Sequel Goes Foreign

"Can't think of something to do? Just go to Europe!"

— TheRealJims, on Cars 2

A trend in movie sequels that pops up frequently. The first one is good enough to warrant a sequel and in either the second or third installment the action takes place in a foreign country. Compare Contrasting Sequel Setting.

Depending upon why the characters are in a foreign country, this may turn out to functionally be a longer Vacation Episode and/or a Busman's Holiday if the characters end up doing the same thing abroad that they would do at home.

It could also possibly result in an Artifact Title if the name of the original film is also the name of its setting (for example, the first Madagascar film took place in... well, Madagascar. But in the second film, the setting is Africa, and the third film is set in Europe).

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The first three seasons of Cardfight!! Vanguard overDress, including the first season of will+Dress, take place solely in Japan. Season 2 of will+Dress instead partially takes place in the United States, with half the cast going there for a series of exhibition matches against the American champions of Vanguard Deluxe.
• The third Digimon movie involves some of the Japanese Chosen Children meeting Wallace in the U.S.
• In K-On! The Movie, the gang goes to England.
• The Love Live! movie has the cast go to New York. The Love Live! Sunshine!! movie has the cast go to Italy.
• The second series of Lupin III has the main characters going globe-trotting, where the first season was mostly set within Japan. Later series would follow suit, such as Part IV being set in Italy (it's even officially subtitled The Italian Adventure) and Part 5 being set in France (similarly carrying the subtitle Misadventures in France).
• Ash Ketchum's journeys in Pokémon: The Series largely follow the pattern of the video games — he starts in his homeland of Kanto, then tours the neighboring region of Johto, and from there goes to farther areas. Also, if the regions in the anime are like they are in the games (in which they're based on real-life locations), then Hoenn and Sinnoh are still somewhat close to Kanto and Johto while Unova and subsequent regions are very far overseas.
• Psycho-Pass: The Movie gets out of Japan and goes to Southeast Asia for its main plot.
• Saber Marionette J: The main setting of the whole series is an Earth-like planet whose major countries are named after those of the original Earth. The first series takes place in Japaness (named after Japan), and so does the OVA follow-up J Again. The second full series, Saber Marionette J to X, starts in Japaness but takes the main characters into Xian (named after China) during the second Story Arc. The distant follow-ups Saber Marionette R and the manga-exclusive Saber Marionette Z take place in Romana (named after Rome, the capital of Italy), but they star different characters since they're distant sequels (500 years after J to X).
• One of the You're Under Arrest! OVAs has Natsumi and Yukari transferring to Los Angeles.
• Inverted in Yu-Gi-Oh!: The first major tournament takes place on an island called Duelist Kingdom, while the next season's Battle City Tournament is held in the heroes' hometown of Domino.

Fan Works

Omen IV: The Awakening

• Always Visible: A sequel is a big word, but the third act (which is actually the fourth part) takes place not in Portland, North America, but in London, England.

Films — Animation

• An American Tail: Fievel Goes West: Downplayed. While technically still the same country, there is a world of difference between the wild west and New York.
• Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown takes place in London and France, while the main comic strip and previous feature films are all set in the USA.
• Cars 2 takes McQueen, Mater and their friends out of Radiator Springs and across the globe, with stops in Tokyo, Paris, Italy and London.
• Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie: Arnold and his friends on a class trip that takes them out of their regular city setting of Hillwood and to the fictional South American country of San Lorenzo.
• Madagascar: Only the first movie takes place in Madagascar (and, in the first quarter, in New York City). In the first two sequels, the main characters go to mainland Africa, then to Europe. The Penguins of Madagascar spin-off, which continues from the third film, takes place all over the world, including stops in Europe, China, Africa and North America.
• One of the Monster High CGI specials, Scaris: City of Frights (as well as the accompanying short, From Fear to Eternity), involves the protagonists traveling to a monsterfied version of Paris.
• The sequel to The Rescuers (which takes place in Louisiana), The Rescuers Down Under, is set in Australia.
• Rugrats in Paris takes place, obviously, in Paris, compared to the series that takes place in the USA. Similarly, the third film Rugrats Go Wild!, a crossover with The Wild Thornberrys, takes place in Africa.
• The Smurfs 2 involves the titular creatures with their human friends and allies from the first film trying to stop Gargamel by going to France.

Films — Live-Action

• In 3 Ninjas Kick Back, the three ninjas and their grandfather go to Japan. (Of course they are ninjas and Japanese, respectively.)
• Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls takes place in Africa, unlike the previous Ace Ventura: Pet Detective which takes place in Miami and other areas in Florida.
• The sequel to Agent Cody Banks was set squarely in London.
• A Good Day to Die Hard takes place in The New Russia.
• Annie: A Royal Adventure! takes place in England.
• Austin Powers in Goldmember is set in Japan.
• The gag Sequel Hook in Baby's Day Out involves a book called Baby's Trip to China.
• The Bad News Bears Go To Japan.
• A Better Tomorrow is set entirely in Hong Kong. The second film have one-third of it's scenes set in New York. The third film (a prequel set in the 70s) meanwhile is set almost entirely in Saigon, save for five minutes back in Hong Kong.
• Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian came very close to being made. Highly downplayed though as Hawaii wouldn't be foreign to U.S. (the first film was set in Connecticut).
• The Bird Box sequel, Bird Box Barcelona, is set in the eponymous Spanish city.
• Blade II takes place in Prague (with one scene at the end in London), while the first film was set in the USA.
• Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason: London, Thailand, Australia
• The second Cheetah Girls Made-for-TV Movie takes place in Barcelona, while the third takes place in India.
• The Conjuring 2 sees the Warrens travel to the United Kingdom to investigate another haunting.
• Inverted with "Crocodile" Dundee, where the protagonist goes to New York for the first movie and the sequel seems him back home in Australia. Played straight for part three, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles.
• The Dark Knight has an extensive sequence in Hong Kong, which is further than Batman goes during Batman Begins, excluding the prologue.
• Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
• Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights takes place in Cuba.
• The 1975 softcore film Emmanuelle 2 begins with the lead character taking a boat trip to Hong Kong, where she stays as an expat for the rest of the film.
• The first two films in the Evil Dead series are set in a small cabin somewhere in the U.S., while Army of Darkness ups things by having Ash stuck in Medieval Europe.
• A case of "Prequels go foreign" with the Fantastic Beasts films. The original Harry Potter books and films all took place in the United Kingdom, while Fantastic Beasts shows off different parts of the world.
  • The first Fantastic Beasts is entirely set in New York City, USA.
  • The bulk of The Crimes of Grindelwald is set in Paris, France. New York City is also featured again, along with the UK, and Austria is seen briefly at the end.
  • The Secrets of Dumbledore includes the US, UK, Germany, Austria, Bhutan, and a briefly seen China.
• The Fast and the Furious:
  • Fast 8 primarily takes place on the NYC streets. Some scenes take place in Berlin, Russia, and Havana.
  • The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Tokyo Drift takes place in Tokyo after Fast 6, just before the 7th movie.
  • Fast & Furiousmainly takes place in L.A. and it's crowded city streets. The opening scene is set in the Dominican Republic, and a scene shows Dom living in Panama. Some scenes towards the end of the movie (especially the climactic car chase through the Mexican desert) take place in Mexico.
  • And again with Fast Five, which takes place on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (actually filmed in Puerto Rico). Some scenes show Washington DC, Germany, Monaco, and So Cal.
  • Fast & Furious 6 is also set abroad in. The movie primarily takes place in London, England and Spain, including the Canary Islands. A few scenes show L.A. while a scene also takes place in Russia and China.
  • Furious 7 is primarily set in L.A. (mainly filmed in Atlanta). A scene shows the team rescuing Ramsey by air dropping their cars over the Caucasus mountains in Azerbaijan (filmed in Colorado). The next 30 minutes take place in Abu Dhabi, UAE in the Middle East before the team returns to their home turf of L.A. for the final showdown.
• Flodder in Amerika! (America)
• The French Connection II has Popeye Doyle in France, to pursue the drug lord who evaded capture in the first film.
• Garfield: A Tail Of Two Kitties, which is set in London, where Garfield gets his life mixed up with that of an English cat.
• Glass Onion, the sequel to Knives Out, leaves the USA and takes Great Detective Benoit Blanc to Greece.
• As part of the third series of Goodness Gracious Me, the cast recorded a "Back Where They Came From" special filmed in India.
• The Hangover Part II, which takes place in Thailand and includes the characters lampshading the fact that the same circumstances happened in a foreign country.
• The first two Hellraiser films take place in the United Kingdom. Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth is the first one to move the action to the United States. The seventh film Hellraiser: Deader is set in Romania.
• Twice in the Herbie series with Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) and Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) where he competes in Mexico.
• Ip Man 4 has the titular character duking it out in San Francisco, USA.
• While the James Bond films are known for having the titular character travel around the world on his missions, Dr. No basically took place only in Jamaica, which makes many of the subsequent films (particularly starting with The Man with the Golden Gun, although From Russia with Love had already set this template) examples for the trope.
• John Wick had the titular character in the U.S. fighting local mobsters, while the sequel sees him head to Rome.
• In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom this has become Inverted. After four whole films taking place in a fictional island chain near Costa Rica in Central America (with a brief action sequence in San Diego), everything from the halfway mark onwards takes place (and sets things up so any possible future dinosaur-related action may happen) in California. Played straight in Jurassic World Dominion, with a plot that leads the protagonists to major action set pieces in Malta and Switzerland.
• The Karate Kid Part II is set in Okinawa, Japan because Mr. Miyagi returns to his hometown to visit his dying father, as well as settle an old score, and Daniel decides to tag along.
  • The reboot mainly takes place in China.
• French-Canadian film Les Boys 2 is set in a hockey tournament in France.
• French film Les Visiteurs had a sequel Les Visiteurs II, followed by a US foreign remake, Just Visiting. The remake was released in France as a semi-sequel, Les Visiteurs en Amérique.
• London Has Fallen. Sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, which takes place in Washington, D.C.
• The Men in Black spin-off Men in Black: International focuses on the Men In Black's London branch and two of its agents being sent all over the world.
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe has covered many corners of the world throughout its films:
  • Inverted with the Captain America movies. The First Avenger starts in the United States, but primarily takes place in the WWII battlefields in Europe, while The Winter Soldier largely takes place in and around Washington DC (with Steve and Natasha also taking a road trip to New Jersey). Inverted back again with Civil War, which takes place in several different European countries.
  • Mostly averted in Iron Man 2: While most of the action takes place in the United States, parts of the first act of the film (including Anton Vanko's first attack on Tony Stark) take place in Monaco.
  • The Avengers (2012) features some globetrotting but the ultimate battle involves defending New York City from the Chitauri.
  • The big climactic battle of Avengers: Age of Ultron takes place in the fictional Eastern European nation of Sokovia, and before that the Avengers track Ultron to South Korea and South Africa.
  • Avengers: Infinity War has its climax set in Wakanda, while also featuring plenty of sequences away from Earth.
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming is, as usual, a New York-based Spider-Man adventure (with a small part in Washington DC). Its sequel, however, is remarkably the first Spider-Man feature to not primarily take place in New York, or even the United States - its plot involves Peter Parker's Europe school trip.
  • Thor takes place in a small New Mexico town, Thor: The Dark World spends a significant amount of time in London. The third installment is set almost entirely outside of Earth, with Thor and Loki only visiting Earth during the first act while trying to locate Odin.
• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is set in China.
• National Lampoon's European Vacation.
• The Nativity! series: Downplayed in Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger, which takes the St Bernadette's pupils from Coventry to Wales. Played straight in Nativity 3: Dude, Where's My Donkey? where they go to New York.
• Ocean's Twelve went to Europe, justified by the title gang being too high profile to work in the USA without raising alarms (Not that it stopped them in Ocean's Thirteen).
  • By the time the third movie rolled around, most of the gang had settled down and those that still worked had gone straight.
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End opens in Singapore
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens in London. There's a good amount of Spanish influence as well - Penélope Cruz, the Spanish armada representing the Church, and Rodrigo y Gabriela are in the soundtrack.
• Pitch Perfect 2 takes the Barden Bellas to Denmark for a worldwide a cappella championship. Downplayed in that they don't actually go to Denmark until the final act. But in Pitch Perfect 3, they reunite and leave America after the first act to join a USO tour of American army bases in Europe.
• Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow, pictured above.
• Rambo: The first film is set in the Northwestern United States. In the sequels, he's doing his battles in Asia, the second film sending him (back) to Vietnam, the third to Afghanistan, and the fourth to Myanmar/Burma. The fifth, meanwhile, instead sends him to Mexico.
• Red 2: Most of the action takes place in Paris, London, and Moscow.
• Rich and Famous have a sequel, Tragic Hero which is set mostly in Malaysia.
• The second half of Rocky IV is set in Moscow.
• Rush Hour: Jackie Chan is a Hong Kong cop Fish out of Water in LA. Rush Hour 2 is set in Hong Kong - now his partner is the one out of water. Rush Hour 3 takes place in Paris, where they're both out.
• Sex and the City 2 has its New Yorker cast taking a trip to Abu Dhabi.
• Shaft in Africa
• Shanghai Knights, the sequel to Shanghai Noon, is set in London. A third installment, Shanghai Dawn, would have taken the protagonists to Russia, but it was never made.
• Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows took Sherlock Holmes out of London and across the Continent to France, Germany, and then Switzerland.
• Speed 2: Cruise Control takes place in the Caribbean.
• The Suicide Squad sends our "heroes" to South America, but also subverts this in several ways - it's Corto Maltese, a Banana Republic and Wretched Hive, which means Amanda Waller has no problem leaving it to its fate when Starro is unleashed. Incidentally, Task Force X is often deployed off US soil in the comics.
• The second Super Troopers film takes the protagonists across the border into Canada, although that chunk of Canada is about to become US territory due to an old mix-up.
• Inverted for Taken: The first film primarily takes place in France and the second in Istanbul, but the third and final film is mainly set in Los Angeles.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III ups the ante by taking place in ancient Japan. Of course they are ninjas.
• Three Men and a Little Lady, the sequel to Three Men and a Baby, takes place mostly in London.
• The Thompsons, the sequel to The Hamiltons, takes place in England.
• Much of The Toxic Avenger Part II takes place in Japan, where Toxie goes to search for his missing father.
• Tremors
  • Tremors 2: Aftershocks takes place in Mexico instead of Nevada.
  • Tremors 5: Bloodlines is the second movie to take place outside the United States, being set in a South African wildlife preserve that is attacked by a Graboid subspecies.
• V/H/S/2 has a segment, "Safe Haven", set in Indonesia with most of the dialogue subtitled. One of its directors, Timo Tjahjanto, is Indonesian, and the other one, Gareth Evans, had previously made the Jakarta-set action film The Raid.
• X-Men Film Series:
  • The Wolverine takes place almost entirely in Japan.
  • Although X-Men: First Class was the first X-Men movie to make forays outside of North America, X-Men: Days of Future Past goes further, with all of the future scenes taking place either in Russia or China, and much of the '70s action unfolding in Paris and Saigon.

Literature

• Irvine Welsh's Filth was set in Scotland while the Crime was a spin-off about one of the officers vacationing in Miami.
• A sequel to Good Burger was written where Ed goes to Paris to track down a customer to give him the correct change with Dexter following. Instead of a movie though, the sequel was released as a book called Good Burger 2 Go.
• MASH had a number of sequels titled M*A*S*H Goes To _____, starting with Maine (Hawkeye returns home, Trapper decides to come with him) and hitting, before that particular horse was flayed beyond recognition, New Orleans, Paris, London, Las Vegas, Morocco, Hollywood, Miami, San Francisco, Montreal, and Moscow.
• The Mummy Monster Game: After book 1 took place in Josh and Amy's home in Australia, the second has them going on a Nile cruise in Egypt with their cousin Harry and his mother.
• Topper by Thorne Smith was followed by Topper Takes a Trip, set on the French Riviera. Both were later turned into movies.
• Witches Abroad plays with this tradition and pertinent cliché.

Live-Action TV

• Atlanta took place in the titular city for its first two seasons, but the third season follows the main characters on a tour across Europe. (It does contains three anthology episodes that are set in Atlanta, as well as one taking place in New York). The fourth and final season returns to Atlanta in its entirety.
• 24 was mainly set in the United States. A little bit of the third season was set in Mexico and the TV movie Redemption that served as a prequel to Season 7 had Jack in Africa, but a lot of the action, mainly the political stuff, was still set in the U.S. Live Another Day, which follows up on the series after it originally ended, is set entirely in England.
• Childrens Hospital
  • The show was mostly set in an hospital in Brazil, except Season 5 which is set on a military base in Japan.
  • Its sequel, Medical Police, is a globe-trotting action/adventure drama spoof.
• Crazy Like a Fox: The made-for-TV movie "Still Crazy Like a Fox" takes place during a family vacation to England.
• Escape of the Artful Dodger has the characters from Oliver Twist in Australia. In the title character's case it was actually somewhat justified, as "Transportation to the Colonies" was a normal penalty in that era for petty theft: The presence of Oliver, Fagin et al is less easily explicable.
• Inspector Rex was an Austrian series, but when it was revived in 2008, the setting of the majority of cases was Rome.
• Joe Millionaire Season 2 went to Italy and cast female contestants from Europe, because everyone in the U.S. would be Genre Savvy enough after the first one that they couldn't pull the same trick again.
• Downplayed in NCIS: Hawaiʻi — unlike its three predecessors, which take place in the continental United States, it takes place in Hawaii, a state that's nowhere near North America. It's also Played Straight on NCIS: Sydney, which is set in Australia.
• S Club 7's TV series is a strange example. It was a British band on a British TV show, but the first three series all took place in the United States, specifically Miami and L.A. The fourth season, however, took place in Barcelona, Spain.
• The Star Trek franchise pulls something similar on a galactic scale.
  • The Original Series and The Next Generation mostly take place in the Alpha Quadrant, the home turf of The Federation, with a few forays into the Beta Quadrant involving the Klingons and Romulans.
  • Deep Space Nine is still set mostly in the AQ, but involves frequent trips into the Gamma Quadrant and run-ins with the Dominion.
  • Voyager takes place almost exclusively in the Delta Quadrant, where the titular starship is stranded 70,000 light-years from home.
• The original run of The Wrong Mans was set almost entirely in Berkshire, England. The second series, while still featuring Berkshire a fair bit, had the characters go to Texas, USA due to witness protection. Subsequently, they ended up in Eastern Europe and then France before returning to the UK.
• Torchwood: The first four series largely occurred in Cardiff, Wales. However, the miniseries Torchwood: Miracle Day sees what remains of the team being forced out of the UK and into various locations in America.

Professional Wrestling

• When Holidead and Thunder Rosa won the NWA Western States Tag Team Title belts they took the belts to World Wonder Ring ST★RDOM in Asia and renamed them the NWA International Tag Team Titles... though they were later renamed the Vendetta Pro Wrestling International Tag Team Titles by Five Most Wanted after Cody Hawk and Sean Casey won them due to the fact there already was a set of NWA International Tag Team Title belts, in Asia! In All Japan Pro Wrestling to be more specific.
• The third Full Impact Pro Heavyweight Champion, Roderick Strong, would declare his belt a World Title after successfully defending against Pac at ROH's fifth year festival in Liverpool.
• The third Ring of Honor Champion, Samoa Joe, would take the title to Europe and declare his Ring Of Honor singles belt was a world title after successfully defending it there. The tag team belts actually were taken to Asia when Roderick Strong and Austin Aries of Generation Next decided to upgrade them to world status.

Puppet Shows

• The Muppets
  • The Great Muppet Caper, the sequel to The Muppet Movie, is set in Britain.
  • The Muppets would repeat themselves with Muppets Most Wanted, the next film after The Muppets (2011) and the 7th theatrical sequel to The Muppet Movie, which is set on a European tour.

Video Games

• In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Ezio Auditore leaves his native Italy (which was the setting of the two previous games, Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood) to venture in Syria and the Ottoman Empire (Constantinople and Cappadocia).
• Destroy All Humans!:
  • While the first game was set entirely in a parody of '50s America, Destroy All Humans! 2 starts the player in '60s San Francisco before moving to London, Japan, Siberia, and The Moon.
  • The spinoff Big Willy Unleashed followed the first two America-set levels (respectively based on Boston and Kentucky) with the South Pacific (specifically, a parody of Fantasy Island) and Vietnam.
  • The third full game Path of the Furon went even more foreign, starting in '70s Las Vegas and Hollywood, moving on to Hong Kong and Paris, and finally ending in an orbital pleasure resort around the Furons' homeworld.
• Double Dragon III starts the game in New York City, but moves to various foreign countries (namely China, Japan, Italy and Egypt) after the first stage.
• Final Fight 2 involved Mike Haggar traveling to various Eurasian nations to take down the remnants of the Mad Gear Gang. The setting would move back to Metro City in Final Fight 3.
• Grand Theft Auto: London 1969
• Half-Life 2 is implied to be set somewhere in Eastern Europe, compared to the first being in an American laboratory in New Mexico.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • A Link to the Past takes place in Hyrule, while its direct sequel Link's Awakening takes place on the island of Koholint. The Oracle duology, set between A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, has Link traveling from Hyrule to either Holodrum or Labrynna to save it from Onox or Veran respectively. If you're playing a linked game, Link then travels to the other country to save it from the other villain as well as Twinrova and Ganon.
  • Ocarina of Time takes place in standard franchise setting Hyrule, whereas its direct sequel, Majora's Mask, takes place in the alternate land of Termina.
  • Inverted with the games placed in the Adult Timeline: The Wind Waker takes place on the Great Sea (since Hyrule had been flooded centuries ago) and Phantom Hourglass takes place in the World of the Ocean King, but Spirit Tracks is set in a newly-founded version of Hyrule.
  • A Link Between Worlds takes place in Hyrule, while its sequel Tri Force Heroes takes place in Hytopia.
• While the levels in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes took place in a variety of locations (New York, Latveria, Asgard, an unnamed island, Asteroid M, etc.), the game had only one hub world: Manhattan. In the sequel, however, the hub world is Chronopolis, a hodge-podge of spatio-temporally displaced locations that not only includes three different versions of Manhattan, but also Wakanda, Medieval England, K'un-Lun, the Hydra Empire, Lemuria, Ancient Egypt, the Old West, and even extraterrestrial locations like Xandar, Sakaar, Hala, Asgard, Attilan, and Knowhere.
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth takes the series outside of Japan for the first time with one of its main locales being Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Max Payne does this in its third installment, in which Max has quit the NYPD and is now working as a bodyguard for a rich family in Brazil. The in-universe reason for the move is that Max killed the son of a powerful Mafia boss and left the country to avoid being hunted down by the mob.
• A planetary example in the Metroid series: Metroid sees Samus fighting the Space Pirates on her home planet Zebes, while Metroid II: Return of Samus has her go to SR388 to hunt down the remaining Metroids, and the Metroid Prime Trilogy (which chronologically takes place between both games) is set in different planets depending on the game, including a whole solar system in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and even a whole new galaxy in Metroid Prime: Hunters. It's not until Super Metroid (third game released, eighth in the timeline) when Samus returns to Zebes. Then, since Zebes explodes at the end of Super Metroid, Samus goes to a space station in Metroid: Other M, briefly revisits SR388 in Metroid Fusion before spending the rest of the game on another space station, and goes to the planet ZDR in Metroid Dread.
• The original OutRun doesn't take place in a specific location, but Turbo OutRun took place in America, and OutRunners has multiple Scenery Porn nations and locations as stages!
• Pokémon: The first four generations were based on regions of Japan, but since then each generation took place elsewhere: Black and White is based on New York, X and Y on France, Sun and Moon on Hawaii, Sword and Shield on the United Kingdom and Scarlet and Violet on Spain and Portugal. The Orre region, which debuted in Generation III, was based on Arizona (United States).
• Repton: The fourth game is titled Around the World in 40 Screens and sees Repton visiting America, the Arctic, the Orient, the Oceans, and Africa.
• In Resident Evil, RE1, 2, 3, and the prequel 0 take place in or near Raccoon City in the United States, but (likely due to the city being bombed at the end of 3) the sequels mostly take place elsewhere:
  • Code: Veronica takes place in Antarctica.
  • 4 takes place in Spain.
  • 5 takes place in a fictional African city/country called Kijuju.
  • Revelations takes place in the Mediterranean Sea (more specifically near Italy).
  • Revelations 2 takes place on an island in Russia.
  • Village takes place in Romania.
  • Averted in 7, which takes place in the U.S. again, and zig-zagged in 6, as some levels take place in the U.S. while others take place in China and still others take place in the fictional Eastern European country of Edonia.
• Shenmue II takes place in Hong Kong. The third installment instead takes place in China.
• Shin Megami Tensei:
  • The first Digital Devil Saga game is set in a place called the Junkyard, a place of perpetual war between six tribes with themes taken from Hinduism that turns out to be a virtual reality. The second game is set in the United States, with the currency changing from Macca to dollars to reflect this.
  • Shin Megami Tensei IV appears to play this trope straight at first by taking place in a fictitious kingdom called Mikado with heavy Western influences, rather than Tokyo like the past three mainline games. However, it's a subversion, as Mikado is built on top of a still-populated Tokyo.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, spun off directly from the mainline games which take place in Tokyo, is set in Antarctica.
• Downplayed in Splatoon 3; the first two games took place in areas of Inkopolis, but this one takes place in Splatsville, a relatively close city.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • This is the case when comparing Super Mario Bros. and/or Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels to Super Mario Bros. 2 (Subcon), Super Mario Bros. 3 (the whole Mushroom World), Super Mario World (Dinosaur Land), and Super Mario Land (Sarasaland), since it took a while for the Mushroom Kingdom to be fully established as the default setting for the 2D Platform Games.^note It's unclear whether or not Mario Land from Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is part of the Mushroom Kingdom, but one issue from Nintendo Power hints that it's a kingdom on its own. In turn, after all New Super Mario Bros. games as well as Super Mario Run took place in the Mushroom Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder takes place in the neighboring, idyllic Flower Kingdom; you can even see some of the Mushroom Kingdom's native giant mushrooms in the distance during the cutscene where Bowser steals the Wonder Flower and kickstarts the plot.
  • Within the 3D lineup, only Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 3D Land take place in the famed homeland of Mario and most of his friends, whereas Super Mario Sunshine uses Delfino Isle, Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 go well beyond their homeworld, Super Mario 3D World uses the Sprixie Kingdom (Lake Lapcat is the setting in Bowser's Fury), and Super Mario Odyssey displays numerous kingdoms across their home planet (only including the Mushroom Kingdom as a post-game level).
  • The Paper Mario sub-series started off in the Mushroom Kingdom with Paper Mario 64, then moved to Rogueport and the surrounding areas in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, then ventured into several Alternate Dimensions in Super Paper Mario, before finally returning to the Mushroom Kingdom in Paper Mario: Sticker Star. However, Paper Mario: Color Splash takes place in Prism Island, which is far away from the Mushroom Kingdom. Paper Mario: The Origami King reverses the trend once again by taking place in the Mushroom Kingdom.
  • The Mario & Luigi sub-series inverted this in the beginning the first game taking the duo to the faraway Beanbean Kingdom, while the second and third games returned to the Mushroom Kingdom. The fourth game plays it straight, with the gang traveling out of their homeland by going to Pi'illo Island. The fifth game reverses the trend by once again taking place in the Mushroom Kingdom.
  • Peach never has any action in the Mushroom Kingdom in the two games focused on her: Super Princess Peach takes place on Vibe Island after Bowser kidnaps Mario, Luigi and a gathering of Toads, while Princess Peach: Showtime! takes place in a theater so distant from the Mushroom Kingdom that nobody there recognizes her right away, and it takes until the fourth floor out of five for one Theet to even make the connection.
• Total War: Warhammer took place in the Old World. The first sequel, Total War: Warhammer II, moved the focus onto the New World and Ulthuan, the setting's equivalent of Atlantis. The final game in the trilogy, Total War: Warhammer III, will focus on the northern realm of Kislev up to the Chaos Wastes, as well as the Far East. Notably, this is the first time in any medium that the Far East portion of the Warhammer's World That Was is explored in any detail.
• Every subseries in the Trails Series takes place in a different country across the continent of Zemuria. Some characters from previous games have made cameos or the occasional supporting role, but direct crossover between nations is rare aside from the Society of Ouroboros.
• Watch Dogs: Legion is set firmly in the British capital of London as opposed to its predecessors which were set in the distinctly American cities of Chicago and San Francisco.
• The Japanese version of Yo-kai Watch 3 takes place in America instead of Japan. Nate moves with his parents to the United States. In the North American version, Nate already lives in America, so he moves down south to St. Peanutsburg.

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney:
  • The premise of The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures is that Ryunosuke Naruhodou, a young man from Meiji-era Japan with aspirations in defense law, goes overseas to Victorian England.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice happens in a kingdom called "Khura'in", as opposed to Phoenix Wright's usual setting (which can either be Los Angeles or Tokyo, depending on the localization). Parts of the game are still set in the usual city, though.

Western Animation

• Amphibia:
  • The first half of the second season of has Anne and the Plantars leave Wartwood for the mystical city of Newtopia to unlock the secrets of the Calamity Box which transported Anne and her girlfriends there.
  • The first half of the final season takes place on Earth, in which Anne and the Plantars hide out with Anne's parents, where she tries to keep their identities as frogs hidden from the townsfolk, and tries to keep Andrias' invasion a secret from her parents as much as possible while fighting various dangerous encounters Andrias sends against her.
• Big City Greens: Season 3B shifts the series from Big City to the Greens' old hometown of Smalton, after Bill sees their old house up for sale and buys it back, causing them plus Remy to return to the country.
• Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight zig-zags with this. While the China-set franchise has included characters from other Asian nations such as Japan before, the first season introduces European characters — specially the knight Wandering Blade and the Mages Klaus and Veruca. However, the first season remains firmly in China, with the exception of a few flashbacks to England. Trailers for Season 2 show, however, that the action is set to move to India.
• In the final season of The Lion Guard, Kion, the Guard and Makini leave the Pride Lands in search of the Tree of Life, which will heal Kion and Ono of their respective injuries in the final battle against Scar. This season explains where they were during the second act of The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, with the final two episodes serving as an epilogue.
• The final two seasons of Star vs. the Forces of Evil shifts its focus to Star's home kingdom of Mewni, where she learns more in-depth and shocking reveals about her family.
• The second season of Tangled: The Series has Rapunzel, along with Eugene and Cass, leave Corona and follow the path of Black Rocks to the mysterious Dark Kingdom so Rapunzel can unlock her destiny.
• While Winx Club is mostly set in a magic universe, Season 4 shifts the central location to Earth, particularly Bloom's hometown Gardenia, as they work to help mortals believe in fairies and magic with the Believix power and defeat the Wizards of the Black Circle.

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