unnecessary sequels
there's this jacob geller video about sequels that talks about world of goo 2 and stanley parable: ultra deluxe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI-v60Q-izA

both these sequels go inward and are very tongue-in-cheek about the nature of their sequel projects. basically questioning why they exist. but why do they exist. could there not have been creative effort towards a new original work. did they make more money for a sequel they themselves have demeaned the existence of over something new?

sad to think about

upon rewatching the linked jgeller video i do agree that world of goo 2 and stanley parable 2 are kind of self-hating and wasteful, but omg the other two. gazing upon the earth defense force narrative spreadsheet was wondrous in a freak way, and the story of his experience with dragons dogma (2) was lowk beautiful. the scene where the ghost of the narrative summoned woman npc to beckon you back to the on-rails experience really plucked at my strings, esp. considering he was 35 hours into looping through what felt like a questionable remaster.

i think it's kind of a delicate line to tread. the spectrum between "i made something that got really popular and [it doesn't feel like mine any more] / [i don't know how to deal with the fandom wanting more] / [i don't know how/want to move beyond it]" VERSUS "making a statment on the metanarrative of revisiting stories/remakes/genre pillars/longrunning selfsimilar franchises".