Play them in order?

[Violent By Design]

No, it doesn't matter in less the stories are heavily intertwined. Even if you want to see how the series evolves, from my experience it really made no difference what order I played some games in. It's not like I'm not able to tell that certain tropes started in a particular game simply because I've played its sequel.

As for Shining Force and Phantasy Star, you do not have to play them in order, nor will you regret missing out on any of the references. In the case of Shining Force they're very minor. The Phantasy Stars are a bit more connected, but it's more of a great time lapse type of thing, it really doesn't matter.


As for playing games that may feel downgraded from their sequel. In my opinion, a good game is a good game. Shining Force 1 is worse than Shining Force 2, but would I hate to play SF1 again? No, I'd simply think it was just worse than SF2, like I already do (I played SF1 before SF2). If you think it sucks because SF2 is just so much improved, then oh well, looks like you saved yourself 20 hours to go play another game.

[Nemoide]

I want to point out that the Shining series is an odd example because Shining in the Darkness was retconned to take place AFTER Shining Force II and Shining Wisdom for some reason. But playing it after those titles would be strange.

[Xeogred]

It's pretty random for me, but yeah if it's a direct continuation then I'm definitely not going to randomly jump in the later installments.

[eggman]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The ability to go back and play a series in order of publication is obviously a luxury of time and financial ability. The question for me is centered around the experience you get out of a game.

It seems like most game designers have aimed each game at a new audience, yet they will also keep a little something there for the long time fans.

It's interesting to see a few of you have gone back and played a series in order well after the release of early games. It must put each game in a series in a much different historical context and inevitably be influencing the players experience.

Now do I track down all the Dragon Warrior games before I let myself play Dragon Quest VIII on the PS2 (only DQ game I currently own)?

Damn you retro games!