Bg1 and 2, Dragon age, and mass effect famously had save imports, so “the only way” doesn’t check out.
The dark souls games are so far removed in time that the previous game is legend, so that’s an option.
For the tv show they also could have, as I said, just set it somewhere and somewhen else. They can have rumors about what’s happening in Vegas, but it’s 20 years ago and you’re in Chicago, so who knows what’s true.
So, yeah, they could’ve done something else and still made a TV show.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
BG2 only takes a few things from the previous game and throws out the rest. I haven’t played Dragon Age, but Mass Effect and Telltale infamously had “the choice diamond” where they respect your choices up until it has to eventually lead somewhere, so they all end up funneling back into only a few options. These are just different ways to dress up the same problem. Fallout the TV show does exactly the same thing as Fallout 2 did to Fallout 1, which is the same as your Dark Souls example: it’s set far enough in the future that you’re unlikely to run into anything contradictory.