blew my damn mind, still an all time favorite
I love this video. The way the topics get weaved in and out into a narrative for the video as opposed to just a list going over each topic and moving on is wonderful.
my favorite rendition of this will always be labyrinth of galleria and how it plays with what you'd expect from a sequel; it's more connected to itself than it is to refrain and it's constantly teasing you with grander possibilities of connection before stamping it out and forcing you to work for it more, to play more, to truly put the effort to get the conclusion you think it deserves
I love the back and forth going on between those 2 where Control had an Alan Wake DLC and teased Alan Wake 2, then Alan Wake 2 had a Control DLC and teased Control 2.
I've mentioned this before elsewhere, but putting two together honestly makes a lot of sense for how they contrast in their depiction of the supernatural. Alan Wake is about the terrifying nature of being caught up in a force outside the bounds of our world, the horror of the personal twisted by the unknown. Control is about the futility of institutions that try to make the unknown manageable, made safer yet still with a creeping dread that it can never be fully understood. Going from AW 1 to Control, Bright Falls seems a lot less scary, just another file in a vast bureaucracy treating such events as, not common, but largely comprehendable occurences. Then going from Control to AW 2, the terror has only been increased, recontextualized by our gained knowledge and more dreadful because we both know EXACTLY what's going to happen, and yet are still left in the dark (ha) about so many other things.
May I just say, I love that you used the Jeopardy theme from one of the videogame versions, not from the show. I'd forgotten I'd had it for NES when I was wee until I accidentally rewound, heard the clip again, and unlocked some childhood memories
Honestly, I can’t say I was expecting that level of artistry and self-awareness in Dragon’s Dogma 2 from a juggernaut dev like Capcom. At least not to that degree
Dragon's Dogma always felt like Hideaki Itsuno's personal pet project Capcom let him make. Even DD1 from 12 years ago had a similar theme and late-game twist, which is why it's such a beloved cult classic. Heck, most fans say the 1st game executed the "breaking the cycle" theme much better than DD2.
Man, this video has the ultimate dilemma of ‘oh man, I need play and finish these games’ but I also wanna watch your video !!! I’ll be back in a week and if I haven’t at least started/finished these games, then I’ll just watch the video cause we only get one vid a month and I always look forward to them. See you then my dude !
Played Stanley Ultra earlier this year after seeing it on a Gellar top ten list and god almighty, feels like I've thought about it every day since. Such a distinct game!!
I can't recall if I've ever watched a video essay that ended on a punchline before but I'm glad I now have for certain, yet another stellar essay Jacob ♥︎
I can tell you from a family antecdote, that at least one time it was 4 live rounds and 1 blank, at a specific execution after WW2. According to my grandfather who said he was a shooter in a firing squad for some Nazi officer. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that was the story my grandpa always told.
Spoiler for the uhh video essay i guess // . . . . . . . . . I love when games adress the franchise metanarrative. My favorite example of this will always be the Deponia series by Daedalic - it used to be a complete trilogy with a conclusive narrative, but the fanbase was super unhappy with the ending of the game (because the funny main character sacrifices himself to save his love interest/the world). So when Deponia 4 rolled around, it begins with an opening scene set in an apocalyptic wasteland with an aged but somehow alive protagonist setting off a bomb that blows up the world. And from there it unravels into a narrative of time travel that is obsessed with fixing the end of the previous game, only to make it worse and worse each attempt. It's a genius metanarrative about coming to terms with endings and letting go of a beloved franchise.
I've always described that game as the fourth of the trilogy. There is no other way to describe it, and its perfect for that. I'm still fucking mad they killed Rufus off, and I don't think I'll ever not be mad. But 4 turned the anger from hot to more of a sad anger, an anger that the games writers had that ending in mind and they had structured the entire game around it, and they refused to write themselves out of it as that would've invalidated the first three games. Its also kind of like how the makers of hotline miami 2 blew the damned world up at the end of it as a polite but firm "fuck you" (the sort of "fuck you" that you say to a friend after they make a dad joke) to people who wanted more. But a third game fixing 2's mistakes, both in gameplay and storytelling deserves to be made, I would absolutely love it if a dedicated group of fans created it as a firm but polite "fuck you" back to the creators. The issue with the hotline miami series that deponia 4 provides is closure. Deponia 4 provides a sense of closure that 3 failed to. Hotline miami has no sense of closure, which leaves a bad taste in your mouth when the credits of 2 roll.
@@Gloomdrakeit’s a third game, although it’s very confusing because as far as I know, the actual sequel to the second game is the Danganronpa 3 anime. This is completely separate from the game Danganronpa V3.
@@zacharyfeldman6822 I would argue... maybe Hotline Miami 2 ending the way it does, without actual closure, is exactly the point. Like, HM2 is THE game that basically says "there are no happy endings for those who enjoy hurting other people." Everyone you play as dies violently, whether in nuclear hellfire or at the hands of someone else, playable or not. If we actually DO get to the end of the game, and decide we want to play hard mode, the game basically comes out and asks us "okay now why the fuck would you want to do this AGAIN? You KNOW how this story ends." If you commit to a life of violence, there will never BE closure for you. You'll either die a pointless death or become just another victim, sometimes even as a result of something completely outside of your control.
This video reminded me, I don't want to die. I don't want to be a memory like these games, I want to see how it ends, I want to finish the story. But I will never be able to. None of us will.
Quick note about the "you can't play x first!?!" I had a little brother who only knew MGS because of the memes, and when Armstong blew up hard he decided to jump into the series. He started with 2, so he could play Revengence, played 1, played 3, we are about to start Peace Walker..... Morale... it doesn't matter, any entry does a great job of hooking people
Changing the order helps emphasize different themes in the franchise. Watching Lucas' Star Wars from I to VI emphasizes rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. Watching it from IV to VI and then I-III puts the emphasis on the Rebel Alliance that try not to repeat the Republic's mistakes.
i read JoJo's part 7, then 6, got obsessed with it and watched all the anime, and it makes other fans inexplicably mad. i never could have slogged through part 3 without knowing where the later entries go.
100%. i think people can and should start a large series anywhere they like. and that's as a yakuza fan! you get to have fun with the game as is, and then an extra *ohh* moment when you get context for a reference and can experience it all over again but in a different direction. find the most unhinged play order possible! be chaos!
I feel fallout is a good example of this as well. Most people i know started with four and worked backwards, to the point where only the most interested in the lore and world have played the first two
Spoilers for Danganronpa V3 . . . . . . . . It's clever because V3 looks to us like "Version 3" or as a generic cool thing the creators sometimes do like "Street Fighter 2 Turbo". But no, it's V3, as in the roman numeral for 5, V, and 3, Danganronpa 53, the 53rd Killing Game. It hides the real number of the game IN THE TITLE ITSELF
One really interesting instance of “hiding its sequel” I think is this one little indie game called MOTHERED. A demo came out for it as part of a collection of indie horror game demos (I think it was Dread XP?) and, say you saw the demo in the collection, and you’d already played the full thing, but that was a while ago. So you boot up the demo and play it- and the game actually checks to see if you have a save file for the first game on your computer; and if you *do*, then it doesn’t go to the demo but rather the semi-sequel MOTHERED: HOME. It’s really cool. Also Ikaruga pretends it’s a standalone schmup but it’s actually a sequel-prequel-end-of-the-timeloop-metacommentary-on-schmups to Radiant Silvergun and I would pay any amount of money to hear your analysis on that.
I do not say this lightly or haphazardly, Jacob. This is easily one of the best essay channels I've ever stumbled upon. I still reread the Golem every once in a while.
As a game developer, I always thought it would be a good idea to hide my personal project on a disc in a place no one would find it (kinda like inscryption lol)
This is my first time watching one of your videos. Im also high as hell This was great, the storytelling was phenomenal, but what i like is the back and forth. Its like im just letting you ramble on while i do dishes or something
A similar game to this is Deponia Doomsday, which only exists because fans kept pestering the creator to make a fourth game. It literally starts with the protagonist being old in a frozen wasteland, full of monsters, and lighting a nuke to end the world. Its expectations are weighed down by the old games, and the creator essentially says, 'F you, you wanted this,' destroying everything and finally ending the loop in the game and for the fans, so they can never ask for another game.
**SPOILERS FOR THE VIDEO** Thank you for giving Dragons Dogma 2 it's due. It's my game of the year. When I got the title drop It crystallised in my mind as one of my favourite games of all time. That* part of the game will made me feel more aware of a games themes and mechanics than any other game I've played. Once I started my next playthrough It immediately felt as though I could do anything I wanted in the game. It just lets you manipulate it like no other game I've seen, except for DD 2012.
The first video ive seen from this channel and goddayum sir! This, THIS is transformative content! Also thank god AW2 wasnt discussed in the video. I have been patiently waiting and saving up for a new system to enjoy Mr. Wake and his shenanigans; and listen to whatever Ahti sings.
Tired of spoilers? Would you rather listen to me wax poetic about Peggle? Head on over to Nebula for a whole exclusive video on it! nebula.tv/videos/jacob-geller-peggle-might-be-too-pure-for-2024/
Hey as someone sensitive to spoilers but who utterly adores your content. The firing squad idea for including a blank was brilliant. I won't watch this video until I one of the games on that list, and this was a perfect way to warn us.
The firing squad idea is so brilliant, I'm going to play the full video at low volume so I don't get spoiled but the watch time statistics aren't ruined
hey jacob! huge fan here, what are you thoughts on mystery visual novels or have you never tried any?
Danganronpa V3 would fit on this list perfectly. You should really play the series, it's a surprising blind spot for you
I've been on a binge of your content recently and halfway through the peggle video I half expected some existential tangent about Iraq or Diogenes, lmao I think it's time for a break.
The best part about The Stanley Parable 2 is that the developers really weren't planning on making a sequel until development was well underway. They were just planning on porting the game to console, using Unity instead of Source because Unity will run on consoles while the original Source engine really doesn't, and maybe adding an extra hour of new content. Then 1 hour became 2, 2 became 3, and by the time they were done, they had rewritten almost every ending and almost every piece of dialogue from the first game because they thought it'd be funny if, when Stanley is holding his 'Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket', the narrator said "Stanley and his Bucket" instead of just "Stanley".
So the entirety of the Stanley Parable 2 is basically a joke about how much effort they went to to let Stanley hold a bucket.
I'm glad they did, I love that bucket the most
dougdoug viewer
I almost don't believe you, nor Geller's 'meh' reaction to UD's announcement. I haven't played it yet, but I have played the original HL2 mod, retail TSP, and retail TSP's demo (since removed from Steam... along with my 100% achievements in it...).
I thought TSP: UD was the far-too-obvious 'blank round' in the firing-squad list. Playing any one of the aforementioned iterations just kinda sets up the expectation that a new one is very likely gonna be different and meta. Playing any two so you can compare notes, and you'd be shaking your fist and regretting the purchase if all UD were was an engine change, mild graphical update, and a handful of new endings. I know you're probably right in that's what the original intention was, and it's not like the trailer is lying if that were it, but damn, that's not very Stanley of them.
it’s not just a bucket! sometimes you can get a sticker for it!!
@@JumbieLove290 I hate you for making such a pedantic comment. I wanted to make it, instead!
When the credits started rolling, I wish someone had seen the side-eye I gave the video, expecting a part 2.
That's for nebula
@@AugustRx So lame
Had to check the time remaining when the nebula bit happened, for that reason.
"You know how in a firing squad" oh it's Geller time fr
Jacobed my Geller
I just paused the video with the intent of giving my suggestion, before unpausing and realizing my suggestion was the exact thing he decided to do next... great mind things alike. Except in my version, the non-discussed games outnumbered the discussed ones 5 to 1.
@@Scypeki fear your version would cut the views in half by convincing everyone that a game they want to play will be spoiled
She Jacobed my Geller til I Videoed essayed all over my nebula @@Flashv28
Jacob should do a video about games influenced by Robert E. Howard
I love spoilers that make me more interested in what they spoiled. Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet.
I actually ended up playing one of the games on this list because of the spoiler warning, and while it ended up being the blank, it did turn out to be one of my favorite games I've played all year anyways
right? like I respect not wanting to get spoiled, but sometimes people get WAYYYYY too anal about getting spoiled about something they otherwise never would've played in the first place, like people need to chill, spoilers don't mean you can't still enjoy something
I think spoilers are a massively overstated problem. I'd argue knowing the twist going into it makes it easier to appreciate the foreshadowing
I never felt like reading Dragonriders Of Pern until my mom told me the twist of the first book, and it was so cool that I just had to see how it happened. Sometimes spoilers are good marketing!
I have held back from entire franchises because fans refused to spoil to me if they contain certain critical elements.
If this video doesnt secretly contain the next 5 jacob geller videos i am going to be disappointed
Found it! At minute 12:34 you have to hold your breath, cross your toes on both feet, and hit ctrl+W.
Those are actually contained in the "Nebula" expansion pass
@@cringerthemad You got me 😔
Every HBomberguy video contains the next five HBomberguy videos
dude i NEED a jacob geller Hades video
I didn't watch the video but i have to say that i love that you actually say the idea of what is being spoiled before mentioning the games. I remember getting spoiled hard by a video with the topic of fourth wall breaks and a game i had on my radar was mentioned at the very start to "mention which games are getting spoiled" which upset me greatly. thank you for the huge heads up.
Darryl Talks Games casually spoils things all the time and I actually stopped watching because of it. Stuff like, mentioning a character death in a game while showing their equipment that remains in your inventory. Didn't have to name the game, didn't need the paired visual. So frustrating.
That Dragon’s Dogma 2 transition had my jaw on the FLOOR. I can’t imagine how it would feel to find this after investing a solid chunk of time into the game!!
But what happen after the Dragon’s Dogma 2 title screen ? Is it just an long epilogue or is there a game after the transition ?
@@emryx I don't know, but now I really wanna find out.
@emryx the game still plays out, and you have whole new missions to do. It's essentially the end game, and the map is completely changed. It's my favorite part of an already solid game
@@kuyaaa_Good to know, thanks !
@@emryx SPOILERS Short version: The world map gets a lot bigger because every previous lake/ocean/river is dried up, revealing new locations and enemies. The rest of the world gets lots of tougher enemy spawns, and the player only has so many in-game "days" (time gets weird in the "unmoored world" as it is called) to save every major city in the game from an incoming storm. You have to complete quests and defeat unique bosses in order to slow down the storm and evacuate the entire world map to a location that can be saved.
It is both awesome and... not as awesome as it sounds. A lot of folks chafe against the timer and fail states(s) of the endgame, and unfortunately the newly opened up terrain doesn't hide anything particularly interesting outside some late-game loot. You'll still be fighting mostly reskins of the enemies you fought before. The new boss fights are neat, but also too-little-too-late as up til now you've fought mostly just the same enemies from the original DD ad-nausuem.
This coupled with the fact that the game has no hard mode and is brain-dead easy by this point for anyone that spent more than 30 hours playing before hand really takes the wind out of the unmoored world's sails. It is, like almost everything in Dragons Dogma, a really cool idea with pretty rough execution.
1:22 If you ever do a “mixed spoilers” list like this again, you may want to throw in two or three fake spoiler games, especially for people who may’ve played the fake game already
Lmao true. I was like "No it isn't!"
@@TheChocoboRacerwhat game was it
Fair, but from a content creator point of view one is the best move to retain most viewers as well as protect the experience of quite a few people who don’t want to be spoiled
@@Bobo_bogart the one thats not in the video
Also should add it to the “Media Shown” section in the description lol, I wasnt going to watch this video because of the ‘fake game’ but found out it was the fake game cause it wasnt there
In the same way that "Jacob Geller Thinks about Superstructures" is a genre with several entries, this essay is definitely a spiritual sequel to "Dark Souls 3 Is Thinking Of Ending Things"
I couldn't stop thinking about this all the way through.
a hidden sequel, you might say
exactly
Right by the "Jacob Geller is afraid of this one specific thing" aisle
Are these titles to some videos made by him? I don't get what this means.
One game I really like that does something similar is the Frog Fraction games where literally one of the games is hidden in a supposedly unrelated game
"Welcome to the sequel, asshole!" with that music and Jacob's enthusiasm just hits so goddamn hard.
Did he smack his desk before delivering that line? 😂
I did not care about this game at all before now. Well done.
@@MicaiahBaron literally same. Holy shit what a twist! Talk about the spoiler making you actually go through the media
@@AlleonoriCat Same! Now its on my must play list
You stopped playing the game, the game was never won, you never became the hero that saved the world, is "that" how the world died? Because you let it die? Did you let the world become hell like this? This hell is what's become of the world you stopped saving, this is your eternity, in your world, do you want that to just as well be the eternity of the world you live in?"
😂 It's so meta I still have fun playing💕
“I don’t need backstory to be convinced to shoot a giant ant with a rocket launcher” will be permanently etched in my brain. Right next to the vines
Personally I thought World of Goo 17 was one of the stronger entries in the series
World of goolf goated
Same, wog2 would’ve been good if not for that chapter 4 which was very clearly a cash grab and designed to promote Netflix. World Of Goo 21 sucked more though.
I would absolutely play a point n' click by 2dBoy is what I learned from it
@@avimo2565 Sounds like the Exploding Kittens card game.
How does it compare to The Stanley Parable 4: Avoid the Skeleton?
This is unironically one of the best video essays I've ever had the pleasure of seeing on this platform. When we got to the Hell moment, I legitimately got full body chills hearing you describe and analyze the events and their significance (for a game I've never played, mind you). The way you weave these disparate games and settings together to connect their messages and themes is, to put it lightly, artful. Hats off to you; please write every video essay I ever listen to for the rest of my life lol.
Honestly surprised Frog Fractions wasn’t at least passingly mentioned in this post when I watched it on Nebula. Can’t think of a game that literally hides its sequels more than that series
*THIS.*
This is exactly right.
that was my first thought
Aww. Still watching this and I thought they would have mentioned the Frog Fractions sequel.
I literally thought this video is gonna center on frog fractions and was really confused when it didn't show up on the list of games the video talks about our even on the list of games that were used in the footage
That was the only one I knew about going in I was very surprised not to see it
I love that this whole video was just a round about way to get everyone to listen to the EDF song at the end.
I didn't want to be spoiled, so I changed the video to the Chinese language dub with subtitles off so I couldn't understand anything he was talking about...
哈哈哈
What's the point of even watching at that point?
@@FullMetalAtheist woosh
@@FullMetalAtheist regardless of whether or not you got the joke...I think your screen name is dope and give you 10 points if you thought of it yourself. Only 5 points if you copied it though lol
I listened to it in English and I have no idea what the hell he was talking about.
On the topic of late title cards, Nier Automata has its title card drop approximately 30 hours into the game
So does Binary Domain, I think it clocks at 40 minutes after a hell of a hollywood-esque intro with gameplay included
Warframe has a character creation screen about 100 hours in, and a whole new title card some dozen hours after that.
Has jacob played nier? I don't think he has talked about it in any video which is such a shame considering the entire world of nier is so deep and it deserves video essays of thos quality
@@Cybermaul Warframe, the game I played for 2 years before finishing the tutorial
Also pretty neat how nier is its own hidden sequel
"Earth Defense Force 4.1 - The Shadow of New Despair" is such a delightful name for a video game
long game titles with no purpose other than to be long scratch an itch inside my head i did not know existed until i played edf4.1 for the first time
Wait for “Earth Defense 4.1 - The Shadow of New Despair 2: The Movie: The Game”
@ actually we do have a Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair: Wingdiver the Shooter
Gotta love how a friend of mine said when seeing the video title: "Hey that's not war crimes, this time" and then not even a minute into the video (00:50) he uses that metaphor for his method of hiding the spoiler, lol.
It's a Jacob video, you know it'll be war crimes
14:33 It's not the cleverest achievements that made it into the Memory Zone, it's the retired ones. The Memory Zone instances of content directly from The Stanley Parable are exclusively the ones that didn't make it to Ultra Deluxe, such as the photo of the Minecraft segment (retconned to Firewatch) or the relocation of the Serious Room (required Source Engine to access).
Granted, "Go Outside" is retired only in the sense that Super Go Outside is technically slightly different, but nonetheless.
In this video I got spoiled about the fact that World of Goo 2 EXISTS
IT'S BEEN 15 YEARS SINCE THE FIRST ONE
I really scratch my head on why the game is being only in Epic. (although I know it was primarily funded by Epic thus that's why). It had 1 trailer only which is fine for its theme. But you can still buy it in their website or Nintendo Switch for 30$ and no DRM. So there's that at least.
I wish it had a slight more marketing, more people speak about it, or just be in Steam Store alongside Epic.
You’ll love it
Wanna know something else? Pony island 2 also came out recently.
Of course I have no idea whether you weren't aware of this yet, liked pony island, or even know what it is, but it would be incredibly funny.
@@largob1594i just checked, it didn’t release yet
@@largob1594 aw you got me hyped up
My ambition is to eventually make something so extraordinarily clever that Jacob Gellar mentions it
16:45 this hit me for some reason. I think even outside of just videogames, everyone has a sort of physical or mental list of things they want to do, but end up falling in this trap and using their time doing whatever they're used to instead. They forget the drive they felt to try something new, and instead fall back on whats familiar, so the list of new things just keeps growing bigger and bigger without any items being knocked off. Change is difficult.
It’s basically thinking you need to do homework, and I think a specific form of nerd culture made it more widespread.
The whole big gaming industry has become like this. Chasing trends, chasing nostalgia, chasing filler content like achievements and collectables, chasing multiplayer grinds and never ever investing in new ideas that risk the slightest chance at failure. It hasn't helped that gamers have been eating up the same games and experiences for so long now, because it's comfortable and reliable like a McDonalds. But how many years of eating the same foods until your body and mind just start rejecting it outright, even become allergic. Indie creative tonics for all is what this industry longs for.
You just described what every day now feels like to me. It's not a pleasant truth, but thank you anyways.
goddamn.
it is very infrequent to find a video that is so incredibly captivating in its analysis, content, and ambience. this felt like a fine dine in Paris at a Michelin star restaurant. I congratulate you for creating such a great video. I've only played the Stanley parable out of the games you talked about, but it holds a very close place in my heart. absolutely beautiful how games can be both the thing, and a satire of the thing.
now for a sequel!
The ending of the video...
Is wonderful
But...
There is yet more to see
The More Games That Hide Their Own Sequels
begins now
And why...
let's not talk...
of...
The Movies That Hide Their Own Sequels
Could talk about how Frog Fractions 2 was hidden in an entirely different game. Or how Frog Fractions 3 was DLC for Frog Fractions 1.
@@endlesswanderer1753 Frog Fractions 4 will be released for Ouya as EDF 10
i just wanna say how excellent of a touch it was to put the EDF chants as the "music" for the credit sequence. the subtlety of not being alone with the group of voices but the distinct tiredness you can hear with each set of verses as the situation grew more desperate/futile.
One of my favorite things that happens in Kingdom Hearts is that the mobile game port of the lost media browser game spent a good long while appearing to be just a much grindier version of the original game with a lot more filler content, only to never actually get to the ending because it was a sequel all along. It looking like a port was part of the story. The tons of extra filler content? It was all happy memories meant to replace the trauma your character experienced in the Keyblade War, a story event which had been previously implied to be noncanon and solely intended to give an ending to the cancelled browser version.
It's all pretty remarkable and even mind-blowing as a storytelling device... but it's also an experience that was mostly lost on anybody outside of Japan, because that browser version never had a global release.
@@RachelOSullivanI disagree to an extent. I’d argue that most people who had any interest in UX probably had at least a working understanding of what happened in X before going in. Pretty much the only draw the game had was the story since it wasn’t exactly impressive as far as gameplay or gacha goes.
My earliest experience of this was Donkey Kong on Game Boy in 1994. You expect it to be a cheap home console remake of the classic arcade experience, as was common back then. Instead the game surprises you that it's a big puzzle platformer with game save and sprawling levels, featuring brand new moves for Mario like the double jump and backwards summersault. It has that impeccable Nintendo charm of quality animation, memorable soundtrack and fun fair design that teaches you as you play. For a child it was especially challenging, considering my limited logic solving ability and impatience, so the game game lasted me for weeks. It was popular enough that Nintendo made sequels later with the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series.
Yes😊😊😊
Absolutely love Donkey Kong on GB. So good.
My jacob is SO gellered right now
Who up gellering they Jacob rn
she ja on my cob till i geller
At the RUclips video, straight up gellering it, and by it, well, let's justr say my jacob
Original comment
As a Jacob I am indeed Gellered.
0:20 Without the explanation that the spoiler alert itself will be a spoiler, the spoiler alert wouldn't have been a spoiler.
classic Jacob Gellar
i mean it is if you read the title of the video?
I always knew the EDF series deserved more video essay recognition. Very stunning, very validating.
that song at the end means that what EDF deserves is game of the year
It literally has a Sseth video
I love that The Stanley Parable keeps up with their own jokes and themes by basically gaslighting you (or a newcomer) by never drawing the line where the original Stanley Parable ended and where the new content started
Like *SPOILERS:* the section of "Stanley Parable 2" is literally an inside joke of the criticisms and what is the point in making sequels if you don't change the formula at least a bit
A someone who has played, like, five video games ever, these videos really make me appreciate them as an art form. There are so many unique aspects about video games, from their interactivity to the endless possibilities of subverting expectations and their almost unique ability to immerse you into a story and give YOU agency and influence in it. And all the while the thing is called something like "World of Goo". So, wow, I'm impressed.
Ultimately World Of Goo 1 had the same twist but without digging into the metanarrative of sequels and the like. The first time I was told "You are not compatible with... the world" I was in the same state of mind as you when you found Dragon's Dogma 2.
as someone who has played every EDF since 2017 religiously, EDF6 really spoke to me. They landed on a story that takes the player's gameplay loop and makes it part of the core narrative In a way that moved me.
and the entire notion of the game was the indomitable human spirit.
Its funny because every even EDF game is a sequel and every odd number game is a reboot
the length of effort you went through to minimize spoilers is so incredibly considerate and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart
I love how I'm essentially playing a game of chicken with a youtube video, hoping that the one game I haven't played yet was the blank, makes for a great start to some grade a existentialism.
so, was it?
The one game that I kinda did care about the spoilers was in there lol
I got lucky lol, the only game that I have not played and want to play was the one left out.
Video spoilers below
Although now that I hear about it Dragon's Dogma 2 sounds really cool.
0:40 you forgot to add the caveat for people who have consumed all media
rookie mistake
i literally got chills at the dragons dogma II reveal, even though i knew there was a hidden sequel coming
I think the very intimate conversation between developers and players about letting a game rest is itself a sequel to when they first announced the game, except this time it’s not what you wanted to hear. Everyone always “wants” a sequel but in reality, they probably just wanted to experience the game for the first time again. Helldivers 2 is so far from the first game that you can tell which version is which just at a glance, but counter strike two? Someone in the office just wanted to upgrade the graphics and leave it at that.
i literally finished dragon's dogma 2 two days ago and kept thinking that "i think i need jacob geller to talk about this". i think i manifested this in some way. sorry.
Don't be sorry, I'm glad you did because this video made me want to play it
The World Unmoored is legitimately some of the coolest shit I've seen in a triple A video game
@@LoremasterLobsangSame, I was cautiously excited for it but put it on the back burner for money/bad review reasons but now I am sitting here trying to work out if I can afford it asap
I want to say Kid Icarus Uprising kinda does this, but that's just more "you thought the game was over after this boss? there's someone else lmao" than "you thought the game was over? spend the rest of the game thematically recontexualizeing what you just played through"
Kid Icarus did it in such a cool way
Also the first part was pretty much the og kid icarus backwards
Inscryption was truly a great and captivating experience. I really dig ARGs and the sheer quality that went into this game (with it's hidden ARG elements) was outstanding.
When I saw the inscryption clips at the beginning i was getting hyped before seeing his note that this was _not_ what the video was about lol
@@hjewkes especially because it fits the type of game in the video pretty well, it does have different versions of the game within it
I agree, but it has nothing to do with the video.
...Actually, upon further consideration, the third act of the game could fit to the topic of the video.
it's wild because inscryption is a stealth sequel to The Hex, but that kind of hidden sequel isnt really what he's talking about here. also why he didn't mention frog fractions
@ right!? I was really surprised it wasnt going to be in the video lol
I absolutely love how you interspersed the games between each other, it creates a wonderfully interesting effect
I had just checked your channel because I was just itching for another vid. So glad to catch this one so soon!
vaya, yo tambien...
se puede decir que nos hemos dejado caer por aqui?
Happy to see the "Where we fall people?" Guy in the coments
@@longboy5639 they/them, thank you :)
but yeah, happy to oblige. i really did just drop by to check the channel too, it was a call from god ig hajsjajs
Eyyyy my man, Jacob geller hablando de Dragons dogma 2 fue una increible sorpresa!
Hombre joseju, que sorpresa verte aquí, donde cae -
(nah but these videos have insane production values, I'm amazed we get them for free)
i just discovered your channel thanks to this video, and i gotta say, watching this has awoken something that hasn't been awake inside me for a long time, the way you portray the themes... how you make them enjoyable, how well edited is... your voice the pacing, amazing work, it must've cost you so much. What i've just watched was something from Peak youtube, keep doing things like this, we need them in this world
I played all of EDF5 with a friend, then we palyed all of EDF6 and were constatly surprised by the twists. The moment when you get to save the guy from EDF5's turorial and then he helps activate Barga early in the invasion blew our minds.
Weird that the misdirecting fifth game in the list that supposedly doesn’t include its sequel literally contains a teaser within it for its actual real sort of sequel. It’s maybe the game to which the title is truest of them all
Heh, I was wondering about that one.
There's a game that's an indirect direct sequel to it's predecessor in such a way that's not even acknowledged by the characters because at the time its revealed it's incredibly minor, its title doesn't even drop until the 30 hour mark and the story does a hard reset during that title drop that forces you remake your characters with 13 brand new classes. It also combines gameplay and narrative so ambitiously in the last act that it would make Kojima blush with its audacity. It's Labyrinth of Galleria and I wish more people played it because the story is a genuine masterclass.
Labyrinth of Galleria was completely bananas. I played the predecessor but not completely and only half-remembered it, and nobody knew what I was talking about when I was talking about it with them. So I'm over here playing a different game that feels like a sequel, to a game that nobody is able to remember even though I remember talking about it with them while I was playing it. And then to have the game finish, only to title drop into its own sequel afterwards punched me directly in the gut. What the actual fuck was that game
waiting till the end of the patron credits to see "Games That Hide Their Own Sequels 2" title drop. because we live in meta-modern wasteland of ideas
29:06 THIS is the pata narrative I love to see from Jacob. please never stop doing what u do
i see the irony in that last sentence. Jacob Geller foreveerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
That thing you did with, four games will be spoiled and one will not, was clever because having played the lake house, i know there is nothing like what you explained in it, but i was still excited all through the video to see if you had found something new or interesting. Great video I’ll be sure to subscribe. :)
Earlier this week I mentioned this topic to a friend. We had just completed a game that revealed more video game. I said “Oh this is like another game I’ve played-“ I couldn’t remember it. Just by seeing the title of this video, something flooded all of those games back into my mind… and yet none of them are discussed in this video. What a bizarrely common phenomenon.
[for those asking, the game in question is a psycho dungeon crawler. very pomp.]
Feel like sharing a list?
Please you have to share or at least give a hint
Don't say the title, please, but do drop a subtle hint or two!
How can this man repeatedly make videos that give me chills or make me cry, or more often BOTH.
(16:35) "You could be a content creator without the inconvenience of having to create content" goddamn.
so, a react channel?
Just scan your face and AI does the rest
@@AstromarineCorpse+ AI generated slop
basically kwebbelkop
Spookydood
The fact that this strangely specific trope is common enough to make a 32 minute video essay about it is somewhere between amusing and confusing.
"Remembering is better than playing something new" wow that describes how i feel about gaming a lot of times
It's hard to get into them as much as I used to and would instead rather talk to my friends about old games or watch videos about said games
Honestly really bleak to hear as someone who wants to make games
This was an absolutely beautiful done essay. The pacing, the content, the cadence.
Also thanks for making me tear up again at the beauty of Stanley Parable's narrative, appreciate that.
I think the first game I ever saw do this was Space Quest 4, where you steal a time machine and travel to previous and future entries in the series. The title on the window even changes to let you know that you're playing Space Quest 12: Vohaul's Revenge II now.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 (You know, the game taking place after The Arisen ends the cycle) reminds me of Dark Souls 3 (yes, another Dark Souls comparison), except inverted. The cycle of Grigori and The Arisen was what kept the world in balance in the series, rather than what’s keeping the world decaying due to stagnation in Dark Souls. Revoking that cycle entirely, causes the world to destabilize, and morph into a hellish inversion of itself, much like how breaking Fillianore’s Egg in The Ringed City destroys the protective force keeping it alive. Both series are about refusing to continue a cycle, however while Dark Souls depicts it in a canonical, in game sense, Dragon’s Dogma depicts it in both a in game, and meta sense.
I hate to say it but the second game you mentioned did such a good job convincing me it didn't have anything truly new to offer that I stopped playing it entirely. It just goes to show how effective this type of meta-narrative is, without thinking about it, or even realizing it, I still ran face-first into it.
Ōkami is my go to game to reference when it comes to a game having its own built in sequel.
It basically having 3 self contained story arcs within a grand narrative and then ending in a purposeful, yet satisfying cliffhanger was something I wish I could experience again for the first time. :-)
I'll never forget defeating orochi for the first time as a kid, so proud of myself that I had finally finished the game... and then realized the game had only just properly started. Blew my damn mind, still an all time favorite
I love this video. The way the topics get weaved in and out into a narrative for the video as opposed to just a list going over each topic and moving on is wonderful.
my favorite rendition of this will always be labyrinth of galleria and how it plays with what you'd expect from a sequel; it's more connected to itself than it is to refrain and it's constantly teasing you with grander possibilities of connection before stamping it out and forcing you to work for it more, to play more, to truly put the effort to get the conclusion you think it deserves
the Marathon trilogy by bungie was secretly a sequel to Pathways Into Darkness and it was only revealed to be as such in the third game.
Also Halo technically is also kinda connected
Not exactly a sequel but Alan Wake & Control being connected was a big surprise for me.
...And Quantum Break, in as IP-dodging a way as possible
I love the back and forth going on between those 2 where Control had an Alan Wake DLC and teased Alan Wake 2, then Alan Wake 2 had a Control DLC and teased Control 2.
@@theperfectpixl which makes it so every single game listed there had that in them since they're fully connected at this point
I've mentioned this before elsewhere, but putting two together honestly makes a lot of sense for how they contrast in their depiction of the supernatural.
Alan Wake is about the terrifying nature of being caught up in a force outside the bounds of our world, the horror of the personal twisted by the unknown.
Control is about the futility of institutions that try to make the unknown manageable, made safer yet still with a creeping dread that it can never be fully understood.
Going from AW 1 to Control, Bright Falls seems a lot less scary, just another file in a vast bureaucracy treating such events as, not common, but largely comprehendable occurences. Then going from Control to AW 2, the terror has only been increased, recontextualized by our gained knowledge and more dreadful because we both know EXACTLY what's going to happen, and yet are still left in the dark (ha) about so many other things.
@@colbyboucher6391 Oh yeah I forgot about that lol.
May I just say, I love that you used the Jeopardy theme from one of the videogame versions, not from the show. I'd forgotten I'd had it for NES when I was wee until I accidentally rewound, heard the clip again, and unlocked some childhood memories
Honestly, I can’t say I was expecting that level of artistry and self-awareness in Dragon’s Dogma 2 from a juggernaut dev like Capcom. At least not to that degree
The ironic thing is, in the original dragon's dogma, you also have to use a dagger to unlock the hidden storyline...
Dragon's Dogma always felt like Hideaki Itsuno's personal pet project Capcom let him make.
Even DD1 from 12 years ago had a similar theme and late-game twist, which is why it's such a beloved cult classic.
Heck, most fans say the 1st game executed the "breaking the cycle" theme much better than DD2.
Man, this video has the ultimate dilemma of ‘oh man, I need play and finish these games’ but I also wanna watch your video !!! I’ll be back in a week and if I haven’t at least started/finished these games, then I’ll just watch the video cause we only get one vid a month and I always look forward to them. See you then my dude !
Played Stanley Ultra earlier this year after seeing it on a Gellar top ten list and god almighty, feels like I've thought about it every day since. Such a distinct game!!
I can't recall if I've ever watched a video essay that ended on a punchline before but I'm glad I now have for certain, yet another stellar essay Jacob ♥︎
Need a Jacob Geller SIGNALIS vid.
"Remember our promise."
Sesbian lex
16:37 This is what finally convinced me to try the original World of Goo, so thanks.
if i'm not mistaken, Dragon's Dogma 1 ALSO pulls the same trick, of using a magical dagger to... end the cycle.
Yes, it does. And iirc, only using the godsbane gives you the real ending of the game
this is honestly part of why DD2 is so disappointing, we already saw them do this once and doing it a second time just felt cheap.
@@Cedutus It's Capcom though, all their games pretty much run on throwbacks and nods to their past.
I played DD1 but not 2 yet, and when he started talking about it I immediately assumed DD2 did the same. It's similar but contexualized differently.
@@nomoon327 i figured as much, since he didn't mention it at all, and i doubt he doesn't know
Imagine if the end had the title card "Games That Hide Their Own Sequels 2"
01:00 only one person in a firing squad has a live round and others have blanks
this varies, but only one person having a blank is more common en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_by_firing_squad#Blank_cartridge
@JacobGeller maybe they should actually do half blanks and half live rounds, just to spice it up.
I can tell you from a family antecdote, that at least one time it was 4 live rounds and 1 blank, at a specific execution after WW2. According to my grandfather who said he was a shooter in a firing squad for some Nazi officer.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying that was the story my grandpa always told.
Love this genre of Jacob videos that are basically "so, I played some game that have this thing in common"
Spoiler for the uhh video essay i guess //
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I love when games adress the franchise metanarrative. My favorite example of this will always be the Deponia series by Daedalic - it used to be a complete trilogy with a conclusive narrative, but the fanbase was super unhappy with the ending of the game (because the funny main character sacrifices himself to save his love interest/the world). So when Deponia 4 rolled around, it begins with an opening scene set in an apocalyptic wasteland with an aged but somehow alive protagonist setting off a bomb that blows up the world. And from there it unravels into a narrative of time travel that is obsessed with fixing the end of the previous game, only to make it worse and worse each attempt. It's a genius metanarrative about coming to terms with endings and letting go of a beloved franchise.
That's also what Danganronpa V3 does right at the end (A game that kinda fits in this video too.)
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740is V3 a third game or a rerelease of the first game?
I've always described that game as the fourth of the trilogy. There is no other way to describe it, and its perfect for that.
I'm still fucking mad they killed Rufus off, and I don't think I'll ever not be mad. But 4 turned the anger from hot to more of a sad anger, an anger that the games writers had that ending in mind and they had structured the entire game around it, and they refused to write themselves out of it as that would've invalidated the first three games.
Its also kind of like how the makers of hotline miami 2 blew the damned world up at the end of it as a polite but firm "fuck you" (the sort of "fuck you" that you say to a friend after they make a dad joke) to people who wanted more. But a third game fixing 2's mistakes, both in gameplay and storytelling deserves to be made, I would absolutely love it if a dedicated group of fans created it as a firm but polite "fuck you" back to the creators.
The issue with the hotline miami series that deponia 4 provides is closure. Deponia 4 provides a sense of closure that 3 failed to. Hotline miami has no sense of closure, which leaves a bad taste in your mouth when the credits of 2 roll.
@@Gloomdrakeit’s a third game, although it’s very confusing because as far as I know, the actual sequel to the second game is the Danganronpa 3 anime. This is completely separate from the game Danganronpa V3.
@@zacharyfeldman6822 I would argue... maybe Hotline Miami 2 ending the way it does, without actual closure, is exactly the point. Like, HM2 is THE game that basically says "there are no happy endings for those who enjoy hurting other people." Everyone you play as dies violently, whether in nuclear hellfire or at the hands of someone else, playable or not. If we actually DO get to the end of the game, and decide we want to play hard mode, the game basically comes out and asks us "okay now why the fuck would you want to do this AGAIN? You KNOW how this story ends."
If you commit to a life of violence, there will never BE closure for you. You'll either die a pointless death or become just another victim, sometimes even as a result of something completely outside of your control.
This video reminded me, I don't want to die.
I don't want to be a memory like these games, I want to see how it ends, I want to finish the story. But I will never be able to. None of us will.
Unless our actual lives are even weirder than these games. Maybe there is a delayed title screen and life begins when we all think it’s over
Jesus bro.
Quick note about the "you can't play x first!?!"
I had a little brother who only knew MGS because of the memes, and when Armstong blew up hard he decided to jump into the series.
He started with 2, so he could play Revengence, played 1, played 3, we are about to start Peace Walker.....
Morale... it doesn't matter, any entry does a great job of hooking people
Changing the order helps emphasize different themes in the franchise. Watching Lucas' Star Wars from I to VI emphasizes rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. Watching it from IV to VI and then I-III puts the emphasis on the Rebel Alliance that try not to repeat the Republic's mistakes.
Now I know that that's from that and am interested in it
i read JoJo's part 7, then 6, got obsessed with it and watched all the anime, and it makes other fans inexplicably mad. i never could have slogged through part 3 without knowing where the later entries go.
100%. i think people can and should start a large series anywhere they like. and that's as a yakuza fan! you get to have fun with the game as is, and then an extra *ohh* moment when you get context for a reference and can experience it all over again but in a different direction. find the most unhinged play order possible! be chaos!
I feel fallout is a good example of this as well. Most people i know started with four and worked backwards, to the point where only the most interested in the lore and world have played the first two
I like how this isnt just a list, but bounces back and forth with similar conepts grom the games.
Shoutouts to Danganronpa V3. No, I do not mean Danganronpa 3. That's something completely different.
I was about to say the same thing, I know the twist wasn’t received well by some people but I really liked it
Yeah I was thinking of V3 when watching this. Loved that twist
I'm still working my way through the series, so I've yet to see this myself.
V3 was the first one thing I thought of as well.
Spoilers for Danganronpa V3
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It's clever because V3 looks to us like "Version 3" or as a generic cool thing the creators sometimes do like "Street Fighter 2 Turbo". But no, it's V3, as in the roman numeral for 5, V, and 3, Danganronpa 53, the 53rd Killing Game. It hides the real number of the game IN THE TITLE ITSELF
Remember that spoilers for all media include vague descriptions of content, trailers, title, genre, or if it actually exists
One really interesting instance of “hiding its sequel” I think is this one little indie game called MOTHERED. A demo came out for it as part of a collection of indie horror game demos (I think it was Dread XP?) and, say you saw the demo in the collection, and you’d already played the full thing, but that was a while ago. So you boot up the demo and play it- and the game actually checks to see if you have a save file for the first game on your computer; and if you *do*, then it doesn’t go to the demo but rather the semi-sequel MOTHERED: HOME. It’s really cool.
Also Ikaruga pretends it’s a standalone schmup but it’s actually a sequel-prequel-end-of-the-timeloop-metacommentary-on-schmups to Radiant Silvergun and I would pay any amount of money to hear your analysis on that.
1:31 my ears perked up 😭😭 mentioned both my damn hyperfixations at the start of the video
Not even a minute into the video and he's already talking about firing squads. That's gotta be a new record for this channel!
I do not say this lightly or haphazardly, Jacob. This is easily one of the best essay channels I've ever stumbled upon.
I still reread the Golem every once in a while.
As a game developer, I always thought it would be a good idea to hide my personal project on a disc in a place no one would find it (kinda like inscryption lol)
Your content, your articulation, your vibe, are all absolutely immaculate. Thanks for what you do.
I love firing squads but don't know anything about games, glad there's a good balance in this video.
Greatest video I've seen all month. There is no way to improve on this, well done.
I'm surprised you didn't include the fakeout title screen for Hotline Miami 3 in Hotline Miami 2.
This is my first time watching one of your videos. Im also high as hell
This was great, the storytelling was phenomenal, but what i like is the back and forth. Its like im just letting you ramble on while i do dishes or something
A similar game to this is Deponia Doomsday, which only exists because fans kept pestering the creator to make a fourth game. It literally starts with the protagonist being old in a frozen wasteland, full of monsters, and lighting a nuke to end the world. Its expectations are weighed down by the old games, and the creator essentially says, 'F you, you wanted this,' destroying everything and finally ending the loop in the game and for the fans, so they can never ask for another game.
You are the only reason I keep logging back onto Nebula like once a month. Cheers!
**SPOILERS FOR THE VIDEO**
Thank you for giving Dragons Dogma 2 it's due. It's my game of the year. When I got the title drop It crystallised in my mind as one of my favourite games of all time. That* part of the game will made me feel more aware of a games themes and mechanics than any other game I've played. Once I started my next playthrough It immediately felt as though I could do anything I wanted in the game. It just lets you manipulate it like no other game I've seen, except for DD 2012.
The first video ive seen from this channel and goddayum sir! This, THIS is transformative content!
Also thank god AW2 wasnt discussed in the video. I have been patiently waiting and saving up for a new system to enjoy Mr. Wake and his shenanigans; and listen to whatever Ahti sings.
Mentioning Peglin at the end there caught me so off guard, been playing that game a ton recently and yet, hadn’t even thought people had heard of it
It scratches an itch I get while bored at work for something simple and quick but with enough depth to be fun