Why remaster only the second game?

[B1ackjack]

Not sure how to get into it without the first one, is it important?

[RAWRmonger]

Probably because it's not worth the effort for what is a 3 hour prologue-game which is heavily outclassed by the sequel.

This game, at least the PS2 version, contains a "Previously" video, but it also briefly explains what happened when it's needed in story.

Basically, the first game tells a short story about a space colony attack (near Jupiter), a boy who accidentally finds the mech and fends off some attacks while saving his girl friend, ultimately killing an elite pilot (the only with a plot), surviving an encounter with the bad guy (which you can't do anything) and then escaping into Earth's military custody and learning about the mech's true purpose. The End.

[B1ackjack]

Okay, i could probably youtube it then, thanks.

[SHREDDER]

Yes why since the first didnt come to pc? Should i play also the first before playing the second to understand the story?

[Kaldin]

Originally posted by SHREDDER:

Yes why since the first didnt come to pc? Should i play also the first before playing the second to understand the story?

...how about reading the very short thread?

Thanks @RAWRmonger from me too, since I would've asked the same thing here.

[RAWRmonger]

The stories are loosely connected. You don't need the first to understand the second. Though you would be missing out on some context. Then again, the first game has references that require you to watch the anime as well.

You can probably still find the ~50 minute anime-movie "Zone of the Enders - Idolo" on Youtube.
It features a cool looking mech, but very different from what is about to come, and also some sad scenes.

This anime also has sequel anime-series "Zone of the Enders - Dolores", but I wouldn't recommend that, save for watching the last 2 or 3 episodes.
This anime is too goofy and is about characters that don't matter for the next games.

As for ZoE1, you can watch the "previously" video on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3UxPTbzfuE

Some key story links for the second game are:
- Leo Stenbuck (main character) which establishes a close relationship with ADA (the mech's AI), so if you don't get it, he will look like a creep to you. Even though he looks like a creep anyway if you understand, lol...
- Viola, which is a tenacious pilot who won't quit until she either wins or is killed. She has a sad ending, but her life story is explained in the anime-movie Idolo. The important aspect, is her behaviour in combat.
- Why Jehuty was abandoned in Calisto, a Jupiter's Moon, which is done offscreen anyway.

ZoE1 does some cool things though, like:
- Having a (tiny) world map, allowing you to revisit spots. It's set in a space colony, which is a cool setting, so if you're into futurism, there's a good reason to play it.
- You have some adventure elements like downloading abilities/keys from servers. You will highjack other (crappy) mechs. There's a sniper subweapon and mission to take out some targets from a tower. You get infected by a virus.
- Some good music tracks.

It is a short game, and combat-wise, it's completely outclassed by ZoE2. It feels SLOW after playing ZoE2, I would have it on Steam if it released because it does things mecha fans would enjoy, but compared to 2, it's not a big deal if it doesn't ever come.

IIRC, between the first and second game, the GBA strategy/VN title takes place.
I'm not sure it's canon, BTW.
This game does a good job at world bulding: Mars, its counties, BAHRAM, a bit of Earth's military, some independent terrorist group, etc. And it has some cool characters.
The gameplay is extremely bad since it features a manual aim/escape mechanism which allows you to hit and evade 100% of the time, so screw you strategy. Also, keep in mind this is a GBA early/launch title.

[Chizu]

2 may outclass 1, but its still a game I really liked. It would be nice to at least have the game on steam, it doesnt need any fancy new features or VR, just give it support for higher resolutions and make it run well and Id buy it for the right price.

[Geist]

1 felt like a tech demo that ended up being expanded upon. It was good though. I would get it again if it was on Steam. I assumed they would pack it in with this since it is so small. Kinda weird that they didn't.

[Noma]

The second is far superior, but still, it helps to build a "connection" to the Jehuty, ADA, Leo and also Viola. I mean, when you see Viola in the second game, either you played the first one and the scene impact you, or you didn't and therefore you don't care...

[B1ackjack]

Originally posted by Noma:

The second is far superior, but still, it helps to build a "connection" to the Jehuty, ADA, Leo and also Viola. I mean, when you see Viola in the second game, either you played the first one and the scene impact you, or you didn't and therefore you don't care...

Yeah, i'm mostly worried about things like that.

[Kobi Blade]

Even though ZOE 2 is far superior to the first game, no one gave a logic answer as to why the first game wasn't ported.
Is either due to licenses or down right lazyness.
If ZOE 2 has success and enough people ask, we'll probably get the first game (speculation).

[SenMithrarin85]

they want to make money, hence they'll port the better, longer and more popular game. ZOE 1 was a tech demo.

[neonfatum]

ZOE1 laid the foundation for how great ZOE2 is, but it's a good game as well and without having experienced it you're missing out on a lot of context for the ZOE universe, especially concerning the central conflict and the parties involved in it. The characters in it as normal citizens of the colony also offer a very important perspective on the universe that you don't really get in ZOE2.

It's to be hoped that any sequel is just as good or even better than the original, but that doesn't mean the original is to be disregarded. That being said, ZOE2 is a much better, longer game so they went for that.

They're PS2 games, so they have to reverse-engineer off a copy or a backup unless they still have the source code around (which they probably don't), port it to run on PC, touch the graphics up a bit (even if thanks to timeless aesthetics they still look great), then implement VR functionality into it and fine-tune it for each one. It's a lot of work and thus financial investment so they probably decided to do the more popular and better game if it's not gonna be both outright. I don't think they'll bother to do ZOE1 even if this one is successful to be honest. Only die-hard fans would really care and Konami know this.

ZOE2 is so good that they went to the trouble of having another studio fix the awful "HD version" of it on PS3 after its state caused a lot of ire among players.
They didn't bother to fix ZOE1 at all and the Xbox360 didn't even get the ZOE2 fix either.

[Cheese]

Originally posted by Vagrant:

ZOE2 is so good that they went to the trouble of having another studio fix the awful "HD version" of it on PS3 after its state caused a lot of ire among players.
They didn't bother to fix ZOE1 at all and the Xbox360 didn't even get the ZOE2 fix either.

I'm not sure that's the reason. ZOE2 isn't just the better game of the two, it's also the one that most drastically needed fixing.
iirc, ZOE1's HD port had issues, but it at least ran at full speed the majority of the time, while ZOE2 nearly always suffered from significant slowdown, and I think had more issues with missing graphical effects as well.

Also, this is very possibly a large part of why we're only getting a remaster of ZOE2. They have a solid HD version of ZOE2 to work from, whereas a proper remaster of ZOE1 would have to look all the way back to the PS2 release and might have had to rebuild it basically from scratch.

[Noma]

Japanese game companies are short-sighted, that's why there's so many of them that are unable to remaster their old games because they don't have the source code anymore. They were used to throw away all the code after release. Same problem with Final Fantasy games for example.

[SunfireKnight86]

The first game was garbage, the second game outclassed it in literally every way, and the whole story is total anime trash anyway. (Even by anime trash story standards)

Trust me, you'll be fine without it.