Most disappointing game sequels

As the title implies - which games did you anxiously await a sequel for, but then get frustrated with after playing it?

This topic's on my mind right now because I am dutifully plugging through Agarest War 2 after adoring the first two titles, but disliking the combat here quite a bit.

One I could never understand was why after enjoying White Knight Chronicles on the PS3, was why I simply could not get into part 2 years later. I never even finished it. the combat grind just irritated me for some reason.

What about you?

Waitwaitwait...You liked the combat in the first two? But don't like the combat in Agarest 2? Weird. I ways heard how much of a massive improvement the second game was over the first, at least partly because they made the gameplay more manageable this time around.

Anyways, the most disappointing sequel for me was Kingdom Hearts 2. The story made no goddamn sense, the gameplay is pretty much a one-button affair with very little thought required (at least on normal), there were far too many mini-games, and too many of the environments were just linear hallways. It's actually one of my least favorite RPGs even today.

Ahhhh - no experience with Kingdom Hearts series, but my daughter's played several and she had almost the exact same things to say about KH2.

As for Agarest? Yeah, I'm definitely against the grain there, I know. Most people liked this combat better. It feels very button-mashy and far less strategic to me though. In the first two games, you maneuvered on a grid and worried more about space, flanking enemies, things like that. Here you generally pick your skill or two you like and I find I have gotten through almost the entire first generation by spamming one attack over and over again. It's meant to feel more 'active', but to me it feels more dumbed down I guess? But then I really like turned based tactics games. :p

Wow, I much preferred White Knight Chronicles 2, Nick, haha. Now I feel inspired to play it again

Sequels that didn't do it for me? Well, just to be controversial, Dark Souls (yes, I'm aware it has a different name, but for all intents and purposes it is Demon's Souls 2). I still enjoyed the game, but it wasn't a patch on the creativity and vision of Demon's Souls.

I got way more sucked into Dark Souls than Demon's Souls, to be quite honest. It had an immediately better story, better characters, better setting that you could actually explore, etc.

I think 'better' is subjective. Objectively Dark Souls was a simpler game and therefore easier to 'get,' but in terms of character, narrative and setting, Demon's Souls had the richer experience, it just took a lot more work to get there.

But yeah, obviously you and I have different expectations and taste in games - you don't like art games etc etc, whereas I tend to shy away from games that don't offer exactly what you don't like.

So in that context it's not surprising that we prefer the Souls games what we do

As someone who hasn't spent hardly any time with his copy of demon's souls, I can't really delve into this one much. I will say that Demon's Souls was amazingly atmospheric (and frustrating) to me, so Dark Souls has a lot to prove on that front. I need to settle in with it at some point, but I sunk SO much time into Dark souls, I've been hesitant to start up a legitimate campaign on Dark Souls.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Dead to Rights: Retribution, And Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified (Vita )

Oh man, Black Ops Declassified. I only recently played that on my Vita. Man it's bad, and I don't mind the CoD series at all.