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To be fair, Pokémon: The Second Movie was already out in Japan.

"I mean, how cocky do you have to be to literally call your first movie THE FIRST MOVIE? It's like they knew they were gonna have a bajillion sequels so they decided to call it the FIRST movie just to make it easy for us. That's like naming the first Lord of the Rings movie, 'Lord of the Rings: Don't Worry, We're Gonna Have a SHIT Load of Sequels.'"
— The Nostalgia Critic on Pokémon: The First Movie

Most franchises with Numbered Sequels are like this: The first ever made has a title and the sequels just add numbers and/or subtitles in front of the title, like this: "Title", "Title 2", "Title 3", and if it's a prequel, sometimes it's "Title 0".

But an unusual case is when the first one is literally numbered the first, like "Title 1", or "Title One", or "Title I", or "Title: Part 1/One/I" or "Title: The First"; obviously, this is a sign that sequels are planned, or in development or even ready, thus avoiding Sequelitis.

And of course, the worst part of this trope is when a sequel is never made and the first one remains as the only one.

Sometimes we're talking about a work Divided for Publication; if it has a "Part 1/One/I" in the title because they want to divide a single story in parts to make it easier to follow or fit in the time schedule, keep that clear. There are also cases of when the title didn't have it originally, and then it was added as a Retronym; when adding examples, keep clear which titles were always called like this and which ones were renamed after the fact.

A subtrope of Title by Number. See also The Original Series.

It's a common practice in Fan Nicknames, but they don't count here.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • The first Lyrical Nanoha movie is called Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st, given that it's an adaptation of the first season.
  • Pokémon: The First Movie, the first one of a series of over 20 movies and still counting. Notably, it did not have the "First" in its title in Japanese (or most other languages); the decision to include this naming convention in the (informal) North American title was a safe one, though, since a second movie had been released in Japan months before the first one came to North America, a third one was already in development, and the Pokémon franchise was in the height of its popularity, so it was safe to count on the sequels coming to North America as well. Either way, the proper English title was Mewtwo Strikes Back (a direct translation of the Japanese title Mewtwo's Counterattack) which means the whole issue just comes down to the dubbers (not the creators) adding an unnecessary "First Movie" tag to the title.

    Films — Animated 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • Fox announced a channel named Fox Sports 1 (as a replacement for Speed Channel). With a number like that, sports fans must wonder if Fox can launch Fox Sports 2. Yes, Fox later announced Fox Sports 2 (as a replacement for extreme-sports channel Fuel TV), and both networks launched on the same day in 2013. (Naming the channel Fox Sports 1 gives it precedence above the regional Fox Sports channels.) They took the idea from sister company Sky, which labelled its sports nets as Sky Sports (number) until 2017, including channels 1-5; the special F1 channel, and Sky Sports News (HQ) are excluded.
  • Sky itself was simply called "Sky Channel", but became Sky One in 1989; although there was Sky News and Sky Movies at the time, it would be seven years before there was a Sky Two.
  • Canadian channel Sportsnet launched a national spin-off channel called Sportsnet One.

    Music 
  • Big Star - #1 Record
  • Colosseum - Chapter 1: Delirium
  • Flo Rida - Only One Flo, Part One. Even stranger that the intended sequel, Only One Rida, Part Two had its name changed to Wild Ones.
  • Hurt - Vol. I. Not actually their first album, but the first to get a major label release, and the earliest still widely available. They abandoned the numbered naming scheme after the follow-up, Vol. II.
  • The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 was titled that as a joke, because it was intended as a one-off project, and they assumed there wouldn't be any sequels. When they defied their own expectations and made a second album, they called it Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
  • Johnny Winter - First Winter
  • ZZ Top - ZZ Top's First Album
  • Michael Jackson - HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, Book II was never made, but there was Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix.
  • The Sisters of Mercy - Greatest Hits Volume 1: A Slight Case of Overbombing, the last album they released.
  • George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1, no Vol. 2 ever made.
  • The OC Supertones - Live, Vol. 1. They meant to record at least one followup live album, but have yet to do so.
  • Shakira - Fijación Oral Vol. 1, followed by Oral Fixation Vol. 2.
  • Madness had The Dangermen Sessions, Volume One. There has been no Volume Two yet, but if they ever do another covers album it's quite likely they'll return to the title.
  • David Bowie had 1. Outside. It was to have been the first in a series of concept albums, but he lost interest in the project.
  • Barenaked Ladies - Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits 1991-2001.
  • Super Furry Animals - Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1
  • Slot's debut album was, imaginatively enough, Slot 1. The rest of their primary (Russian-language) discography has followed a sequential trend (either with numbers or words alluding to them) ever since.
  • Eluveitie's Evocation I - The Arcane Dominion, their first acoustic album. They announced the sequel in 2012 but stopped talking about it the following year; they've since made other non-acoustic albums, but the fans are still waiting for Evocation II.
  • Daniel Amos: ¡Alarma!: The Alarma Chronicles Volume 1. They planned from the beginning for The Alarma Chronicles to be a four-album series—and they actually did follow through with it.
  • The Dream Theater song "Metropolis, Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper" was one of these, as they added the "Part 1" to the title as a joke, having no intention of making a part 2. Later on they created an entire album to serve as a sequel.
  • The music video for Ariana Grande's "Dangerous Woman" was billed as "Visual 1", since she planned for an alternate music video for the song that is story driven and "weird". Due to lack of time, Visual 2 ended up being cancelled, with only a trailer for show.

    Pinball 

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Diana Rising: Episode 1 ~Boppatsu~ Earthquake Reconstruction Charity - Day 1. There was never a "rising" episode two, but episode 1 did last 8 days. Diana Dojo Show on the other hand exceeded 40, though they weren't consistently numbered.

    Radio 
  • Parodied in I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue during a round of "Word for Word" (the "word disassociation game" where one team must exchange unconnected words whilst the other must buzz in if they spot a connection):
    Barry: [buzzing in] Creosote Butterfly...Sixties rock band.
    Jack: No, uh, I can't let you have that, Barry...I think you wouldn't be able to name one of their albums if I asked you.
    Barry: Creosote Butterfly One.
    Jack: Apart from the eponymous first album, obviously.

    Video Games 
  • Zork I, the first third of a game that was Divided for Publication.
  • Star Ocean: First Departure, a remake of the first Star Ocean which didn't have that subtitle originally.
  • The original PlayStation was remodeled as the PSOne, named as such because it was released at the same time as its successor, the PlayStation 2.
  • Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa, it became another victim of being the only one when the sequel was cancelled in June 2021.
  • On The Elder Scrolls: Arena title screen, the game is titled The Elder Scrolls Chapter One: The Arena.
  • Pryzm Chapter One: The Dark Unicorn, thanks to low sales, a Chapter Two was never made.
  • Nightshade (1992): Subtitled Part 1: The Claws of Sutekh, no Part 2 ever made.
  • Half-Life 2: Episode One is an unusual example. It was the direct follow-up to the original Half-Life 2 and was intended to be the first in a series of episodic sequels. Half-Life 2: Episode Two was later made, but Half-Life 2: Episode Three however...
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, another episodic example, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II was made but Sega doesn't have plans to make an Episode III.
  • Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic, once again a sequel was never made, but there was a Spiritual Successor.
  • The Legend of Zelda was originally released in Japan for Famicom's Disk System add-on in 1986. When the game was re-released as a standard Famicom cartridge in 1993, it was retitled Zelda no Densetsu 1. The game already called itself "Legend of Zelda 1" at the end of the second quest, so this wasn't a major stretch.
  • Tobal No. 1. A sequel was made, but released only in Japan.
  • J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: Volume 1 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was to be the first in a series of adaptations of the books in video game form. The first installment bombed, so there was never a Volume 2.
  • escapeVektor: Chapter 1 for the WiiWare, Chapter 2 was never released, instead, just escapeVektor was released for the 3DS eShop with all the chapters.
  • Math Blaster Episode 1: In Search of Spot for SNES, Sega Genesis and PC, followed by Math Blaster Episode 2: Secret of the Lost City, only for PC, and also many more Blaster titles, the Episode 1 wasn't even the first in the series.
  • Rap Jam: Volume One, a basketball game for the SNES featuring famous rappers as players, Volume Two was never made.
  • The Journey Down: Chapter One, another episodic game, only the Chapter One was made by far but more chapters should come soon.
  • The first King's Quest was titled King's Quest and King's Quest: Quest for the Crown. The VGA remake was titled King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown.
  • The VGA remake of Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards was titled Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards.
  • Lode Runner 1 is a Mobile Phone Game in the style of the first Lode Runner.
  • The first Quest for Glory, after changing its title from Hero's Quest, was titled Quest for Glory I: So You Want to Be a Hero in both EGA and VGA versions.
  • The first Space Quest was released with the subtitle Chapter I – The Sarien Encounter. The VGA remake was titled Space Quest I: Roger Wilco in the Sarien Encounter.
  • Star Saga: One - Beyond The Boundary preceded Star Saga: Two - The Clathran Menace.
  • The first Ultima was titled Ultima, and later titled Ultima 1 - The Original, and Ultima I - The First Age of Darkness.
  • Telltale Games, a company specialized in episodic video games, has many, many examples:
  • Examples from flash games:
  • The original Final Fight was ported to the Game Boy Advance as Final Fight One. Neither of the two SNES sequels was made available on the GBA.
  • The flight simulator "Strike Fighters Gold" was originally released as "Strike Fighters: Project 1" in 2002. It was renamed "Strike Fighters Gold" in 2004, and fixed many of the problems present with the game's initial release. The developers later made a sequel in 2008 under the title "Strike Fighters 2".
  • A few 2-in-1 videogame compilations often follow a "Title 1 & 2" format, even if the original game itself is very rarely mentioned with the "1" in its official title
    • Dragon Quest I & II, released for the Super Famicom and Game Boy Color.
    • Dragon Quest I, II & III, released for the Wii.
    • Final Fantasy I & II, released for the Famicom.
    • Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls for the Game Boy Advance.
    • Mother 1+2, released for the Game Boy Advance
    • Ryu Ga Gotoku 1+2 for the PS3 and Wii U.
    • Danganronpa 1x2 RELOAD for the PlayStation Vita.
    • Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 for the MSX2 and PC-98. This was actually the original release of both, Madou Monogatari 1 and 3, since a prototype version of 2 was released earlier as a bonus in a special Christmas-themed issue of Compile's Disk Station magazine. However, Madou Monogatari 1 was the only that had a stand-alone port on all three of the 16-bit consoles (Super Famicom, Mega Drive and PC Engine) in Japan.
    • The mobile phone version of the original Metal Gear was sold as a bundle with its sequel as METAL GEAR 1 & 2 on Yahoo!'s Japanese mobile service.
    • Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, a combined remake of the two Advance Wars games released on the Game Boy Advance, for the Nintendo Switch.
  • Inverted with the Xbox One, which is the successor to the Xbox 360 and the third generation of the Xbox consoles, not another name/model for the Original Xbox. By the way, the "Original" being capitalized there? That's Microsoft's official retronym for that console since the release of the Xbox One.
  • Inverted with Battlefield 1, which is not another name for the original Battlefield1, but is actually a title set in a liberally-portayed World War I. The first game of the series was Battlefield 1942.
  • Insecticide Part 1, was the first portion of a PC game that was Divided for Publication. However, Part 2 was canceled due to the publisher GameCock being purchased by SouthPeak Games. A scaled-down version was released for the DS simply titled Insecticide, that includes most of the content that was planned for Part 2, but lacks the voice acting of the original PC version and the cinematics are just slideshows. To make up for this, the developers uploaded the cutscenes they made for the PC version on YouTube.
  • The PlayStation and Nintendo DS ports of the original Front Mission were released under title of Front Mission 1st.
  • ESPN Extreme Games, one of the North American launch titles for the original PlayStation, was re-released as 1Xtreme after Sony's license to use the ESPN branding expired (the game's sequel, 2Xtreme, was already released at that point).
  • Inspector Gadget: Mission 1 – Global Terror! for PC, which never had a sequel.
  • Buriki One: World Grapple Tournament '99 in Tokyo
  • Metal Slug: 1st Mission and Fatal Fury: 1st Contact were both Neo Geo Pocket games, but only the former got a sequel.
  • The original Shenmue was subtitled in Japan Isshō: Yokosuka, or "Chapter 1: Yokosuka". Sega's original plan was to sell the series as serialized installments, each set in a key location in the game's story, but this was abandoned in favor of having the sequels span several locations (hence why the second game was titled Shenmue II and not Shenmue Chapter 2).
  • Star Gladiator Episode I: Final Contact. The sequel, which was titled Star Gladiator 2 in Japanese, was titled Plasma Sword internationally.
  • Lagaf': Les Aventures de Moktar - Vol 1: La Zoubida, better known as Titus the Fox. A little explanation: Lagaf' is a French comedian who became a One-Hit Wonder with his song La Zoubida, starring the titular girl and a guy named Moktar. Titus Software made a game about the song expecting Lagaf' to continue Moktar's story, but the man abandoned musical comedy so a "Vol. 2" was never made.
  • The ZX Spectrum text adventure Metropolis 1. The planned sequels never materialized.
  • The first Repton game is titled Repton 1 in the PC remake.
  • The original Clock Tower on the Super Famicom was retitled Clock Tower: The First Fear when it was ported to the PlayStation. Neither version was officially localized.
  • Serious Sam: The First Encounter, which was followed by an expansion pack subtitled The Second Encounter and then years late a sequel named Serious Sam II.
  • Disgaea 1 Complete, the 15th anniversary Updated Re-release of the game that started the series. The previous ports either changed the subtitle or were named after the system they were ported to.
  • ParaParaParadise had a "1st Mix Plus" Expansion Pack release after the original. It did go onto have a 2nd Mix, but that was the last one.
  • The Infamous series has a sly case of this: Infamous: First Light is a stand-alone expansion to Infamous: Second Son that serves as a prequel to the events of said game (to make it clear: First and Second, geddit?). Second Son itself was the third game in the series, titled as such since it featured the first new protagonist.
  • Horizon Zero Dawn's logo was adjusted in marketing after the announcement of Horizon Forbidden West, including the dividing line having a roman numeral I in it to match Forbidden West's II. It even appears when you have the game installed on PlayStation 5!
  • Animesque horizontal shmup Nandeyanen!?: The 1st Sutra was intended to be the first chapter of a story, and it ends on a Sequel Hook, but it never had any following games.
  • R-Type I for the PC Engine was actually just the first half of the R-Type divided into a single HuCard, with the later R-Type II on the PC Engine (not to be confused for a port of the actual R-Type II arcade game) containing the latter half. Both halves were later released as a single larger capacity HuCard for the U.S. market and the real R-Type II would be ported to the Super NES instead as Super R-Type.
  • The remaster of The Last of Us for PlayStation 5 and PC is titled "The Last of Us Part I" for consistency with the sequel The Last of Us Part II.
  • When Pikmin (2001) was ported to the Nintendo Switch, it was retitled Pikmin 1 in promotional materials and its dashboard icon; the title itself remains unchanged in the game proper.
  • Inverted with Mortal Kombat 1, which is the 12th game in the Mortal Kombat series, titled as such because it's a Continuity Reboot caused by a Cosmic Retcon. The actual first game is titled just Mortal Kombat... which has also been given an official alternate title of "Mortal Kombat 1" by Warner Bros. themselves on GOG.com, even after the reveal of Mortal Kombat 1. These days, fans are forced to refer to the first game by nicknames along the lines of "the original Mortal Kombat."
  • Jak X has legacy skins for Jak from the preceding Jak and Daxter games, wherein the Jak II and Jak 3 versions of him are named after the games they appear. So what did they call the skin from the first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy? "Jak One". This establishes a Running Gag where the main Jak games are all numbered differently, using a word, a Roman numeral and an Arabic number.

    Web Original 
  • Standard procedure on TV Tropes when a series that doesn't qualify for the Franchise namespace shares a name with its first installment is to trope the series at "Medium.WorkName" and the first installment at "Medium.WorkName1". The "1" on the latter page is usually removed via the custom title system, but sometimes nobody bothers.note 

    Western Animation 

    Real Life 
  • World War I: it got this name when World War II came by, but some people called it the "The First World War" before. However, this can also be interpreted as "There have been many wars, but this is the first world war." The War of the Spanish Succession had also been called "the first world war" before the big one.
  • Almost all monarchs and rulers don't get to become "the First" until there's at least a second. Pope John Paul I, however, did use "the First" in his title, and actually signed his name Ioannes Paulus Primus. In contrast, Pope Francis, the only other pope in a thousand years with an original papal name, won't be Pope Francis I until there's a Francis II.

Alternative Title(s): Title One

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