I guess for the same reason that Baldur's Gate 2 Shadow's of Amn was called Baldur's Gate 2?
Can you explain what you mean by this? I'm not exactly sure I 100% understand your reasoning/point.
BG2 continued the overarching story of BG1, that of the Bhaalspawn, using mainly the same mechanics/characters/region, making it a sequel in the truest sense. No? It certainly used brand recognition, but the use of "2" in the title was justified..?
Exactly. It is silly in BG case, but that’s devs inexperience in naming games. A smarted developer would use a more universal title. But other than poor naming of the series the tile is also wholly accurate:
Baldur’s Gate2 (sequel to The game Baldur’s Gate): Shadows of Amn (location of the new adventure). With BG2 expanding the systems and structure and on top of that directly continuing the story of the originals, including plot and the character (whenever you import or reimagine Bhaalspawn is irrelevant, it is still the same character), it is as sequelly as it gets.
As GiantBombs link point out, story content is really secondary in games. Definitely less so in RPGs, but in general you can have a direct sequel, which has no story connection to the original. It is how the story plays, how it is structure, what gameplay pillars it leans on to, what it’s feel, and appeal are, is what is the most important.
It’s not my interpretation. As Rag nicely pointed out, Warcraft1-3 were sequels, but World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone received their own IP. Similarly there was Baldur’s Gate1&2 but there were spin-off Dark Alliance games. There are original God of War games and the reboots - because they are complete reboots, in spite of continuing the characters story. FiraXCOMs openly positioned themselves as reimagining, as Solomon well knows how different their fundamental designs are.
Naming conventions are well established in gaming, so while it’s been clear for someone like me (by that I mean I played Larian games) what BG3 will likely be, it is a title that positions itself as something else than it is. Even if its plot ties to original saga, and they bring back some of the characters it is a very very different game in every aspect - so a reboot, akin to modern God of War.
Other infinity engine games were a spin-offs though. While using the same engine and therefore mechanics, their focus and structure are rather different - with Icewind Dales focusing on custom parties and pure dungeon crawling, and Planescape focusing on the narrative side.
Edit. Sorry, what we were talking about? Bloodline sequel looked crap, and it is getting a reboot under new studio. Hopefully that will come out better.
