Contrasting Sequel Setting

Being comatose does so much to a man's world...

One of the reasons why sequels often fail to reach the same level of acclaim as their predecessors is that they simply retread the same ground. Many writers are aware of this and therefore try to shake things up when writing the sequel.

One common way to do this is to create a Contrasting Sequel Main Character or Contrasting Sequel Antagonist. Another thing they can do to shake things up is by creating a radically different setting.

This can have several advantages from a writing point of view. It allows for better world-building, by showing off parts of the world that were previously unseen. It can make for compelling Fish out of Water scenarios, either comedic or dramatic. Or it can be an excuse to change up even more aspects for the sequel, such as the aforementioned characters. It may also be used to emphasize Sequel Escalation, by setting a Darker and Edgier entry in a environment higher up on the Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography.

To qualify for this trope, a sequel has to have a setting that is not only different from its predecessor in name, but also in concept and themes. For example, this trope may or may not overlap with Sequel Goes Foreign. Case in point, if a sequel goes from taking place in a big city in one country to a big city in another without playing up or demonstrating any major contrasts or differences between the two settings, then it's not this trope. If, on the other hand, the setting changes from the city to the countryside regardless of nation, and those differences are obvious or affect the story, then this trope is in play. Similarly, if the sequel takes place in the same city, but it's drastically changed after a Time Skip, or even in a drastically different part of the city, it's also a contrasting setting. A good test as to whether this trope is in play is how quickly or easily you can identify the change in setting; the more you have to rely on smaller details to identify the change, the less likely it is to be this trope.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Mobile Fighter G Gundam: As the first Alternate Continuity series, G Gundam did a lot to change the setting, most obviously by making the settings mecha Mobile Fighters instead of Mobile Suits. In comparison to the continuously at war Universal Century that changes nations and corporations every battle, the world of Future Century is almost at peace with a global fighting competition between Earth's contemporary countries to settle disputes.
• Shimeji Simulation: The manga's spiritual predecessor, Girls' Last Tour, is set in a futuristic city where it is completely dead and artificial-looking due to a Robot War that previously destroyed all of it. Contrastingly, this manga is set in West Yomogi, an idyllic but surrealistic and nigh-empty town where it is a Thriving Ghost Town.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! uses this trope quite a lot.
  • The original series took place in Domino City, which is quite realistic, with the occasional trip abroad.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX takes place in an Academy of Adventure and a number of other dimensions, including a desert one and a Dark Fantasy one.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds takes place in New Domino City, which is a futuristic metropolis... except that almost all the action occurs in the less than stellar parts of it.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL's Heartland City is a much, much brighter place than New Domino, and we get to see various parts of it like the school (which is not an Academy of Adventure), studios, churches, construction sites and so on and forth.
  • Subverted with Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, as it combines the settings of all the other series while giving them a more twisted spin.
    • GX's Academy of Adventure is now an Academy of Evil under heavy surveillance.
    • The Crapsaccharine World qualities of New Domino (now called "the City") are exaggerated, creating a much more disturbing image.
    • The previously cheerful Heartland is now a ruined warzone.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS once again uses a large city as its setting, but most of the series takes place in a Cyberspace, and the abundance of corporate corruption - among other things - give the setting a distinct Cyberpunk feeling.

Asian Animation

• Once Happy Heroes hits Season 6, it frequently zig-zags from some other setting that isn't Planet Xing every season back to Planet Xing itself every other season. The aforementioned season takes place on Planet Guling, which is primitive and prehistoric-themed compared to Planet Xing, a futuristic, robot-inhabited planet; Season 7 brings the action back to Planet Xing; and Season 8 takes place in a book filled with fantasy elements, with magic, dragons, and other stuff you wouldn't expect to find on a planet like Planet Xing.

Film — Animated

• All Dogs Go to Heaven took place in a shaded and gritty 1930s New Orleans, All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (and the series) takes place in a much brighter 1990s San Francisco.
• An American Tail, an immigrant story, takes place in gritty turn-of-the-century New York City, while An American Tail: Fievel Goes West transfers the cast to a little frontier town in Utah, and has a distinct western film vibe.
• The first Frozen (2013) is known for icy and snowy landscapes, as the characters try to break Elsa's eternal winter curse in a setting where magic is uncommon. The sequel takes place during the colorful autumn months in a setting where magic is common.
• Pixar:
  • Finding Nemo centers around Nemo being kidnapped by divers, resulting in Marlin and Dory going through the entire ocean (at least close to Australia) in making it to a dental office fish tank in Sydney, where the vast majority of Nemo's subplot takes place. Finding Dory centers around Dory searching for her parents, and the entire plot (including Marlin and Nemo's subplot) takes place in the Marine Life Institute at Morro Bay, California.
  • Cars: Cars takes place mostly at Radiator Springs, a backwater desert ghost town, with the climax being the Piston Cup tiebreaker at the Los Angeles International Speedway. Cars 2 takes place in big cities all over the world, with the climax being the last World Grand Prix race in London. Cars 3 takes place in sparse locations still within the U.S. (mostly the Rust-Eze racing center and Smokey's location), with the climax being the Florida 500.
• Trolls:
  • The first Trolls movie sees the main Troll characters and their friends going outside their home to travel to Bergen Town, the home of the Trolls' longtime non-Troll rivals (the Bergens), and stop the Big Bad Chef.
  • The second movie Trolls World Tour has them travel through the homes of the other newly-revealed Troll Tribes under a similar goal.
  • The third movie Trolls Band Together starts off in Bergen Town before they have to travel to other new locations for yet another similar quest. And in contrast to the first two, the Pop Trolls' Village is never shown.

Film — Live-Action

• The Alien films go for dank and murky settings with differences - Alien is confined entirely to a spaceship, Aliens takes place on a colony, Alien³ takes place on a prison planet and Alien: Resurrection takes place on a space station.
• Babe takes place in a rural area while Babe: Pig in the City mostly takes place in a fictional city called Metropolis.
• Back to the Future is largely set in 1955, Back to the Future Part II goes to 2015 and an alternate 1985 before going back to 1955 and Back to the Future Part III is largely set in 1885. While all three take place in Hill Valley, California, each time period makes the town feel different in tone.
• Die Hard takes place on Christmas Eve in sunny Los Angeles, while Die Hard 2 takes place on Christmas Eve in Dulles International Airport during a blizzard. Die Hard with a Vengeance takes place in New York during the summer.
• The Evil Dead (1981) is a classic Don't Go in the Woods horror film, set at a cabin up in the hills of Tennessee. Both the first sequel and the 2013 remake keep this setting, but the other two films in the series mix it up a bit: Army of Darkness is a Time Travel story, set around a castle in the Middle Ages. And Evil Dead Rise has a prologue at the standard horror movie lakeside cabin, before moving the majority of the action to a seedy apartment building in downtown Los Angeles.
• New York City in The Godfather and Nevada in The Godfather Part II, where each film begins. The Corleone compound in New York feels very lively and even warm, being constantly inhabited by tons of relatives and friends. There's a definite vibe of community, closeness, and the Old World about it. Nevada, on the other hand, represents Michael's increasing distance from his Sicilian roots and his father's way of doing things in favor of Americanization—it's large and impressive, but desolate, cold, and impersonal. When there's no party, the house is very quiet and empty.
• Glass Onion: Compared to its predecessor film, which was set in a cozy old New England mansion in fall, this film is set in a modern mansion on a Greek private island right at the beginning of summer.
• Gremlins (1984) took place in a small American town, while Gremlins 2: The New Batch took place in a New York skyscraper.
• Harry Potter:
  • The original film series takes place mostly at Hogwarts, except for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, which covers the first half of the book where the trio are hunting horcruxes throughout the British countryside. The bleak, meandering nature of these travels highlights how overwhelmed the trio is as they face the wartorn Wizarding World as adults with no guidance.
  • The Fantastic Beasts prequel series opens in New York City over half a century prior to the events of the original series, taking the films out of Great Britain for the first time, and focusing on adult wizards rather than adolescent students.
• Home Alone was largely set in either the Chicago suburbs (specifically Winnetka) or following Kate getting back home from Paris, while Home Alone 2: Lost in New York takes place in New York City (with a few scenes in Miami).
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey takes place in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada mountains; the sequel, Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco, takes place in...well, just guess...
• The Karate Kid:
  • The first film takes place in Los Angeles, California, where Daniel and his mother move to make a new living, only for his new rival, Johnny, to make life harder for him. Daniel later trains with Mr. Miyagi at the Miyagi-Do dojo and fight Johnny at the All-Valley tournament in the sports arena.
  • The second film takes place in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, the home of Mr. Miyagi, who takes Daniel along as the former watches his father pass on. Daniel would later train with Miyagi further in Okinawa, and eventually fight Chozen in the ruins of an old castle.
  • The third film takes place back in Los Angeles, California, where Terry Silver prepares his revenge plot against him on John Kreese's behalf by first hiring Mike Barnes, then torturing Daniel by pretending to be his Evil Mentor. Most of Daniel's training scenes with Silver are at the Cobra Kai dojo, and Daniel eventually fights Barnes at the All-Valley once again.
• My Girl: With the first film in Madison, Pennsylvania, you had a small town with a house; woods; nice neighborhood and more simple surroundings. With My Girl 2 in LA, you got a city with an apartment above a garage; urban neighborhoods; the Hollywood aesthetic and a more buzzing environment with a brief visit to the countryside too (and the movie's only got Madison as Bookends as well).
• Planet of the Apes:
  • Planet of the Apes (1968) is mostly set in a Schizo Tech ape settlement on the edge of the desert of what is apparently an alien world. At the end of the film, we learn that we have actually been in a postapocalyptic New York State the whole time.
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes has some scenes in the ape town but is mostly focuses on the deserted Forbidden Zone and the bombed-out, subterranean wreckage of New York City.
  • Escape from the Planet of the Apes is set in Los Angeles during the 1970s, with humans still the dominant force on Earth. It's almost a Perspective Flip of the first film, with a small group of intelligent chimpanzees from the future stranded in a human-controlled world.
  • Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is set Just Before the End, in a brutalist dystopia where apes are kept as slaves by humans.
  • Battle for the Planet of the Apes brings it full circle, showing the early days of the ape city from the first two movies, as well as returning to the bombed-out ruins of New York.
• Predator 2: This movie swaps out the Central American jungle of the first film for the crime-ridden streets of 1990s Los Angeles. Not only does this change the setting's aesthetics, but it also changes the role of the protagonist (from an elite commando with a bodybuilder physique to a fairly average cop), the secondary human antagonists (from guerrilla fighters to drug gangs embroiled in a turf war), as well as raising the stakes for the final showdown: now, when the Predator threatens to use its Self-Destruct Mechanism, it's in the middle of a densely-populated city. Predators takes place on an alien planet used by the predators as a hunting ground that retains the first film's jungle setting. Prey (2022) is a period piece, taking place somewhere in the Great Plains of North America, prior to the age of Westward Expansion.
• The Raid is a claustrophobic movie set almost entirely within a single crummy apartment building in the slums of Jakarta, over the course of a few hours. The Raid 2: Berandal, is much more expansive, and is set over several years in a wide variety of locations, including a prison, penthouse apartments belonging to high-level gangsters, karaoke bars, pornography studios... the most important location in the film is probably the fancy restaurant run by the film's main villain, which is a far cry from the dilapidated tenement of the previous film.
• Star Wars:
  • The Empire Strikes Back: The first parts take place on the icy planet of Hoth, as opposed to the desert-covered Tatooine where A New Hope begins.
  • Return of the Jedi spends much of its time on the forest moon of Endor, contrasting both the barren wastelands of Tatooine and Hoth.
  • The Phantom Menace introduces the lush Naboo and the mass metropolis of Coruscant. Attack of the Clones introduces the watery Kamino and another desert planet, Geonosis. Revenge of the Sith features the rocky Utapau, the jungle planet Kashyyk and the lava planet Mustafar.
  • Broadly, while the Original Trilogy mostly takes place on harsh backwater planets with little infrastructure (the most developed location we visit being Cloud City hovering above the gas giant Bespin), the Prequels show various bustling, populated urban planets - something George Lucas already wanted to explore while making Episode VI, but limited by the technology at the time.
• Tremors: As the series is about giant man eating earthworms, the change in scenery is a decent plot point in each movie. As evading them is a different game when the locations change.
  • Tremors is set in the middle of the American southwest in a small town called Perfection where the terrain is desert and rocks.
  • Tremors 2: Aftershocks has a Mexican refinery where the geography is much more lush and green with far fewer people around. Without many rocks, the few buildings are the only safe areas.
  • Tremors 3: Back to Perfection returns to the small town but the events of the first film have transformed the place into a much different town.
  • Tremors 4: The Legend Begins is also set in the town but as its a prequel the town is called Rejection and far less populated and the townspeople have to deal with the Graboids without modern technology. The town is renamed Perfection at the end of the movie.
  • Tremors 5: Bloodlines goes foreign, with most of the movie taking place in Africa.
  • Tremors 6: A Cold Day in Hell, in spite of the filming locations, is set in Canada. As most of the series has been set around deserts the change in scenery is striking.
• Trick 'r Treat is set in a smallish town in Ohio on Halloween night, while its Spiritual Sequel, Krampus, is set in the suburbs of a much larger city around Christmas. There has also been talk of a proper sequel to Trick R Treat, which the director has suggested might take place in a more urban setting.
• The National Lampoon's Vacation series - the first film was about a cross-country journey across America, National Lampoon's European Vacation spawned across Europe, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was limited to the Chicago suburbs and Vegas Vacation took place in Las Vegas.

Literature

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland takes place in the titular World Gone Mad. The setting is mid-Spring (May 4th); Alice accesses Wonderland through a rabbit hole; the story is largely a Random Events Plot as Alice attempts to get inside a beautiful garden behind a locked door; there is a heavy emphasis on vertical movement (best emphasized by Alice constantly changing size); and Wonderland is ruled by a suit of living cards. The sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, while also featuring a world of chaotic characters and language games, is Wonderland's polar opposite. The setting is exactly six months after the first story (November 4th); Alice reaches Looking-Glass World by traveling through a mirror; there is a clearly defined goal in the story (Alice must cross the entire country to become a Queen); the movement is almost entirely lateral (Alice stays the same size throughout but constantly changes position); and the world is ruled by living chess pieces.
• Isaac Asimov:
  • The Elijah Baley books. The Caves of Steel is taking place in the sealed overcrowded cities of Earth, where the people are living on processed yeast scared of the very thought of going out. The Naked Sun is about a No Poverty planet where the entire population is twenty thousand people, each with an estate the size of a small country where a person or a married couple lives alone with thousands of robots. The Robots of Dawn take place in a society somewhere in the middle; a Free-Love Future world with two hundred million people and reasonable comfort for every resident.
  • Each book in The Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr takes place in a different place of the Solar Systems and deals with matters from mass poisonings to espionage and sabotage.
• A Memoir by Lady Trent: Each book is set in a different geographical location, ecosystem, and culture. The first is in Ruritanian mountains (except for the intro, which is in not-Britain), the second in tropical not-Africa, the third is a voyage around the world visiting many different cultures, including island and mainland ones, the fourth is in a desert country, and the fifth is in her world's equivalent of the Himalayas. The Spin-Offspring sequel, by contrast, is set entirely in Scirland (not-Britain).
• Each of the Venus Prime books takes place on a different planet in the Solar System. The first book takes place on Venus, or rather a commercial space station in orbit around Venus. The second book takes place on the Moon, now a mining facility. The third book takes place on a Mars that has been colonized by holdovers from the Soviet Union and Communist China. The fourth book takes place in orbit around Jupiter. The fifth book takes place on a Ganymede that has been colonized by Southeast Asians. And the final book takes place on Amalthea, which is revealed to actually be a world-sized spaceship, before moving back to Earth.

Live-Action TV

• Cobra Kai: The two main Cobra Kai dojos featured in the series are rather distinct, and that's not even counting the fact that they're clearly a physical representation of its respective Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: John Kreese and Terry Silver.
  • The Cobra Kai dojo in Season 1-4 takes place in the poorer Reseda neighborhood of Los Angeles, and it's rather crude; confined within a strip mall and originally have to go through health inspection at first when Johnny opens it up. It actually represents John Kreese himself all too well, given his poorer background and approach to fighting consisting of natural-born fighters with a "killer instinct" (the dojo itself looks straight out of a ghetto, with inhabitants consisting of gang members in line with the Cobra Kai students being a Gang of Bullies). As a matter of fact, the dojo originally did not belong to Kreese! He simply seized it from Johnny via deal with the landlord, which actually reflects on how Kreese uses pragmatic wit to commit unfair approaches when it comes to business, very in tune with how he promotes his "No Mercy" philosophy.
  • Terry's flagship dojo in Season 5 takes place in the wealthy Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, and (on an architectural standpoint) looks visually stunning; having its own separate facility and consisting of the latest technology centering around karate (as Silver himself presents in his commercial). It doesn't take rocket science for the audience to view this as a representation of Terry Silver, given his background as part of a wealthy family and approach to fighting consisting of unlocking the potential of everyone eager to learn Tang So Doo (just why else would he put emphasis on high-tech to enhance fighters). It's all too clear that this dojo was simply bought out of Silver's own pocket, which reflects on his tendency to use money in bribing himself out of situations, particularly when it comes to competition bouts like the All-Valley and the Sekai Taikai qualifier.
• Danger 5's first season is set in a weird reinterpretation of the Second World War that takes most of its cues from 1960s science fiction, men's adventure magazines, and Spy Fiction. The second season is actually set in the '60s, but looks more like the '80s, with big '80s Hair, neon lighting and cocaine everywhere, and every episode ending in a toy commercial.
• House of the Dragon: Contrasting "Prequel" Setting.
  • The Westeros of this series is not in the same shape as the one featured in Game of Thrones. For one, the kingdom is much more prosperous (it wouldn't be the case under Robert Baratheon even before the War of the Five Kings and all the other awful conflicts stemming from it made things even worse).
  • For Season 1, the focus is mainly on the places held by the Targaryens and the Velaryons, namely King's Landing, Dragonstone and Driftmark, and the Stepstones which the Velaryons aim at controlling. By contrast, Season 1 of Game of Thrones featured long stays in a wide array of places and climates in the Seven Kingdoms (King's Landing, Winterfell, the Vale, Daenerys' ordeal/odyssey in the Free Cities and the Dothraki Sea, etc). Essos is only physically featured via a stay of Daemon's family in Pentos.
• Every episode of Prehistoric Planet is based around a different biome. For example, the first episode, "Coasts", hops between coastal environments around the world, showing prehistoric life on multiple continents. The one exception is the second season finale, "North America", which is set entirely on that continent, across multiple biomes.
• Power Rangers:
  • For the first six seasons, the main setting of the show was the Californian city of Angel Grove. The seventh season, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, marked the first departure from Earth, being set in the travelling space colony Terra Venture.
  • Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue is the season immediately following Lost Galaxy and returns to Earth by setting the story in Mariner Bay, a city that was once ruled by demons.
  • Power Rangers S.P.D. takes place in a city where aliens live alongside humans 20 Minutes into the Future. The next season, Power Rangers Mystic Force, takes place in The Present Day and revolves around a forest where magical beings live under a Masquerade.
  • Most of the seasons take place in normal American cities (that are sometimes in New Zealand). Power Rangers RPM is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the majority of the planet has been conquered by the villain Venjix and the only safe haven for humanity is the domed city of Corinth.
• Schmigadoon!: Season 1's town, Schmigadoon, is a midcentury Sugar Bowl with bright colors, friendly townsfolk, and pleasant surroundings. Season 2's town, Schmicago, is a dark and seedy Vice City populated with shady archetypes. Melissa, who had adored Schmigadoon, is less comfortable in Schmicago; Josh, who had disliked Schmigadoon, finds that Schmicago is more up his alley (at least until he gets accused of murder).
• You (2018):
  • Season 1 is set in New York, Season 2 in Los Angeles. While both are bustling cities, Joe (a born and bred New Yorker) dislikes the energy of LA. Justified — he is essentially in hiding at the start of season 2, so chose somewhere so different that the person chasing him would never think to look.
  • Season 3 moves the protagonists from the hustle and bustle of LA to the more sedate suburbia.

Multiple Media

• The MonsterVerse's films and TV shows tend to follow a pattern where, barring crossover movies, every Godzilla instalment is followed by a Kong instalment and vice versa, and they have contrasting settings to go with it. Kong's stories generally take place in eldritch, tropical jungle settings like Skull Island or the Hollow Earth, while Godzilla's stories generally take place on the mapped world, and they feature many more urban areas and a grimmer color aesthetic.

Video Games

• Assassin's Creed uses this as part of its appeal - particularly to the part of its fanbase that is most interested in historical tourism.
  • Assassin's Creed took place in the Holy Lands during the Crusades, which are dominated by a particularly bleak atmosphere that seems to have an ever-present grey hue. The modern-day section is in a sterile lab in an unknown location that's overwhelmingly white. The cold colour palette and bleak setting combined with the almost total animosity Desmond and Altair face make for a rather claustrophobic, foreboding, and almost hopeless atmosphere.
  • Assassin's Creed II takes place in various north Italian cities during the Renaissance. The colour palette and atmosphere are now bright and warm, the cities are full of life and so are the people living in them, and the world design feels open completely unlike the overly crowded and claustrophobic feeling of the previous entry. The modern-day section is in a warehouse, which likewise now has a warm colour palette, large open spaces, and various people full of personality. The fact that Ezio and now Desmond are surrounded by allies only helps this.
  • Brotherhood, the direct sequel to the previous title, takes place in Renaissance Rome, while the modern-day section moves to the basement of the manor visited in the "past" section of the previous game. While for the most part the overall feeling hasn't changed, the comparatively more archaic setting - seeing as Rome has ancient ruins everywhere and the location of the modern setting isn't modern at all - gives a somewhat colder and more mysterious feeling.
  • Revelations takes place in the recently conquered and renamed Istanbul. Despite everything the city has gone through in the last several years - including said conquest and a recent destructive earthquake - Istanbul/Constantinople is full of life, with a very similar sensation to II - while the underlying tensions in the city and the mysterious ruins everywhere have that same mystery as Brotherhood, aided by the fact that Ezio is completely unfamiliar with this land. However, unlike the oddly similar old setting, the modern-day section sees its biggest change yet: it's a Virtual Reality space that consists of an island and some paleolithic-looking structures that are all clearly CGI In-Universe, and goes straight back to the frosty palette of the first game. The structures are gates that lead to surreal-looking and abstract representations of the settings of the previous games, maintaining basic shapes with the occasional realistic addition that makes it even more unsettling.
  • Assassin's Creed III:
    • The base game takes place during the American Revolution. Unlike the busy cities of all the previous entries, the setting here is the entire east coast of the American continent and then some, where nature is still clearly the ruler of this world, the "cities" are barely established - even the largest one give a port-town kind of feeling, and you can go for literal hours in the game barely seeing any signs of civilization. The modern-day section is startlingly different. It takes place inside a cave with advanced Precursor tech, giving it a look like TRON - complete with Tron Lines - while simultaneously having the mystery and foreboding feeling the franchise associates with the ancient.
    • The DLC, The Tyranny of King Washington' takes the same physical location, and turns it into a horror setting. It's the dead of the winter, all the cities and other inhabitable locations are dead and ruined, there are corpses hanging everywhere and Everything Is Trying to Kill You. To top it all off, there is Mason symbolism everywhere, and THE most important elements of the franchise - aka the Assassins and the Templars are completely absent. It's dark, foreboding, and creepy as hell. There are random trinkets all over the place that look like they came straight out of the Virtual Reality mentioned in Revelations.
    • Liberation is presented as a side-story to III, and takes place in the French colonies in the same time period. This time the atmosphere is much brighter and the cities are somewhat better established, somewhat resembling the "Ezio" entries. Interestingly, the game tries to Lampshade the difference between Liberation and III by having the protagonist Aveline visit Connor, the protagonist of III. That part of the game takes place in the middle of winter, with the only signs of civilization being the occasional bridge or outpost, in near-complete isolation.
  • Black Flag takes place in the West Indies during The Golden Age of Piracy. It's a world where it's perpetually summer and dominates by pirate towns, jungles, and the occasional ancient ruin, and everything is clearly in disarray. The game hilariously Lampshades this trope when the Italian ambassador - who has the same voice actor as Ezio - goes on a long rant complaining about how different, uncivilized and barbaric this place is compared to Italy. The modern section is in a fancy office building, which only looks happy and inviting - until you get to the deeper parts of the building and suddenly it's the first game and III all over again.
  • Rogue takes place during the French-Indian War. A good chunk of it is identical to III, taking place during that game's timeskip, but a very large part of the game is located in the Arctic circle, and is almost entirely naval, leaning heavily on the Mysterious Antarctica trope. The modern section is mostly unseen, but it once again happens in a fancy office building similar to the previous - this time in another country.
  • Unity takes place in Paris during the French Revolution, and the city goes from beautiful to absolute anarchy and chaos extremely fast. It's jarring to see a place that was at first so similar to the Italy of the previous entries go straight into the chaos and grey despair reminiscent of the first. The modern section is well... the player stand-in playing from the comfort of their own home. The player is also forced to see Paris in other time periods when running away from the massive glitches, and the differences are also highlighted, as one moment you are outside a medieval castle, and another trying to dodge Nazi patrols while climbing the Eiffel Tower.
  • Syndicate uses Victorian Britain London as its setting. While it's certainly busy and full of its own charm, any hints of nature present in the previous entries are completely absent and overtaken by the pollution and industrialization. The dystopian elements of the era are visible everywhere, with rampant crime, poverty and disease that were mostly absent in previous entries.
  • Origins uses Ancient Egypt during Cleopatra's reign. The setting is an open world with an architectural and cultural mashup of ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, which stands out on its own accord from the other settings, with its huge monuments and endless desert. The modern section is in the gravesite of the protagonist, which is an ancient Egyptian burial site, which is a stark contrast from every previous modern-day setting which was in the middle of modern civilization.
  • Odyssey takes place in Greece during The Peloponnesian War. Unlike Origins, the landscape is dominated by greenery, seas, mountains, and islands, creating a stark visual contrast to all the previous games since nothing had this level of irregularity in the landscape. The massive monuments and the small, friendly, and open cities give off a sense of awe and comfort simultaneously. The modern-day section on the other hand takes place in a warehouse much like the one in II, though there are no warm colours here to make you feel comfy - instead, everything is dark and cold to give a distant feeling.
• Bioshock Infinite: Columbia is a bright and sunny city floating in the sky, as opposed to the dark, gloomy, and underwater city of Rapture from the previous games.
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare takes place in the modern day as the title suggests. This was a huge departure from the original Call of Duty trilogy, which took place in World War 2. This change happened after the World War 2 setting was starting to be seen as stale.
• Dark Souls is set on Lordran, a kingdom in twilight founded on the glory of a dragon-slaying lord who keeps a tomb for giants near the royal capital. Dark Souls II has Drangleic, a fractured but more lively land with multiple kings, the most notable of which made war with Giants but has a working relationship with the local dragon descendants. Dark Souls III's setting goes back to Lordran's ruins, which have decayed even further and fallen into darkness with the First Flame flickering lower than ever before as you must now journey to take down the Lords of Cinder resurrected in a last-ditch effort to keep the flame going just a little longer.
• The original Dead Space is set on the USG Ishimura, a planet cracker class vessel. Dead Space 2 takes place on Titan Station, also known as "The Sprawl", a space station located on what's left of one of Saturn's moons.and also part of the Ishimura. Dead Space 2 is set largely on and around a mysterious, icy forgotten planet.
• Dragon Age:
  • Dragon Age: Origins and its expansion are set in Ferelden, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Medieval England, with its cold climate, temperate forests, and a political balance of power between restricted monarchy and powerful baronies.
  • Dragon Age II is set largely within Kirkwall, which contrasts Ferelden in two ways: firstly, it is a single large city, rather than a vast, partially unexplored country; secondly, as an independent city-state, Kirkwall's politics are much more localized and petty than Ferelden's.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition, while being partly set in Ferelden, places its main action in Orlais, a vast, yet centralized Francophone empire whose lands include anything from sand deserts to jungles.
• Fallout:
  • The first Fallout game takes place in post-apocalyptic Southern California 84 years after a nuclear war, with plenty of modest, small communities trying to eke out an existence within the ruins of civilization.
  • Fallout 2 is set physically close but takes place a further 80 years in the future, and while it still has lots of ruins and small settlements, we also see civilization rebuilding itself in advanced communities and nations such as Vault City and New California Republic.
  • Fallout 3 is set even further in the future, 200 years after the war, but takes place on the East Coast in the ruins of Washington D.C., which is even more inhospitable than most of the previously featured locations due to being an important, heavily bombed target during the war. Civilization is limited to small settlements built out of scrap and people just barely surviving by scavenging. The area is infested by super mutants, raiders and heavily mutated wildlife which don't help matters. There's little vegetation and almost all the water is irradiated - the plot of the game itself is based around trying to make the place more livable by purifying the water.
  • Fallout: New Vegas, in turn, goes back west, following up on the first two games' plot points. In contrast to the Capital Wasteland, Las Vegas and the surrounding area were only mildly bombed (largely due the efforts of a super genius able to disable most nukes targeted towards it). Though most inhabitants of Las Vegas initially died out due to radiation poisoning anyway, most of the structural damage was caused by decay and disrepair rather than the immediate bomb blasts, there's plenty of vegetation and clean water (as much as there'd be in a desert, anyway), and most irradiated areas and dangerous mutated wildlife are localized. There are far more functioning communities outside of the city of New Vegas itself, with ways of life often harkening back to the Old West (with some futuristic technology, of course), with outside forces taking interest in the area. New California Republic's heartland is mentioned to have developed even further than back during Fallout 2, with some places returning to pre-War standards.
  • Fallout 4 goes east again to the Boston Commonwealth, which is better off environmentally (except for mutations in the fauna and flora caused by the Black Rain and an irradiated wasteland where the bomb hit called the "Glowing Sea") than the Mojave Desert and New Vegas because only one missile hit it and missed the city, but doesn't have the same level of societal development because the Institute are actively suppressing any attempts at building a regional government. The contrast is best observed when comparing Diamond City to New Vegas—both are structurally intact on a level close to their pre-War counterparts, but Diamond City only has so much as a bar, a school, and a church and is much more poorly defended than New Vegas.
• Final Fantasy
  • Final Fantasy VI: The first five games took place in worlds were magic was such common place that no one ever really questioned were it came from. The world of VI has magic being a foreign power granted by the Warring Triad gods to the Espers and from them to the player characters. Prominently the technology level of the world at large is industrial compared to the medieval castles that populated prior games. Midway through the game Kefka usurps the god's power and turns the planet into a ruined husk of itself that the party must find meaning in what life is left.
  • Final Fantasy VII: While VI was industrial, here the technology is Cyberpunk from the resident megacorp Shinra drawing the lifestream of the planet to power their technology. Shinra itself has a grip on the entire planet but has an amicable public image where the Gestallian Empire actively invaded other countries. Where magicite was a closely guarded secret of the Espers only bestowed with the death of one, here Materia grants magical powers that can be purchased at any store that sells them. Lastly Sephiroth is known to one and all before the game starts, no one knows who Kefka was until he usurped the gods power and ruined the world.
  • Final Fantasy VIII: In contrast to the worlds of VI and VII being under one governing body that intrudes on the bounds of other countries, the world of VIII has largely stabilized in the present day and segmented into several countries without too much issue. The technology is much cleaner and smoother. Magic used by the common people is just knockoffs of the true magic used by Sorceress's. Notably the world at large does not learn of the impending apocalypse, even when it actually happens.
  • Final Fantasy IX: After the high tech sci-fi of the past two games, this one returns to medieval/steampunk technologies. While the last games had world's separate but in contact countries, the continents of IX are completely cut off from each other. While VIII had the world at large unaffected by the plot, the world of IX is damaged but reparable at the end.
  • Final Fantasy X: The medieval and steampunk technology is replaced with lost ancient technology and physically moved technology, as the ancient beast Sin keeps the world from moving forward. While IX had a world actively being fractured by war as the game goes on, Spira has long since been in a spiral of death as Sin's attacks force everyone to just try to survive and rebuild whenever it shows up. And while the world of IX included an entire world map and even into a couple alternate dimensions, Spira is implied to be one continent cut off from the rest of the world.
• Half-Life is set in the Black Mesa Research Facility in the New Mexico desert, while Half-Life 2 is set in City 17, a Combine-controlled city in Eastern Europe, and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 is set in the wilderness outside City 17.
• In the Jak and Daxter series:
  • Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy takes place in a jovial High Fantasy setting with some Steampunk elements.
  • Jak II: Renegade takes place in a gritty Cyberpunk Wretched Hive. There is a big wham moment in the last mission of the first act, where Jak and Daxter are given a mission to travel to the ruins on the edge of the city to clear some Metal Heads away from a sacred site, and then they go there and see the sacred site themselves: It's Samos' hut from the first game, run-down and forgotten. This is the moment where the heroes realise that they are in a Bad Future.
  • Jak 3 is set in the desert wasteland (and city) outside Haven City, and also the ruins of Haven City.
• Kirby:
  • Kirby: Triple Deluxe takes place in Floralia, a pastel-coloured Floating Continent full of flowers and other plant life. The next main series game, Kirby: Planet Robobot, takes place on Pop Star's surface, which has been overrun with machines and industry.
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land doesn't have any gameplay on Pop Star at all; it only appears in cutscenes. It takes place in a more realistic-looking alternate dimension called the New World, which is filled with urban ruins.
• While Klonoa: Door to Phantomile took place in Phantomile, a world powered by dreams with kingdoms representing different elements, Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil instead takes place in the eponymous Lunatea, a world powered by emotions each represented by a kingdom.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The first three games take place in the medieval fantasy kingdom of Hyrule, but Link's Awakening broke tradition by taking place on a Denser and Wackier tropical island filled with Mario cameos and modern-day technology.
  • The two games starring the Hero of Winds, The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, take place on open seas where Link must sail between islands. Spirit Tracks, set 100 years later on the same timeline, takes place on a single landmass where the main method of transportation is steam trains.
• Metal Gear
  • Metal Gear is set in an isolated military complex called Outer Heaven that is bordered by water and desert. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake has Zanzibar Land, a tropical complex bordered by steep cliffs.
  • Metal Gear Solid shifts gears to an island compound in the arctic region, replacing the outside jungle with snow covered terrain. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is primarily set on the Big Shell, an industrial plant situated in American waters, which functionally means you never go outside.
  • In contrast to the starkly geometric military/industrial settings of 1 and 2, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is largely set in a sprawling jungle environment.
• The first two Metro games including Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light all take place in the titular Moscow Metro and the above surface of Moscow. Metro Exodus takes place in multiple locations above the surface across the Eurasian continent including the Volga, Yamantau mountains, the Caspian desert in southern Kazakhstan, the Taiga in northeastern Kazakhstan and in Novosibirsk. While Metros make an appearance at the end of the game, it takes place in an entirely different Metro that is a complete stranger to both Artyom and Miller. The second DLC Sam's Story takes place in Vladivostok, a Port Town where most of the buildings are destroyed by the tsunami due to the warheads being launched into the ocean, remarkably contrasting Moscow as it was destroyed directly by the nukes. And unlike Moscow which was badly irradiated, Vladivostok remained as is pre-war as most of the broken town is not irradiated.
• Metroid:
  • Most games take place in a large planet that Samus has to explore in full. Metroid Fusion takes place in an isolated space station and forces Samus to take care of the problems Adam tells her to, resulting in the games' most linear 2D installment.
  • Metroid Prime is set on Talon IV, a lush planet once used by the Chozo who blended technology and nature together. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes has Aether, a planet founded by the Luminoth that was separated into light and dark dimensions at war with each other. Consequently the world is much more militarized and the technology much more steelwork than before. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption takes place on multiple worlds, each with their distinct biomes and technology.
• Persona utilities this trope quite a bit.
  • The first game takes place in the town of Mikage-cho, where the only notable thing is SEBEC's division.
  • Sumaru City in Persona 2 is a full-blown 90s city of weirdos where rumours become reality, filled to the brim with celebrities and foreigners from all over the world, and high crime rates.
  • Persona 3 focuses solely on Gekkougan High School and the surrounding area, the modern and high-tech Tatsumi Port Island.
  • Persona 4 takes place in a small rural town that seems to be a Shout-Out to Morioh, and is a stark contrast to Tatsumi.
  • Persona 5 takes place in modern-day Tokyo, a real location as opposed to the fictional ones of previous games.
• Pokémon does this a lot when creating new regions each generation.
  • Johto from Pokémon Gold and Silver is said to be more traditional and cultured than the Kanto region from Pokémon Red and Blue, which is said to be more modern. While Kanto is a center of business, technology, and science, Johto features more cultural and historic sites. This distinction largely derives from their respective real-world inspirations, the Kansai and Kanto regions of Japan.
  • Hoenn from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire is said to be to the south of the previous regions, and thus has a warmer, even tropical, climate. Sinnoh from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is to the north of the other regions and thus features a much colder climate. This also matches up with their real-world counterparts, Kyushu and Hokkaido, which are the southernmost and northernmost of Japan's major islands respectively.
  • Pokémon Black and White takes place in Unova, which contrasts all of the previous main series regions: it's based on New York instead of a region of Japan. As a result, it's more urbanised than Kanto, and the series' oft-parodied use of Free-Range Children is addressed; the player characters look like teenagers, and Bianca's father is hesitant to let her go on a journey.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon take place in the tropical Alola region, which is sparsely-populated. The player's quest is the island challenge, a rite of passage that involves venturing into the wilderness. The next original games, Pokémon Sword and Shield, take place in Galar, which is industrialised with many cities. The player's quest is the gym challenge as per usual, but this time it's a major spectator sport.
  • While most Pokémon games take place in a time period similar to The Present Day where people and Pokémon live in harmony, Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes place centuries in the past, when most people were afraid of Pokémon and trainers were few and far between.
• Quest for Glory:
  • First game: Spielburg. Northern Europe. Mountains and forests.
  • Second game: Shapier and Rasier. Middle East. Deserts and so forth.
  • Third game: Tarna and Fricana. Africa. Jungles and savannas.
  • Fourth game: Mordavia. Central Europe edging into Russia. Similar to Spielburg except fewer mountains and more swamps.
  • Fifth game: Silmaria. Ancient Greece and the Mediterranean. Boating is required and the islands allow for wider variety.
• Red Dead Redemption is mostly a game about deserts and canyons, with some prairie and forest at the game world's eastern edge. The prequel, Red Dead Redemption II, is set further east, and mostly focuses on grasslands, mountains, and swamps. In the epilogue, the player gets access to the first game's world as well, and the contrast is sharp.
• Resident Evil
  • The first three main entries in the series were set in or around Raccoon City, a fictional American metropolis. Resident Evil 4, by contrast, is set in an unnamed European country (albeit one that speaks Spanish) and opens in a rustic village.
  • Resident Evil 7: Biohazard takes place in and around the rural estate of the Bakers in a Southern Gothic Louisiana bayou setting, contrasting the large establishments and high tech facilities that previous entries were known for.
  • Resident Evil Village contrasts that with a European village presided over by the Four lords and Mother Miranda, giving the game an almost mystical feeling.
• Slime Rancher's ranch was located in the Dry Reef, a desert dominated by yellow and orange hues. Slime Rancher 2's ranch is a glass-dome conservatory in the predominantly blue and green Rainbow Fields. More broadly, while the first game's world mainly consisted of barren, rocky areas (even the Moss Blanket used to be barren, according to Hobson's messages), Rainbow Island is more lush and covered in grass.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic CD takes place in a time-warped planet taken over by Eggman. As every zone has Sonic allows him to break Eggman's influence on the world, you either get a place free from his designs where technology and nature go hand in hand or see him corrupt the world zone by zone, unlike the usual Sonic formula where the disruptive force of Eggman's rule becomes most apparent in his factory levels.
  • Sonic 3 & Knuckles a far more tropical and mystic island than the ones seen in 1 and 2. While the others have their water stages this notably has water in five of the stages, which is nearly all of them in the original Sonic 3 release. The ancient technology is much more advanced, while the others had moving platforms and pulleys here there are canals and mining operations, giving an idea of how prosperous the civilization must have been.
  • The first few games in the series took place in areas with mystical design and ancient ruins populated by intelligent animals overtaken by Eggman's plans. Sonic Adventure mostly takes place in Station Square, a modern city populated mostly by humans where Eggman doesn't have a lot of sway over.
• The first two Splatoon games take place in Inkopolis, a bustling city inhabited by Inklings and many other species, but not Octolings (prior to the Octo Expansion). Splatoon 3 takes place in Splatsville, a desert town where Inklings and Octolings happily co-exist alongside everyone else.
• Spyro the Dragon (1998) takes place in the world of dragons, while Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! takes place in a world where no-one has seen a dragon before.
• Streets of Rage takes place within a modern city with various locales such as the city streets, the beach, a warehouse, and so on. The sequel, while still having city locales, puts the heroes in a more exotic setting by having them visit an amusement park, a baseball stadium with a hidden fight club underneath it, and a jungle that hides the syndicate's secret robot factory. The third game tones it down slightly by having a more even mix of modern and exotic locales.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Mario's first few appearances, such as Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., took place in a relatively down-to-Earth generic city setting. Super Mario Bros., the Franchise Codifier, takes place in the whimsical fantasy world of the Mushroom Kingdom inhabited by anthropormorphic mushrooms and invaded by a fire-breathing turtle-ox-dragon, which has remained the series' primary setting ever since.
  • Super Mario Land takes place in Sarasaland, which contains four kingdoms based on real-world locations. Then Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins contrasts that by taking place in Mario's own kingdom that's never been mentioned before or since, filled with strange levels such as a giant statue of himself and a Space Zone.
  • The settings in Super Mario Galaxy and its direct sequel are clearly distinct in its own right.
    • The box art is especially glaring. Galaxy 1 has the nighttime sky, which occurs in the first two major galaxies: Gateway and Good Egg Galaxy. Galaxy 2 has the daytime sky, which occurs in the first galaxy: Sky Station Galaxy.
    • The hub space in Galaxy 1 is the Comet Observatory, the home of Rosalina and Lumas made up of multiple domes (and planets) that consist of many galaxies within their vicinity that Mario (or Luigi) is launched toward. While the observatory is capable of movement, it only happens close to the game's climax in which the Mario bros. has enough power stars to power-up the observatory in taking them to Bowser's lair in the Center of the Universe. The hub space in Galaxy 2 is Starship Mario, a planetoid designed in Mario's likeness by Lubba that constantly moves around "world" to "world", each of them consisting of multiple galaxies.
    • The secret galaxies in Galaxy 1 can be accessed via separate planets within the Comet Observatory outside of the 6 (or 7, if you count the Gate) main domes. Galaxy 2 has the hidden World S that is unlocked after beating the main game.
    • Each of Bowser's galaxies, particularly the boss planets, differ in both games. Galaxy 1 has Mario climbing a staircase leading to a platform where Mario encounters Bowser, who is fought in the reactor planets where Mario is required to lure Bowser into pounding the glass sections, followed by spinning his scorched tail to defeat him. Galaxy 2 has Mario pounding Golden Meteors onto the three Bowser locks guarding the door leading to a massive outdoor throne room where Giant Bowser resides. Mario has to fight Giant Bowser on a small planet, ground-pounding Golden Meteors to smash him.
    • Their final galaxies are also rather distinct as well. Bowser's Galaxy Reactor in Galaxy 1 is not featured within a dome, rather it can be accessed by talking to Rosalina at the Comet Observatory after collecting enough power stars, and is basically a portal within Peach's Castle teleporting Mario into another dimension that consist of multiple unique planets (with Bowser's massive sun in the background) leading to the typical staircase where Mario encounters Bowser: the final part of the battle is basically another reactor planetoid, after Mario defeats Bowser in two unique phases. Bowser's Galaxy Generator in Galaxy 2 is located at the end of World 6, and can be considered as an Evil Counterpart to Starship Mario: a giant fortified planet with Bowser's likeness that consists of a massive foggy hallway, with multiple planets that would be typically seen in a Bowser level; the final part of the battle takes place in a vortex where Mario has to ground-pound meteors once again at Giant Bowser to defeat him. The planets where Mario obtains the last Grand Star also differ: Mario claims the star on the Galaxy Reactor in Galaxy 1; Mario ends up on a random Garden Planet with Peach in Galaxy 2 after defeating Bowser, where the star is revealed.
    • The very-final levels could not have been any more distinct. Grand Finale Galaxy in Galaxy 1 is unlocked after all of the Power Stars are claimed in the Mario and Luigi plots, and can be accessible by talking to a Green Luma at the back of the Planet of Trials. Grand Finale Galaxy is basically a Book Ends, where Mario or Luigi are transported back to the Mushroom Kingdom where the Star Festival took place, and is rather an incredibly simple Breather Level where they just have to collect 100 easily obtainable Purple Coins to earn the final Power Star (as a matter of fact, there's barely any hazards besides Mario or Luigi purposefully jumping onto a barbecue grill or drowning themselves at the castle's moat). Grandmaster Galaxy in Galaxy 2 is unlocked after Mario or Luigi collects all the regular Power Stars followed by all the green Power Stars in every galaxy, and is located at the very end of World S. Unlike Grand Finale Galaxy, Grandmaster Galaxy is a Brutal Bonus Level with multiple unique planets that are clearly designed to test the player's skill, but that doesn't stop there. There's a second mission under Prankster Comet conditions where Mario or Luigi has to do the entire mission again, with further additions making the galaxy even harder, and the fact that the Mario bros. have to survive without taking a single hit.
  • The home console New Super Mario Bros. games are clearly unique in their own right (in terms of setting).
    • In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario and co. start out at Peach's Castle, and once again having to go all the way to Bowser's Castle to defeat Bowser and save the princess. In New Super Mario Bros. U, Mario and co. are kicked out of Peach's Castle instead, and must go back to defeat Bowser and save the princess.
    • The World Maps in Wii are completely separate; the player must go to a completely different screen to jump from world to world. If the player wants to complete the game rather quickly via shortcut, cannon mini-levels are accessed via secret exits to allow Mario and co. in skipping to a much later world. The World Maps in U are seamless (similar to Super Mario World), though there are pipes at the beginning of each world that can transport Mario and co. around the entire map rather quickly (as well as take them to the post-game Superstar Road). If the player wants to complete the game rather quickly via shortcut, secret levels are access via secret exits to allow Mario and co. in skipping to a much later world.
    • The Final Boss levels could not have been more distinct. Wii once again takes place in Bowser's Castle, and the Final Battle against him is a chase deep inside the catacombs. U on the other hand has the corrupted Peach's Castle basically becoming an extension of Bowser's Castle, and the Final Battle against him is a full on bout (with Bowser Jr.) outside the courtyard.
    • The fights against the Koopalings in the castle levels are also rather different. In Wii, Mario and co. goes through the hallway consisting of Bowser's likeness leading to the boss room where Kamek ramps up a rematch against the Koopalings. In U, Mario and co. is taken outside the courtyard where they must take a flight of stairs leading to a cannon launching them into a Koopaling's personal airship (where the fight takes place).
    • The post-game World 9 of Wii and Superstar Road of U are also rather unique as well. World 9 clearly has a Rainbow Road vibe, and the setting of each level is rather randomized despite Mario and co. having to collect every star coin from the world it represents (i.e., World 9-2 takes place in a beach level that would fit in World 4 despite being unlocked after Mario and co. collect all the star coins in the desert-themed World 2; World 9-8 takes place in a sky level that would fit in World 7 despite being unlocked after Mario and co. collect all the star coins in the volcano-themed World 8). Superstar Road leans more toward the space-side with a giant yellow star in the middle, coupled with a few astroid-like platforms, and the setting of each level unlocked via star coins clearly matches with the world that it represents (i.e., Superstar Road-5 takes place in a variation of the Painted Swampland level in Soda Lake; Superstar Road-8 takes place in a variation of The Final Battle level in Peach's Castle). Superstar Road also has an additional final level that can be unlocked after all of the star coins in the first eight levels are obtained.
  • Paper Mario 64 took place in the typical Mushroom Kingdom setting from the franchise, refitted for the RPG gameplay. Many of the areas were based on recognizable world themes from previous Mario games, and the main central area is the bright, colorful, happy Toad Town. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door takes place in and around Rogueport, a gritty, crime-ridden port town, setting the tone that it will be darker than the previous game. The chapter locations are much more unique to the Mario series, such as a fighting arena or a train mystery.
• The first four expansions of World of Warcraft all set themselves in distinctly different locations than the last.
  • The Burning Crusade, is set in the wholly alien and mostly desolate world of Outland, contrasting the base game's more grounded fantasy-earth setting.
  • Wrath of the Lich King follows that up by being set in the Grim Up North realm of Northrend, which primarily consisted of tundras, glaciers, and at best a snowy forest and even the underground zones were primarily blue.
  • Cataclysm is set all across the now-changed continents of the base game, culminating in a set of zones with a strong fire/earth thematic to contrast its predecessor's cold blues.
  • Mists of Pandaria is set in the lost world of Pandaria, which is the first to be dominated by a mostly friendly race, the Pandaren, and much of the game, especially the early areas, are set in lush jungles and fertile green farmlands in opposition to the ravaged terrain of Cataclysm.
• The Ys series involves Adol Christin's adventures all over the world and so most of them take place on different continents, with only one actually taking place on the eponymous floating island.
  • Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished ~ Omen takes place on Esteria, an island nation home to the fabled Tower of Darm. Esteria is known for its rolling fields and mines full of the magical Cleria metal.
  • Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter is on Ys proper, a hidden magical floating island with a bit of a Patchwork Map design with fields, ruins, icy glaciers, and lava-filled caves resting right next to each other. Also features a thriving Monster Town.
  • Ys III: Wanderers from Ys and its remake Ys: The Oath in Felghana take place in Dogi's homeland of Felghana where an evil Count terrorizes the land. Felghana is home to a huge mining complex, a volcano, a massive mountain range, and a beautiful palace.
  • Ys IV: Mask of the Sun, Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys, and their remake Ys: Memories of Celceta take place in the uncharted Great Forest of Celceta which is home to the last Eldeenian and the powerful artifacts he protects.
  • Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand takes place in the city of Xandria on the wild continent of Afroca. Xandria and the eponymous Kefin are situated in a vast arid desert.
  • Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim takes place on the Canaan Islands, an archipelago hidden by an endless whirlpool. It is home to the native Redah tribe and an ancient weather control machine.
  • Ys Origin returns to the Tower of Darm 700 years ago.
  • Ys SEVEN is on Afroca again in the military kingdom of Altago. Altago is plagued with natural disasters and is watched over by five great dragons.
  • Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana takes place on the deserted island of Seiran, which was once home to the Eternian society. Seiran is mostly tropical with jungles, beaches, and an enormous mountain in the center.
  • Ys IX: Monstrum Nox takes place in the Prison City of Balduq, a major city located in the Gllia-Erdlingen region, which is a Romun province located on the northeast Esterior peninsula on the continent of Eresia. Balduq is an enormous city surrounded by mountains and ruins.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice has Phoenix travel to a foreign country that despises lawyers and has practically outlawed them.
  • The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is set a century before the main games and explicitly takes place in Meiji Japan and Victorian Britain as opposed to modern "Japanifornia".
  • Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney takes place in a medieval city plagued by witchcraft, while the very first case takes place in modern-day Britain.
• Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc had the students trapped inside a school, unable to go outside due to the sheer excessiveness of the blockades on the windows and doors. In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, the class is stuck on a cluster of islands where, as they unlock more areas, obtain access to a myriad of locations, such as restaurants, a military base, an amusement park, hotels, and even a hospital.

Webcomics

• My Impossible Soulmate: A contrasting “Prequel” setting. Rain is a grounded slice-of-life comic that took place on earth with zero fantastical elements. By contrast, MIS mainly takes place in a fantasy world populated by Winged Humanoids, Fox Folk, Fish People, and magic.

Web Video

• The first campaign of Critical Role takes place primarily in Tal'Dorei, a continent drawing heavily from traditional Western European High Fantasy tropes. The second campaign takes place in Wildemount, a continent drawing from different cultures and folklores (for example, the Dwendalian Empire is very German, the Menagerie Coast has a Mediterranean coast feel to it, and the Kryn Dynasty has a Romanian feel). The third campaign takes place in Marquet, a continent loosely drawing inspiration from the Middle East and northern Africa.

Western Animation

• In Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Gaang travelled around the world constantly and rarely stayed in the same place for long. The first book of the sequel series The Legend of Korra takes place almost entirely in Republic City, a cosmopolitan metropolis that features all of the latest cultural and technological developments, in order to showcase how much the world has changed since the previous show ended. The other books avert this, however, with the cast traveling around the world much like the bulk of the previous show.
• My Little Pony:
  • My Little Pony 'n Friends takes place in a medieval-ish fantasy world populated by Loads and Loads of Races, while My Little Pony Tales takes place in a '90s suburbia and almost all of the characters are earth ponies.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic takes place in a world where the three kinds of ponies have lived together in harmony for generations and magic is an everyday part of life. Hundreds, if not thousands of years later in My Little Pony: A New Generation, the three kinds of ponies have separated and live in fear of each other, and magic is long gone.
• Transformers:
  • The Transformers started out on Earth set during the '80s and ends in the far-flung future of 2005. After the failed attempt at reviving the franchise with Generation 2 (using edited versions of select episodes of the G1 cartoon), the next sequel series Beast Wars sets the action completely on a prehistoric Earth with the only sources of technology being the Transformers themselves. The sequel to Beast Wars, Beast Machines, took place on the dark and dreary Transformer homeworld of Cybertron.
  • Transformers: Animated took place in an urban setting of Detroit in the future. Prime generally takes place in a rural setting around Nevada in the then-present.

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