10 Video Game Sequels That Made The Original Even Better
3. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
The Sly Cooper franchise has always been about the potential toxicity of reputation and legacy. How family lineage, not to mention the personal impact one makes on the world, can be fulfilling, but it can become a millstone around your neck.
The Cooper line was a noble thing; a family of Robin Hoods trying to take back from criminals and the ultra-wealthy, but Sly 3 - building on what Sly 2 and even the simplistic original had laid the groundwork for - shows that very little long-term good had come of this.
Ultimately, Sly realizes the only path to true fulfilment is to let go and put the people around him first.
The best part is that you can see this ending being set up from the very beginning. Not in an "oh, we planned this out from the start" kind of way - Sucker Punch was nowhere near the financial and creative security needed at the time to plan a whole trilogy - but in a "we're thinking about it enough to make it seem natural when it happens" kind of way.
This is demonstrated through that theme of legacy and reputation being the spine of all three games, from the insecurities of the bosses in 1 and 2 being what drove them to become criminals, to the twisted origins of series' villain Clockwerk and his spiteful hatred of the Cooper line. All of this culminates in the perfect embodiment of the resentment such a legacy can spawn in people if left unchecked: Dr. M.
That kind of storytelling is a careful balancing act, but Sucker Punch pulled it off masterfully, making the Sly Trilogy one of the great gaming stories of its generation.