One of the hardest things to wait for in the video game market is sequels. Some companies pump them out like there is no tomorrow like Call of Duty. Fans of that series rarely have to wait a year or two to get a new shooter to play around with.
For fans of big RPGs like the Final Fantasy series is another story. The span between Final Fantasy 15 and the recently released Final Fantasy 16 was seven years. Is the gap between mainline sequels going to be as long, or will things turn around for Final Fantasy 17? If Square Enix reuses the map, maybe a direct sequel could happen for Final Fantasy 16 instead. Let’s take a look at games that did reuse maps and other assets for quick turnarounds.
8 Final Fantasy 10-2
Final Fantasy 10-2 was a big deal in the franchise because it was the first direct sequel in the main games. It was set not long after the first game ended wherein the people of Spira have started to use machines again. Everything is not at peace though as warring factions have popped up in the absence of the church.
Yuna and her crew have to keep the peace and will explore roughly the same environments as the first game albeit tweaked here and there. New locations are in the game as well plus there is the new Dressphere system, so it’s not all old.
7 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was a PSP game that reused the assets of Grand Theft Auto 3. The city is the same but the story and everything else inside it is new. It also borrows more mechanics from the sequels that followed Grand Theft Auto 3 to make the experience smoother.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is not the only game to reuse assets on the PSP as well because Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories did that but for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It’s kind of a shame that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas didn’t get a PSP spinoff too.
6 Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was an in-between sequel that was first released on the Game Boy Advance before it was later remade on the PS2. The story followed Sora as he enter Castle Oblivion which had him relive his recent memories. Even though the gameplay was different as the action combat now relied on cards, the worlds were the same as before except in smaller chunks now.
Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, and several other Disney worlds were revisited in the game. It was less egregious on the GBA since it felt newer in a demade form, but the PS2 remake made the reusing of assets more abundantly clear.
5 Pokemon Gold/Silver
Pokemon Gold/Silver reused assets but this was kind of like a secret. There were new Pokemon to capture in a brand new region as well, making it feel like a true sequel. However, in the back end, players could revisit the entire map of Pokemon Blue/Red.
No game in the franchise has tried this again which is a shame because of how well it worked. It was one of the most hyped moments a fan could experience at the time as long as they weren’t spoiled on the surprise. It was an accomplishment for the memory capacity of Game Boy games which was tiny.
4 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is about 50/50 on how much it reused from Resident Evil 2. In that game, fans got a small taste of Raccoon City before making their way to the police station. That, along with the underground Umbrella lab, are the two main set pieces.
In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, the city is the main playground and the police department is just a small section. It is cool to see remnants of what characters did in the police station in the previous title though. It’s a weaker example on the list, but it still counts.
3 Tales of Xillia 2
The Tales of series, unlike Final Fantasy, was not shy about making numbered sequels to their main entries. Tales of Xillia 2 was the last big example of this as the series once again focused on one-off adventures such as Tales of Arise. This game takes place after the original with a new cast of characters and story.
The world, however, is almost identical besides the new additions and tweaks. It is a lesser adventure to be sure, but the original Tales of Xillia was such a good entry that it made sense to reuse assets for another game set in this universe.
2 Yakuza
There is no one game to talk about here because the entire Yakuza franchise reuses assets. The only exceptions are for spinoffs like this year’s remaster of Like a Dragon: Ishin which takes place during the samurai era of Japan.
Most of the mainline games feature the city of Kamurocho in some capacity. There are other cities and districts in the sequels and sometimes Kamurocho is only in them for a brief section. Yakuza: Like a Dragon, for example, starts there but then moves on to Yokohama instead.
1 The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the latest game in the franchise and the latest game to play this recycling game. The overworld map is the same as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but plenty of new landmarks were added as well. There are giant new sections like the sky areas, caves, and a completely huge underworld system. So, only about a third of the game has been reused whereas the other two-thirds offer fans something new.
Plenty of games in this series have reused maps and other assets in the past, but The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the first to go this in-depth besides maybe The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which reused most of the map from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.