Best And Worst Video Game Story Retcons

[Commodore]

In your opinion what retcons to the story of video games do you think were the best and which do you think were the worst?

For any who might not know: A retcon is when the creators of a story, go back and change the original story, usually to rectify plot holes created by sequels.

Here's mine:

Worst: EA eliminating Red Alert 1 from the Tiberian Timeline in the Command & Conquer franchise.

Best: EA reestablishing Red Alert 1 as part of the Tiberian Timeline.

 

[Maniacal]

All of them, probably. Extremely few games have good stories in the first place.

 

[Commodore]

All of them, probably. Extremely few games have good stories in the first place.

I would disagree with that statement. I think the reason video games seem to have bad stories is because people try to apply the same standards to them that they apply to novels and movies. To me this just simply isn't fair since the story serves a much different purpose in a video game than in other media.

 

[Polycrates]

Well an obvious one is the Elder Scrolls series with its "dragon breaks"

At the end of Daggerfall (spoiler if anyone cares) you get the choice of giving the staff of ultimate power to any one of a bunch of factions who will then use it to beat up all the others and take over the whole area. So for Morrowind, instead of making one of these endings the canonical choice, they just decided that the in-game explanation would be that through some quantum magic (The Warp In The West), all the endings had happened and all the factions had simultaneously gotten the staff and beaten each other and then the god of time just magicked it all away so that the next day everyone was miraculously at peace and nobody had won and half the kingdoms had disappeared and the necromancer guy had gone and turned himself into a moon. Then there's all these ingame books about all these peoples' personal experiences of a god pulling a country-sized retcon on them, it's rather bizarre.

Likewise, after the ingame literature had talked about the imperial province being a jungle full of Romans, Oblivion turned up with literature about how god-emperor Tiber Septim had similarly magicked the entire province into bland european forest because jungle romans weren't dull and generic enough he wanted a nicer landscape for his soldiers.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I'd say the changes from Warcraft 2 to Warcraft 3 were prett good, redefining the Orcs as generic evil hordes to a shamanistic culture that has been corrupted by demons and is trying to reform.
I've never played WoW, so I don't know if they scerwed it up again.

 

[Commodore]

Well an obvious one is the Elder Scrolls series with its "dragon breaks"

At the end of Daggerfall (spoiler if anyone cares) you get the choice of giving the staff of ultimate power to any one of a bunch of factions who will then use it to beat up all the others and take over the whole area. So for Morrowind, instead of making one of these endings the canonical choice, they just decided that the in-game explanation would be that through some quantum magic (The Warp In The West), all the endings had happened and all the factions had simultaneously gotten the staff and beaten each other and then the god of time just magicked it all away so that the next day everyone was miraculously at peace and nobody had won and half the kingdoms had disappeared and the necromancer guy had gone and turned himself into a moon. Then there's all these ingame books about all these peoples' personal experiences of a god pulling a country-sized retcon on them, it's rather bizarre.

Likewise, after the ingame literature had talked about the imperial province being a jungle full of Romans, Oblivion turned up with literature about how god-emperor Tiber Septim had similarly magicked the entire province into bland european forest because jungle romans weren't dull and generic enough he wanted a nicer landscape for his soldiers.

Wow, that sounds absolutely ridiculous. I can't even imagine the thought process they went through to even think that was a good idea.

I'd say the changes from Warcraft 2 to Warcraft 3 were prett good, redefining the Orcs as generic evil hordes to a shamanistic culture that has been corrupted by demons and is trying to reform.
I've never played WoW, so I don't know if they scerwed it up again.

Yeah, the story changes between the two were pretty awesome, but I hate the map retcons they did to Lordaeron. I too have not played WoW so I don't know if they messed up the maps even more or not.

 

[TheDanish]

Oh man, I used to play WoW. I agree about the orcs, but the first expansion (Burning Crusade) completely retconned the draenei race. No longer native inhabitants of Draenor, they are now space goats who fled the Burning Legion and settled on Draenor in a dimensional starship piloted by giant alien crystals who are physical manifestations of the Holy Light. Oh, and they're not hideous. The "ugly" draenei were "corrupted" at a later point. I wish I was making this up.

Another bad example: not really a video game, but the Warhammer Fantasy production team decided to backpedal after the player-driven Storm of Chaos event and pretended it didn't happen, mainly because the forces of Order kicked the balls out of Chaos.

Best retcon: I'll agree with GS and go with the redefinition of Warcraft orcs. They pulled it off because they didn't need to revise the lore, but just added more of it that fill well with the storyline. Otherwise, I'm not a fan of retcons.

 

[Maniacal]

Games Workshop has some incredibly rich backstories but you never know when whoever is in charge will decide to just change stuff to the way he thinks it should be. I didn't know the retconned the Storm of Chaos, as that was when I stopped paying attention to Warhammer.

 

[Commodore]

Games Workshop has some incredibly rich backstories but you never know when whoever is in charge will decide to just change stuff to the way he thinks it should be. I didn't know the retconned the Storm of Chaos, as that was when I stopped paying attention to Warhammer.

Agreed about Games Workshop. I absolutely hate the backstory changes they did to the Necrons in the latest edition of 40k. They were perfectly fine with the story they had, and now they are completely uninteresting to me (much like the Tau).

 

[Maniacal]

Seriously, what the bloody damned hell is this? Who would ever design such a thing let alone approve it for use? (Both militarily and at GW). Especially since the Necron have teleportation technology!

 

[Racsoviale]

speaking of GW, I always hated the fact they split the Fantasy universe from the 40k universe. I felt it was awesome knowing they were connected in that way. and ofcoarse also GW completlely dropping my beloved Chaos Dwarfs.

 

[Commodore]

speaking of GW, I always hated the fact they split the Fantasy universe from the 40k universe. I felt it was awesome knowing they were connected in that way. and ofcoarse also GW completlely dropping my beloved Chaos Dwarfs.

Agreed, but it's the fault of the Warhammer Fantasy fans that the split occured. The Fanstasy people complained that they didn't want to just be a small part of a larger universe as that takes away from the epicness of Warhammer Fantasy. Games Workshop ignored them until they started threatening boycott, then GW made the split.

I swear, sometimes fans can be a good story's worst enemy.

 

[Maniacal]

When did they split them? The only connection I remember was that Warhammer Fantasy was in the same universe, but on a planet that was totally cut off by warp storms making it impossible to reach. Even though the planet had been settled by the Eldar (hence the Lizardmen) everything was so far removed it didn't really matter (and kind of makes more sense than so many species rising to some level of civilization).

Although I guess that in comparison to galactic wars, the problems of one planet pale in comparison, especially given how massive the 40k verse is.

 

[Commodore]

When did they split them? The only connection I remember was that Warhammer Fantasy was in the same universe, but on a planet that was totally cut off by warp storms making it impossible to reach. Even though the planet had been settled by the Eldar (hence the Lizardmen) everything was so far removed it didn't really matter (and kind of makes more sense than so many species rising to some level of civilization).

Although I guess that in comparison to galactic wars, the problems of one planet pale in comparison, especially given how massive the 40k verse is.

I don't know exactly when the split occurred, but it was still just crappy pandering to a bunch of whiney fans.

Little do those fans know is that they killed a lot of cool story opportunities. As I understood it, Warhammer Fantasy was supposed to take place during the Age of Strife in 40k (where pretty much all planets in the Imperium were cut off by warpstorms) before the Great Crusade. Some people even theorized that Sigmar would end up being one of the lost Primarchs given his superhuman abilities. Plus the book Libre Chaotica hinted that the Warhammer Fantasy world would see some action during the Horus Heresy. To me, those two things could have made for some awesome stories and maybe even an expansion to Warhammer Fantasy that includes 40k units.

 

[Maniacal]

If GW ever added 40k units to Fantasy I'd be totally on the side of separating the two. Some things are better off left mysterious.

 

[Commodore]

If GW ever added 40k units to Fantasy I'd be totally on the side of separating the two. Some things are better off left mysterious.

Maybe, but the prophecies in Libre Chaotica were pretty awesome though.

 

[DaemonDD]

If there's something Activision never were good at, then it was upholding the storyline of the Rayman-series in a proper fashion. I swear, the main characters except Rayman, Globox, Murphy and the Teensies constantly changes after each game. At least Betilla the Fairy has officially become a recurring character (as well as Mr. Dark, apparently) but nothing else is explained as to why the characters and the world constantly changes it's nature and logic. Nothing is explained about their origins, their change throughout the course of the series, and don't even get me started on the Rabbits.

Spoiler :

In short, why is Mr. Dark now a Teensie for no apparent reason?

 

[Benefactor]

Not really a retcon, but the Sword of the Stars storyline turning the Liir from reasonably powerful but still semi-realistic (within the lore) telekinetic dolphins into super powered space whales who even when young can see and manipulate on an atomic scale and punch holes in a warships hull. When they grow up they can eat "life energy", survive in the vacuum of space using .... something, and carry on living even after most of there body has rotted away. It just bugs me.


Also, later Sonic games having cities full of people and changing Dr. Robotnik's name to Dr. Eggman.

 

[Commodore]

Not really a retcon, but the Sword of the Stars storyline turning the Liir from reasonably powerful but still semi-realistic (within the lore) telekinetic dolphins into super powered space whales who even when young can see and manipulate on an atomic scale and punch holes in a warships hull. When they grow up they can eat "life energy", survive in the vacuum of space using .... something, and carry on living even after most of there body has rotted away. It just bugs me.


Also, later Sonic games having cities full of people and changing Dr. Robotnik's name to Dr. Eggman.

I hate what Kerberos did with the concept of the Suul'ka. I remember in the first Sword of the Stars they explicitly stated the Suul'ka were a spacefaring race that arrived on the Liir homeworld and enslaved them. Now all of a sudden the Suul'ka are just really old Liir that have gone crazy? That sucks.

 

[Racsoviale]

If GW ever added 40k units to Fantasy I'd be totally on the side of separating the two. Some things are better off left mysterious.

A long time ago in a Warhammer universe far far away you could field Chaos Space Marines in a Chaos fantasy army. Oh yes the two universes were intertwined.