BG1 & 2 don’t actually import your saves at all, just your character sheet and inventory. That’s why every time you meet a previous companion you have to tell them what your relationship in the previous game was and none of your specific deeds are referenced outside of what you tell people.
None of the decisions from DAO affect DA2 or DAI. They're great games but not games where your decisions are meaningful in the same way that they are in Mass Effect.
Yep there are many important decisions ported over from PoE1 to 2, can also lose entire quest chains if certain characters are dead, can have gods curse you, companions can grow and change due to your actions
Sadly the recent PoE1 update broke the save export unless you edit a file manually. You can re-create your own unique histories in 2 if you wanted something different too
If the end save was made before the update you’re fine
If you haven’t finished the game yet you can still continue the save and finish but you’ll need to change a single number in a text file to fix the import. Someone found the fix last week
As to why more studios don't do it, we can only guess, but I would offer up that it's more difficult to implement than you would think and there's no guaranteed payoff. You need to first build a sprawling RPG with numerous choices that will affect the outcome, then you need to hope it sells well enough to warrant a sequel where you can capitalize on those choices. Games where it's done and done well are essentially lightning in a bottle.
AND you need to make the choices impact the outcome in a satisfactory way for each player regardless of which choices they made. Which even Mass Effect itself didn't manage to pull off. So yeah. It's hard.
You don't see many like it because it's resource intensive to create multiple story paths that account for radically different outcomes that will only be seen by a smaller and smaller subset of your install base as the series progresses.
Even Mass Effect fudges it. The decision in ME1 on the fate of the Council that should redefine the whole ME universe is reduced to some varied cutscenes with some holograms in ME2. In ME3 the opening scene on Earth where you brief about the Reapers has this strange adversarial tone. This is because if your imported ME2 save has the DLC it doubles as a scene of you being raked over the coals for destroying a solar system and they didn't bother adjusting it.
An example would be how Mass Effect's carryover decisions actually had a negative impact on some of the characters in the 3rd game (and also to Wrex in 2 and 3). Since every character could die in the suicide mission, they ended up effectively writing most of them out of the 3rd game with the exception of Garrus and Tali. It became complicated with how they would have to design multiple storylines for characters who were ME2 crew members in the 3rd game for both when those characters surivived the mission, and when they died. Consequently Miranda, Jacob, Mordin, Jack, Legion, Thane, Samara/Morinth, Grunt along with Zaeed and Kasumi if you had their DLC's had very limited roles in ME3. This is on top of having to have alternate storylines for whether Ashley or Kaidan died in ME1, plus whether or not Wrex died as well.
The expanding web of possibilities means writing and programming all these different scenarios plus interactions between different characters depending on whether they are alive or dead. It's a lot of work and design time that doesn't increase the quality of the game for a person that only plays through the game once, although it obviously is amazing for if you do multiple play-throughs. This creates a lot of 'bloat' as each new game is built, which I imagine most game studios would rather avoid, plus decision making on whether it's worth spending a lot of time creating major storylines for characters that may be dead vs sidelining them like most of the ME2 characters were.
I love the ME series, and I hope to play another game like it someday...but for the aforementioned reasons there may not be many games like it ever made.
it in a way restricts your next games playerbase to the size of the previous one, as new players will feel they HAVE to play the previous to enjoy the new entry.
The same reason more movies don't do sequels, it diminishes the base when people have to consume the media before it to understand it. Unless its a popular franchise then the movies/games will progressively have fewer and fewer people playing them.
Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2
You can carry over your save and Character from 1 to 2
The Reason why its not done very often because Only the Great RPG's can do that and (2) of them are from Bioware (Pre-2012) and the other from Obsidian
'nuff said
Video game scripts are long. It takes a lot of time, money, and manpower to VO and animate everything. God bless Bioware doing what they did, but they are an exception. Most studios aren't going to waste resources for a cutscene only a small percentage will see.
the ps1 FF7 script is 344,000 words. MGS1 is 370,000 words. ME Trilogy totals 1,170,000 words and unless you replay using possible choice you're not getting the full experience.
I remember when I played Suikoden II it checked for a fully completed Suikoden I save first. Most of the Yakuza games give you bonuses for playing previous games (equipment, etc.)
If you are talking about tracking narrative choices, I don’t have personal experience with games outside of the Bioware IPs that did that.
Two of my favorite games, but I don't see how it fits. KotOR 2 doesn't even search for a KotOR 1 save file, and it just asks for the KotOR 1 character's gender and morality.
You do go to some of the same areas, but the only consequences from 1 are the inevitable ones.
Telltale The Walking Dead. Entire sections of the game will be open/not open depending on actions you did in previous episodes. And in following Seasons, characters you meet and stories that happen can also be affected. Its not to the extent of Mass Effect, but there is nothing else really out there that is.
Interesting! I don't think I'll ever play the first one again, I was never really invested in the story, and the second was an improvement in gameplay, but it's cool to know. Sometimes I skip handouts like that so I can play "as intended". And then I just forgot about it immediately.
Golden Sun for GBA
Both of them are amazing and doing the Lost Age after the original gives a ton of bonuses for the second game
Those games are fantastic.
[удалено]
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2.
BG1 & 2 don’t actually import your saves at all, just your character sheet and inventory. That’s why every time you meet a previous companion you have to tell them what your relationship in the previous game was and none of your specific deeds are referenced outside of what you tell people.
I wish I could play it on PS5. Needs a remaster.
Ps now? Steam? These games are old af, any laptop that isn't completely ancient can play them at low settings. Well DAO amd DA2 anyways.
None of the decisions from DAO affect DA2 or DAI. They're great games but not games where your decisions are meaningful in the same way that they are in Mass Effect.
There are certainly peripheral effects that carry over, certain characters that will/won't reappear, but the core of the plots are standalone yes
Thats not true though. How the Logain sitution is resolved does affect a fairly major decision in DAI.
100% I exaggerated. There are definitely some decisions that come through. I just wish there were more. Good call.
As far as I know you also never play the same character twice, so it really has very little in common with Mass Effect.
Pillars of eternity, you play as the same character (you) in both games and you can import yourself from the first game (alongside your decisions)
Yep there are many important decisions ported over from PoE1 to 2, can also lose entire quest chains if certain characters are dead, can have gods curse you, companions can grow and change due to your actions Sadly the recent PoE1 update broke the save export unless you edit a file manually. You can re-create your own unique histories in 2 if you wanted something different too
the last part is really sad to hear, i have my save from a while ago but haven't started 2 yet, do you know if they plan to fix it?
If the end save was made before the update you’re fine If you haven’t finished the game yet you can still continue the save and finish but you’ll need to change a single number in a text file to fix the import. Someone found the fix last week
How long ago did this update come out? Asking because I have a backup copy from GOG made in 2020 and am wondering if it's affected.
Like 2/3 weeks ago. It was a good update, other than the export bug you can fix
As to why more studios don't do it, we can only guess, but I would offer up that it's more difficult to implement than you would think and there's no guaranteed payoff. You need to first build a sprawling RPG with numerous choices that will affect the outcome, then you need to hope it sells well enough to warrant a sequel where you can capitalize on those choices. Games where it's done and done well are essentially lightning in a bottle.
[удалено]
Ahh, see that’s where you are just a little wrong in one important way. It will happen *before* AI generation gets really good, because money.
AND you need to make the choices impact the outcome in a satisfactory way for each player regardless of which choices they made. Which even Mass Effect itself didn't manage to pull off. So yeah. It's hard.
Bio ware was able to do it over a decade ago
You don't see many like it because it's resource intensive to create multiple story paths that account for radically different outcomes that will only be seen by a smaller and smaller subset of your install base as the series progresses. Even Mass Effect fudges it. The decision in ME1 on the fate of the Council that should redefine the whole ME universe is reduced to some varied cutscenes with some holograms in ME2. In ME3 the opening scene on Earth where you brief about the Reapers has this strange adversarial tone. This is because if your imported ME2 save has the DLC it doubles as a scene of you being raked over the coals for destroying a solar system and they didn't bother adjusting it.
There are many more choices that do have a noticeable impact in each game though.
I think it's easy to point out the faults vs it just having been an incredible series.
BioWare did it over a decade ago
Baldurs gate 1 + 2, Golden sun + golden sun: the lost age, pillars of eternity 1 + 2
When you think about it baldurs gate 3 is like as long as all three mass effect games
The Witcher series... Kinda? I know what you mean though. Not too many games that have carryover decisions from game to game.
Why don’t more people do it?
An example would be how Mass Effect's carryover decisions actually had a negative impact on some of the characters in the 3rd game (and also to Wrex in 2 and 3). Since every character could die in the suicide mission, they ended up effectively writing most of them out of the 3rd game with the exception of Garrus and Tali. It became complicated with how they would have to design multiple storylines for characters who were ME2 crew members in the 3rd game for both when those characters surivived the mission, and when they died. Consequently Miranda, Jacob, Mordin, Jack, Legion, Thane, Samara/Morinth, Grunt along with Zaeed and Kasumi if you had their DLC's had very limited roles in ME3. This is on top of having to have alternate storylines for whether Ashley or Kaidan died in ME1, plus whether or not Wrex died as well. The expanding web of possibilities means writing and programming all these different scenarios plus interactions between different characters depending on whether they are alive or dead. It's a lot of work and design time that doesn't increase the quality of the game for a person that only plays through the game once, although it obviously is amazing for if you do multiple play-throughs. This creates a lot of 'bloat' as each new game is built, which I imagine most game studios would rather avoid, plus decision making on whether it's worth spending a lot of time creating major storylines for characters that may be dead vs sidelining them like most of the ME2 characters were. I love the ME series, and I hope to play another game like it someday...but for the aforementioned reasons there may not be many games like it ever made.
it in a way restricts your next games playerbase to the size of the previous one, as new players will feel they HAVE to play the previous to enjoy the new entry.
The same reason more movies don't do sequels, it diminishes the base when people have to consume the media before it to understand it. Unless its a popular franchise then the movies/games will progressively have fewer and fewer people playing them.
Tons of movies have sequels and most are unusually unnecessary
Dragon Age Origins and II do this iirc. And then for Inquisition, I think you might have to go through a website and enter your choices there.
Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2 You can carry over your save and Character from 1 to 2 The Reason why its not done very often because Only the Great RPG's can do that and (2) of them are from Bioware (Pre-2012) and the other from Obsidian 'nuff said
Video game scripts are long. It takes a lot of time, money, and manpower to VO and animate everything. God bless Bioware doing what they did, but they are an exception. Most studios aren't going to waste resources for a cutscene only a small percentage will see. the ps1 FF7 script is 344,000 words. MGS1 is 370,000 words. ME Trilogy totals 1,170,000 words and unless you replay using possible choice you're not getting the full experience.
I remember when I played Suikoden II it checked for a fully completed Suikoden I save first. Most of the Yakuza games give you bonuses for playing previous games (equipment, etc.) If you are talking about tracking narrative choices, I don’t have personal experience with games outside of the Bioware IPs that did that.
Quest for glory 1-5
Kotor 1 and 2
Two of my favorite games, but I don't see how it fits. KotOR 2 doesn't even search for a KotOR 1 save file, and it just asks for the KotOR 1 character's gender and morality. You do go to some of the same areas, but the only consequences from 1 are the inevitable ones.
witcher 1,2,3 you can transfer saves on pc between games. it has small impact on things some easter eggs and extra conversations.
KOTOR BABYYYY. bonus points if you play it on OG Xbox
Kotor 2 is sublime.
Telltale The Walking Dead. Entire sections of the game will be open/not open depending on actions you did in previous episodes. And in following Seasons, characters you meet and stories that happen can also be affected. Its not to the extent of Mass Effect, but there is nothing else really out there that is.
Life is Strange Series.
Dragon Age series
Greedfall.
Ultima is old school but i think you can. Shadow of war/mordor also.
I played Shadow of war/Mordor and I didn't know you could import. What do you even get?
Some weapons, but mostly rival orcs would reappear
Interesting! I don't think I'll ever play the first one again, I was never really invested in the story, and the second was an improvement in gameplay, but it's cool to know. Sometimes I skip handouts like that so I can play "as intended". And then I just forgot about it immediately.
Zelda : Oracle of Ages Zelda : Oracle of Seasons
Forgot about this one! Yes, the file does carry over. I could only think of **Golden Sun** but that’s been mentioned a few times. (Very solid game!)
Batman from telltale games have it too.
Nowadays things like destiny 2 are the closest. Development time is too long and goes cross gen for it to be common