Why Don't Any Non HD Characters Return?

[Smash Bandicoot]

Like, why? why is it a new Universe to begin with? I don't understand, is bringing ANY 3D era character back THAT hard? why not give them HD universe counterparts? infact, HD universe counterparts DO exist, Lazlow and 8 Ball are primary examples, so why ditch these characters completely? with it being a new universe, they could take liberties (pun intended) and alter the characters and make them more interesting, CJ could be still young and a rapper, instead of being 50 and f*ck knows where he's at, Toni Cipriani could be working for one of the Italian crime families in GTA 4, hell, they could make some characters not criminals in this universe, imagine Victor Vance running a Deli shop and you having to do side missions for him, yeah, stuff like that, so why is it that there are no returning characters whatsoever? are Rockstar really THAT lazy?

Edited July 10, 2020 by Smash Bandicoot

[Grotti Vigilante]

What's the point? What can bringing back old characters provide that creating new ones can't? Most especially since new characters won't confuse people into thinking the universes are connected even though they aren't, which in itself negates the point of why Rockstar originally intended to create a new universe in the first place, which was to distance itself from the past games and start fresh. There's already that sort of confusion among some people with Lazlow, a character so minor that he never even had a face until GTA V, as well as likely being missed by some of us. I mean if you never listened to V-Rock in Vice City/Stories or Integrity 2.0 in GTA IV, then you probably won't even realise he's there. So to bring back protagonists like Toni Cipriani and Vic Vance, as well as many other characters of significant prominence, would probably cause such a cluster of confusion that it's just not worth it. It's not laziness, it's just basic common sense. 

[kobeni]

Well there's lazlow

[universetwisters]

Dude please calm down with the walls of text, it’s just a video game 

[GhettoJesus]

I am not sure whether you have thought about it but it compare SA's Los Santos and V's Los Santos and then asks yourself "should these really be in the same universe where there is a world of difference between them?"

[Jeansowaty]

2 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

I am not sure whether you have thought about it but it compare SA's Los Santos and V's Los Santos and then asks yourself "should these really be in the same universe where there is a world of difference between them?"

People are just too f*cking blind to see it and keep saying CJ is Franklin's father and his aunt is Denise from GTA SA. Smfh.

[DJ-Jelly-Doughnut]

I do think little nods to other characters is pretty cool. Even if they didnt address them outright and just had a subtle comment or news story about something happening would be cool.. even if they are trying to distance the new from the old. Its something for the longtime fans.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

Technically they could do that if they wanted to, they can do anything they want. But the reason they established separate universes is to give themselves more creative freedom. It meant they could start the HD era with a clean slate, with new city designs, new characters, and not having to worry about keeping continuity going between an increasingly large number of stories. It's not just an arbitrary rule, it's a choice they made to allow the writers to broaden their horizons and to keep things fresh. They already did so many returning characters and callbacks in San Andreas for example, I can see why they wouldn't want to continue that with every new game.

 

But they're more like parallel universes than totally separate, they do keep certain things the same between them (eg place names, car and other product brands, radio personalities), but the point of it is they're not forced to keep everything. They can pick and choose. So far one barrier they've kept is keeping the characters separate (or almost kept, since having characters that were previously on the radio appearing in the flesh is cutting pretty close). There's no rule that they have to always stick to that, but I guess they've found that's worked best for them when creating new games/stories so far. 

Edited July 11, 2020 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Smash Bandicoot]

4 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

I am not sure whether you have thought about it but it compare SA's Los Santos and V's Los Santos and then asks yourself "should these really be in the same universe where there is a world of difference between them?"

It's always a thing in games to change the designs and layouts of locations every game.

[Ash_735]