Ever had a franchise ruined for you?

Kingdom Hearts - when the gameboy game was released. The first had a relatively simple straightforward story and it worked with the disney characters. The story afterwards nosedived and became the run of the mill, confusing, japanese rpg story with dialogue that just made no sense. Disney villains took a back seat and Organization XIII ran the show. Who let that happen?! How can you throw away/not use classic villains and instead use generic spiky haired guys in robes?

Although I never got around to finish xenogears, when I tried xenosaga I was completely disappointed.
 
[quote name='guinaevere']NFS Pro Street.

I love the Need for Speed games, and have since whatever the first PlayStation game that came over here was. The series has had ups and downs, but I really started loving the series when the Police Chases started getting intense. In fact my favorite racing game and best race ever would be NFS Most Wanted (yeah, I like the dopey live action actors) and the Escape From Rockport race at the end when the heat goes to Level 6.
I still want to make a bumper sticker that says THIS CAR ESCAPED ROCKPORT CITY to rival the bumper stickers that say stuff like THIS CAR CLIMBED MT WASHINGTON. ;)

Playing Pro Street is so disappointing. I wouldn't have minded a spin off title, something like Pro Street brought to you by Need For Speed. But to change the franchise so drastically and to something that can be found in many other racing titles, it really hurt. I don't know what EAs motivation was, but I sincerely hope they return to the stupid actors and cartoony stories, and eluding the cops.[/quote]
They're switching between arcade and sim NFS for each year.
 
Almost every franchise sierra made was ruined for me, king's quest, leisure suit larry, quest for glory (that one hurt the most), gabriel knight, police quest, space quest by the last games in each of those series
 
Final Fantasy 10 killed the series for me. Then 12 shot its zombified corpse. I will no longer be playing mainline FF games.

Guitar Hero 3 killed the series for me. No more GH games.
 
Heh, where to start...

Final Fantasy has never been the same since 7 made it all about the cutscenes.

Might & Magic IX

Ultima 8 and 9 ruined Ultima. 8 for completely changing the game to some crappy actiony hybrid and 9 for requiring some kind of time traveling computer from the future to actually be able to run it when it originally came out.

Master of Orion 3 completely destroyed that series

Wizardry: Nemesis temporarily killed Wizardry for me until 8 came out. Sadly the series promptly died again afterwards.

I just can't get into Heroes of Might and Magic 5. I want to like it...I just don't.

X-COM 2 was a load of crap sequel to an all time great game.

I don't really enjoy the 3D Mario games. Though I can see the value in them, the genre just isn't for me.

The "Shining" series of games. Shining Force/In the Darkness/Holy Ark = Good. All the action crap they make now....makes me sad.

Finally I'm praying they haven't killed Fallout. I still hold out hope they will keep the spirit of the game even though they've completely changed the gameplay....but I fear it is a futile hope.....
 
Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games sucked after PS1 when they went to new developers.

Tony Hawk games sucked after THPS4 because they put too much emphasis on story and so little on skating. >.<

Final fantasy was ruined when XII came out and ditched the normal turn based battles.

I'm sure there are more I can't think of right now.
 
[quote name='Dr Mario Kart']Final Fantasy 10 killed the series for me. [/quote]

That's funny because that's the game that revived the series for me.

But I kinda agree with you on 12. The main thing I get from FF is the story and presentation, and it just wasn't that exciting for me. They created a perfectly awesome world, but I just didn't care much this time around. And the preselected battling made me feel like a lazy bum, and as if I wasn't actually playing. Though I liked that they got rid of random battles, and actually allowed you to feel like you're moving around in a realized battleground.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']They're switching between arcade and sim NFS for each year.[/quote]I can live with that, even though they've been arcade for so long. But I want the cop chases and the open roads back in a BIG way. If they're listening, I want (to a lesser degree) the dopey actors and stories back, too.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I wouldn't say the Wii killed them for me, more just that they feel even more like rehashes since they don't have next gen graphics. They really just felt like more GC sequels to the franchises with waggle tacked on (other than Metroid where it was used well).

So not really the Wii, but more just getting sick of the franchises after 20+ years with them and it being worsened by the franchises not getting their usual next gen improvements.[/quote]


Graphics certainly don't make the game.... If that was the case, Hour of Victory on the 360 would be the greatest game to date. And Nintendo's franchises haven't gotten worse, Galaxy is one of the best games I've played this generation, and it easily holds a candle to some of the high end graphical games this gen, it's a fucking beautiful looking game.

If your definition of next gen improvements is "HD" gaming, then you've got the wrong idea. On top of that, how can we be in the "HD era" when not even like 20% of households don't even have HD compatible TV's?
 
That was just part of it, but it is a big part of it for me once I bought an HDTV. I didn't have one when I first got a Wii. Once I got an HD and played PS3/360 at friends places on their HDTV it was definitely hard to play the Wii. I don't care if only 205 of people have HDTVs. I have one and I want my games in HD now. Similarly, I pretty much never watch anything on TV if it isn't in HD with the only exception being some sporting event I want to see that's on a local non-HD sports channel.

Lack of online play was killer too, as I've gotten sucked into that, both coop with real friends and online games like CoD4 with CAGs etc.

It's really just that I was tired of Nintendo's franchises after playing them for 20 years, and that my tastes have changed more toward FPS games. I liked Mario Galaxy a lot, but it didn't wow me much. Just felt like more of the same shit I'd played for years with spherical worlds which led to lots of shitty camera angles. The graphics, while good for the Wii, look like crap on my TV compared to 360 games, and yes that lessened my enjoyment some. What can I say, taking the HD plunge has turned me into more of a graphics whore.

Anyway, for the Wii, lack of HD graphics and online gaming where the final nales in the coffin for me, along with not diggin motion controls much. There just wasn't any innovation in gameplay (aside from the controls that I didn't care much for) AND there was little or no advances in graphics.

That was my point. While people can say the franchises have never changed much gamplay wise, they at least looked better from generation to generation. And that's always been a big point of upgrading to new consoles--to get better graphics. The Wii didn't give those, and I didn't like the other "innovations" it offered.


The Wii just wasn't for me. I made the mistake of buying it at launch of out long term Nintendo loyalty, rather than just waiting a year or so and making a more informed purchase. I can see why so many people like it, but it just wasn't my bag and I'm glad I gave it to my g/f as her brother's family is loving the hell out of it--especially their 3 year old son. And I'm enjoying the hell out of my 360 so it's a win-win.
 
[quote name='SL4IN']Graphics certainly don't make the game.... If that was the case, Hour of Victory on the 360 would be the greatest game to date. And Nintendo's franchises haven't gotten worse, Galaxy is one of the best games I've played this generation, and it easily holds a candle to some of the high end graphical games this gen, it's a fucking beautiful looking game.

If your definition of next gen improvements is "HD" gaming, then you've got the wrong idea. On top of that, how can we be in the "HD era" when not even like 20% of households don't even have HD compatible TV's?[/QUOTE]



Graphics don't make the game, but they are part of the game. Having a blurry , jagged game on an HDTV is incredibly distracting, best gameplay in the world isn't going to make you forget that. The Mario franchise hasn't gotten worse, but really hasn't gotten better either. I remember playing Super Mario brothers as a kid, Super Mario brothers 2 comes out and i'm floored, very different game, 3 comes out and put the previous titles to shame. Personally I think that is what Galaxy is missing, that clear Holy crap moment, for me I just didn't get that feeling from it.

Mario Kart and Smash brothers have just become more of the same, Wii controls this innovation that. I'm doing the exact same thing i've always done,just with a different controller. Without at least a boost in graphics it is a lot easier to notice this, which is why i'm not surprised to see comments like Dmaul114's pop up.
 
That's exactly it with Galaxy. It was a very good game, and I had fun playing, it just didn't wow me as it didn't have that magic. I didn't feel compelled to slog through getting all 120 stars like I did in Mario 64.

And the latter point is what I was getting at, put much more simply. The lack of a boost in graphics made it easier for me to realize I was just playing the same stuff from Nintendo that I just played last gen. Having a shiny coat of paint helps disquise the same old shit. The Wii didn't have that, so I finally realized I was sick of playing the same old shit and moved on to different games.
 
[quote name='docvinh']Metal Gear Solid 2. Raiden was gay and the story made no sense.[/quote]

fucking exactly. I loved MGS1 so much and me and my college roommate at the time were counting down the days to MGS2. It finally came and we played through it and the gameplay was great but the completely nonsensical story that played out through cutscenes and BORING codec conversation were AWFUL. I love games with a good environment and story that draw me in but MGS2 was just plain bad. I had some friends over when I beat the game and they watched the ending cinematic with me and actually laughed at me for playing a game with such a fucking retarded ending... and I caved in and agreed with them as much as I wanted to love it. DAMN YOUUUUUU KONAMIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!

Sorry, rant over.
 
Can't say this ruined the franchise for me, but it put me on edge. I absolutely loved the Price of Persia Sands of Time, which had a full beginning and end. I was totally disappointed with Warrior Within, which was an atrocity in my opinion and did not feel anything like the previous game. It lacked the narration the first game had, it was more combat focused (which the POP series had never been about and was never really outstanding in that area), and had an awful soundtrack that did not fit in at all. Even the character designs did not mesh well with the world created by the first game. Thank goodness that Two Thrones came out and went back to the model of the first game to a degree. It brought back the narration, eased up on combat, and felt like a hybrid of the first two games (using the best qualities of them). Anyway, I don't acknowledge the second game as a true sequel and rather think of the game with "Two" in the title as the second game. Especially since the intro of Two Thrones recaps what happened in WW and there is no real need to play it at all to get the story.

Kinda like how I try and forget about the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies along with X3 in the X-men series so that I can keep my sanity and pretend that those franchises had not been bastardized, but thats just me.
 
Well, it hasn't been ruined for me, as I'll be getting whatever comes next in the series, but Kingdom Hearts lost it's....soul(?) after the first one. I played through Chain of Memories for the five minutes of new content at the end and was really excited for two, but it was just blah aside from better graphics. The battle system was just pointless, smash X a lot and maybe triangle if you feel like it and you win! And was there even a point to the different forms Sora got? No boss was strong enough that you needed it, I felt very forced to use them just so I could get a freaking double jump. And now they've got a game coming out for the DS (which I'll be getting XP), PSP, mobile phone, and no news of a true sequel. milkmilkmilkmilkmilkmilk :(
 
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