Needs Help: One Game For The Price Of Two

This is really two different tropes

1) Complementary games that are largely identical, except for a small amount of exclusive content.

2) Games that fit together into one game, but are split into parts sequentially.

The "other media" section is pretty much entirely the second trope. I propose a split. One is the rather game specific trope of having two nearly identical games with some exclusive content that requires playing both games to get all of. The second is a generally applicable trope of works that are meant to be considered a single whole that are split into multiple parts.

Actually, do we already have that second one? It seems common enough that we would.

edited 1st Aug '12 10:30:58 AM by petrie911

Belief or disbelief rests with you.

Off the top of my head Oracle Of Ages and Oracle Of Seasons don't fit either of those.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

The Oracle games would probably work as an example of the second type, it's just that unlike most other examples they can be played in either order and there are sidequests in the second game you play that require you to go back to the first game.

Yeah, so that's not the same as your Half Life 2 "Episode 1".

Rhymes with "Protracted."

I don't suppose this is referring to how some indie games are released? Where all the chapters are part of an ongoing storyline, but you can buy each one individually?

Rule of fanworks reviews: The amount of constructive criticism a work receives is in inverse proportion to the amount it needs.

That's Episodic Game.

Whoops. Sorry. But that's why I asked. Sleepy browsing leads to confused browsing. :)

Rule of fanworks reviews: The amount of constructive criticism a work receives is in inverse proportion to the amount it needs.

Oracle Of Ages and Oracle Of Seasons are two completely separate games, although they do have content (including a New Game Plus and True Final Boss) unlockable by linking or trading passwords between the two games.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

So 3) separate games that give bonus content if you have them both. Of course, that's not "1 for the prize of 2". Arguably, Sonic&Knuckles also falls in this category because either game on its own is a full-length sonic game.

Rhetorical, eh? ... Eight!

Yes, indeed Sonic And Knuckles is its own game separate from Sonic 3 and the combination of them is simply a bonus feature on the side.

Pokemon games are simply Paired Game Versions, where it's two or more cosmetically different versions of the same game released at the same time; the differences between versions are about as meaningful as deciding whether you want that set of bath towels in blue or yellow.

It's used as a means to encourage trading between players, like virtual baseball cards.

edited 2nd Aug '12 10:13:08 AM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

One Game for the Price of Two is a marketing trope at heart. The idea is that you make two versions of the game, release them simultaneously, market them together, and softly (or loudly in some cases) encourage people to buy both to get the full experience. So The Legend Of Zelda Oracle Games are clearly an example, as are the Spyro Fusion-Crash Fusion games. However, an Episodic Game (I knew we had that trope somewhere, thanks burnpsy) obviously doesn't fit that model and shouldn't be listed.

edited 2nd Aug '12 2:16:14 PM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

So, move all the examples of sequential releases, including the non-game section, to Episodic Game?

That doesn't look like the right thing to do; Episodic Games are supposed to be short, cheap and usually released for download.

I also don't think the non-game examples belong here at all; Divided for Publication might handle some of them.

This article may be a mess now, but it was even worse before I took out a subsection duplicating Old Save Bonus. I also split out examples of Socialization Bonus back then, and a few more just now.

edited 2nd Aug '12 7:32:12 PM by Prfnoff

Not quite. The Pokemon games is the main example of this assumption being wrong. The idea of these games have never been to buy both versions but, instead, have other people you know to buy the opposite version instead. Hell, it is not even like both games can interact if you only have a single portable, anyway.

You can buy just one, but if you want to "catch 'em all" you'll need both. True, you can trade with a friend, but ultimately you need two copies for 100% Completion. So it certainly fits the "Two games that are released together and marketed together and require both to get the full experience" mold.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

They eventually dropped the "catch 'em all" tagline outside of Japanese releases, however, due to the sheer amount of them (and how many different games and events are needed in generation 3 to get 'em all - more like 1 game from the price of 6). If we're playing this as a marketing trope, that should be noted somewhere in the Pokemon entry if it isn't already.

edited 2nd Aug '12 8:33:24 PM by burnpsy

I disagree. Even with the catch 'em all tagline, the objective was never to compel the player to buy two games. That would be silly because, as said, you need another portable as well. It is a Socialization Bonus.

You can read "encouraging you to buy both games" as a cynical way of saying "You need both games for the full experience" if that helps.

Rhymes with "Protracted."

I don't believe Oracle of Ages and Seasons are really this trope in the same way Pokemon is. Not even the way Golden Sun is. The differences between Pokemon versions are cosmetic and Golden Sun is a two (three, now) part story, but those two Zelda games have about as much impact on each other as any other two Zelda games unless you link them. Sure, there's bonus content if you do, but if we're going to lump that under this you need a third category. After all, even stuff like the Disgaea games give similar bonuses. If you play Disgaea 2 on the PSP and have a Disgaea 1 save file you get more stuff.

That's Old Save Bonus.

Zelda is definitely this trope though. Look at how they were advertised.

edited 3rd Aug '12 11:29:36 AM by troacctid

Rhymes with "Protracted."

Define "full experience". In the Pokemon case the differences are largely cosmetic, otherwise each game by itself is a "full experience". Granted, you can't catch all wild Pokemon without trading to another version, but that's part of the Socialization Bonus and only relevant to achieving unquestionably 100% Completion.

I must confess I have never liked this title even from the first impression, on the implication that if you buy one game you're only getting "half" the value out of it. Not true and how.

edited 4th Aug '12 10:55:44 AM by Stratadrake

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

By chance I found this old YKTTW, which can probably be placed somewhere in this whole mess. (Make a soft split for it on Episodic Game, I think.)

Yeah, make it a footnote that this was a popular trope in DOS games, especially shareware titles (where the first installment was released free).

In fact, Episodic Game is rambling too much and needs to get to the point. A quick comparison to serial media can be welcome, but it's not limited to just TV serials.

An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.

I agree that the Oracle games really don't belong here. Yes, they were pitched together, encouraging people to buy both. But they're still completely distinct games. If you buy both of them you have Two Games For The Price of Two.

Regardless of any final decision, the fact that we're having this conversation really means that a better image should be selected.

I also agree that the episodic content examples don't belong here. The After Years example even points out that this boils down to one game for the price of one game.

We really should replace the zeldas, they don't fit the trope at all. There is number of much better candidates to choose. For example picture of Megaman Starforce should be more fitting.

edited 4th Oct '12 8:25:37 AM by TuppuP