Should Sequel Difficulty Spike/Drop apply to Remakes?

So I've been editing various Pokémon pages and noticed that Sequel Difficulty Spike and Sequel Difficulty Drop frequently pop up on the pages concerning the various Video Game Remakes the series has. My question is whether or not this should be allowed or not.

I personally believe yes. Tropes Are Flexible enough that limiting it to sequels is unnecessary when remakes can make the same changes as a sequel (fixing bad balance, adding Anti-Frustration Features, etc.).

edited 4th Mar '15 4:16:43 PM by Karxrida

A remake is basically a sequel that covers the same story the way I see it.

Oy, Time Travel.

Let's call these, Game A, Game B, and remake of A is Game A*.

Is Game A* a sequel to both, or only to Game A?

Is Game B a sequel to both, or only to Game A?

When Game C comes out, is that a sequel to Game B or Game A*?

I think that just needlessly complicates things. Which is the chronological release order of them?

Remakes being easier or harder I think should fit those. However I wonder if they do not deserve a trope of their own?

Stuff like Persona 4 Golden is way easier than Persona 4 in very tangible ways like the first boss of the game is changed in Golden to have a weakness to ice when before she didn't have any weakness and the game runs on a different exp formula where now exp gains are set per mob while before they had diminishing returns as you got higher in level when compared to the mob's level.

Based on the generic example I shared, A, B, A*, C. That's similar to the Pokemon release, which is my point.

That makes more sense.

edited 4th Mar '15 6:26:22 PM by crazysamaritan

The thing is that generally, you expect a sequel to have roughly the same or somewhat increased difficulty as the preceeding game. You have the same expecation for a remake. Maybe a slightly lesser increase, depending on if the remake is aimed to bring in a new crowd or if it's something for old fans, but that's still is the same for sequels, I suppose. That expectation may change if the original was overall considered too hard or to easy, but there's still no difference whether it's a remake or sequel.

Think we should add a note saying that it includes remakes and add a redirect on each?

I personally think Remake Difficulty Spike/Drop should be their own tropes.

Lets see. Would this be one trope or two? Some remakes are both.

A Remake might add smarter A.I. avoiding A.I. Is a Crapshoot, additional mechanics to make things easier or harder, might change up various Elemental Weaknesses to make things harder or easier, add additional Bonus Bosses, post game arcs or add additional difficulty settings.

• Persona 3 to Persona 3 FES
  • Easier: added the ability to gain skill cards allowing for easier customization. It makes social links less demanding allowing for more mistakes to do everything. It adds the ability to create weapons out of personas which are better than anything you can get in the original game and it adds the ability to create an ultimate persona which is easily customized to make the Bonus Boss easier.
  • Harder: The game adds The Answer arc, a post game dungeon crawler arc that removes many of the old amenities of the original game, most bosses in it are immune to all elements but one element and that element they have the 'evade' skill which gives them a 2/3rds chance to evade that element. It adds an additional 'Hard difficulty' making your party members do 1/2 the damage and take 1 1/2 more damage for the main game.

That's just "things are different" if it goes both ways. The tropes aren't about smaller changes in difficulty, but spikes, hence the name. Going from a normal game to Nintendo Hard, or in the other direction.

I don't think adding a new difficulty option or new content in a remake counts as anything here. Unless the old difficulty option isn't available.

New mechanics added to the games make them significantly easier due to enemies not receiving any buffs. They are the same you are more powerful and have easier time to reach the Game-Breaker skills. I would say that kind of thing counts.

New difficulty levels in the remake and/or updated rerelease might be another trope in of itself now that I think about it actually. God I can think of tons who do that off the top of my head, Dynasty Warriors Extreme Legends 3-8, Devil May Cry 3, Persona 3 FES, Persona 4 Golden, Neptunia Rebirth 1 and 2. and for most of these it is a selling point to the remake/rerelease.

Sure, if they contribute to an overall very significant increase or descrease in difficulty. A game can never be both at once.

edited 5th Mar '15 9:19:09 AM by AnotherDuck