I don't like it... (some spoilers for the last game)

[Knight9910]

After playing through Operation Abyss, I was so excited to play Operation Babel and continue the story. I was so excited, in fact, that I went out and spent a bunch of money I didn't have just so I could play it immediately. I'm now wishing I hadn't bothered...

Gone are most of the characters I actually cared about. Where's Johnny? Where's Tae-Hyun? Where's Kyoko? Who the Hell is this chick with the red and blue eyes and why should I care about her?

Gone are all of the relationships I cared about, built up over two games.

Why bother making a sequel at this point? Alice turning bad in the second semester of Abyss felt like a betrayal because she was one of my character's best friends. Masa turning bad in this game feels like nothing because I'm just playing some shmuck who doesn't have two games worth of interaction with her. I can't feel invested in this at all.

And it's not even like I can just pretend that it's the same people because the game won't stop bashing me over the head with it. I can take retraining my party from level 1, just let me pretend that they're the same people! Maybe they got Code-Breaker'd so hard it reset their level and decoded all their equipment, I don't care. But don't take away the one thing that made your game worth playing! You don't have to insert "New Xth Squad" into EVERY DAMN LINE OF DIALOGUE, do you?

Even worse... as much as I love character creation and getting to play with my own people, if there's one thing I HATE it's when a game makes me feel like my create-a-character isn't a part of the group. That's one reason why I ended up not liking Syphon Filter: Omega Strain, after playing through an entire game just to be rewarded with a team photo of everyone but me.

Operation Abyss NEVER made me feel that way.... this game? Not only did this game make me feel that way, it also retroactively made me feel that way about Operation Abyss, due to the fact that apparently nobody remembers my old squad at all. The only mention of them even existing is an offhand remark by Kaito about how weak they apparently were and how the new squad needs to be stronger.

I honestly feel like they just shouldn't have made a third game if this is what they were going to do with it.

[MovingTarget(Reject LGBTQ games)]

completed agree your point, i also hate that this game don't allow you to inherit your old characters from last game(Operation Abyss)...
they even think they can just give you some items from the begining for compensation of this.

i doubt it what made their brain.
they think we don't care our old characters after the story in last game? seriously?

[MovingTarget(Reject LGBTQ games)]

Operation Abyss and this Operation Babel are the same to series of Generation Xth(Code Hazard and Code Break=Operation Abyss, Code Realize=Operation Babel).
OA and OB just added few new set and few new characters, new stories, they almost completely the same....oh i forgot to mention it, this new version game deleted 2 advanced blood code and 2 characters(two characters "Ras" and "Siz", include their new blood codes, they are your powerful ally but deleted by great developers)
remember it, in Generation Xth, you can inherit your old characters to Code Realize from Code Hazard or Code Break.

[MovingTarget(Reject LGBTQ games)]

your old characters(seniors) will rejoin you after you first beat Embryo, they will release from Embryo's imprisonment, so after that you can reassemble your old characters and begin the adventure!
don't worry, it still has many quests and stories(include main story) await you!!
so let's expect Generation Xth series can be remake and sale on Steam!(i am more like all story characters in old version, their appearances are too young in this new version)

[MovingTarget(Reject LGBTQ games)]

Generation Xth, the origin of Operation Abyss and Babel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgF-wdIyreE

[J-Kitty]

I'm wondering if the original poster actually played the game ANY amount of time at all? I mean considering that I barely played passed the third "dungeon" (almost no time spent.. 2-3 hours tops) and I met the entire cast of the previous game (other than my old Xth squad which, technically shouldn't they have been with Alice in the first place?) Alice was messaging us from overseas (and is now trapped in a "enclosed membrane" but, well can't have her ruining the game for us XD), Johnny was on the Train protecting civilians, Tae-hyun had a freak out in the empty classroom, Noriko saved our sorry butts from the big bad, Kaito is the current Xth captain. Of course Hachi, Mao, Fuwa are also all there. Same with Kenichi. So.. I have to wonder.. if the poster like played for 5 minutes and was like "I quit". (Also they do explain Masa's situation PDQ as well......so again... "Whut?" to the OP)

[Knight9910]

Originally posted by J-Kitty:

I'm wondering if the original poster actually played the game ANY amount of time at all? I mean considering that I barely played passed the third "dungeon" (almost no time spent.. 2-3 hours tops) and I met the entire cast of the previous game (other than my old Xth squad which, technically shouldn't they have been with Alice in the first place?) Alice was messaging us from overseas (and is now trapped in a "enclosed membrane" but, well can't have her ruining the game for us XD), Johnny was on the Train protecting civilians, Tae-hyun had a freak out in the empty classroom, Noriko saved our sorry butts from the big bad, Kaito is the current Xth captain. Of course Hachi, Mao, Fuwa are also all there. Same with Kenichi. So.. I have to wonder.. if the poster like played for 5 minutes and was like "I quit". (Also they do explain Masa's situation PDQ as well......so again... "Whut?" to the OP)

I wrote this during a very angry moment very early on in the story. I did eventually get into the story and I was able to enjoy it. Still, none of what I said is necessarily untrue.

Operation Babel is just... a BAD sequel.

Yes, the characters from Abyss appear later, but they don't do anything and none of the relationships we had with them are preserved since our characters winked out of existence between games, apparently.

Yes, Masa gets explained... but don't try and pretend the game didn't try to tease us with that "oh no Masa's evil now" thing... and I just don't feel like it was as impactful as it should have been, because our relationship with her is gone.

And just completely ignoring the "Mu'La is the new king of Babyl" sequel hook from Abyss... what's up with that? "Lol no, Mu'La's just a lackey to the new villain."

The only part that really felt like it tied in with Abyss in a real way was the Graveyard... and that didn't even make sense at ALL! So, the dude's ghost was able to appear because his code mingled with ours when he blew himself up... except, wait, that was a completely different team, so WTF? This team never even MET him! It's like this mission was written for an earlier draft of the game, from before the decision was made to make this a New Xth Squad.

Also, from what I understand, the original Generation Xth: Code Realize DID have your team go with Alice and get lost at the beginning of the game, and then they came back and became playable at the same point in the story when Alice gets released. But the remake changed that because reasons.