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Franchises Which Have Lost Their Appeal

Many franchises have been changing of late, I'm not talking about reboots or anything so drastic, but more so the general progression and evolution of some franchises that over time have become less and less appealing to your taste and as such no longer really care for...


For example, I used to be an avid fan of the Silent Hill franchise. I loved the original on the ps1, Silent Hill 2 was an event and really showed off the ps2 in its early glory days, Silent Hill 3 was a homecoming (pardon the pun) for the series and is one of the most recognised and loved installments into the franchise, whereas Silent Hill 4 dared to be a little different, a little darker and a little bit more surreal in ways we never imagined for a Hill game and it worked wonderfully.

Yet after Silent Hill 4 the series moved out of Japan and into America and in that transition a lot of elements were lost. For example, in Homecoming (5) combat began to play a larger role, the enemies and characters became a lot more uninspired (for me) and the overall feel or helplessly being lost in a surreal world was almost completely lost and this trend continued into Origins, Shattered Memories and Downpour, now with Book of Memories on the way the franchise is little like it once was and i find myself no longer caring for something i once loved and hold wonderful memories of...


So, the question is, which game franchises have you fallen out of favour with over their progression and evolution throughout your time with them?
 

Ventus

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I hate to say this on a Zelda fansite (as well as a Zelda fansite that networks with a Pokemon fansite; incidentally both are ran/overseen by the same general staff members), but there are two franchises that are starting to lose their appeal: The Legend of Zelda as well as Pokemon.

What's wrong with Zelda you might ask? Well, I started out with loving Skyward Sword but then I was, ahem, manipulated by dearest member VanitasXII -- I started to play the older games and quite frankly I'm disgusted with SS now. The series hit the ground running, then started walking once TWW released, taking steps once TP released and ultimately just got off the track, running in an entirely different direction with SS. I can see that the series is digesting all of the parts that can be enjoyable to the quote unquote hardcore players and expelling them all the while ingesting more 'newcomer' friendly concepts. This isn't a bad thing; as a company you want to make money and the casual fanbase is the biggest of fanbases, but this doesn't make things enjoyable, y'know?

Pokemon? Generation 5 has no quality. That's all I need to and feel like saying.
 

theoathtoorder

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Yet after Silent Hill 4 the series moved out of Japan and into America and in that transition a lot of elements were lost. For example, in Homecoming (5) combat began to play a larger role, the enemies and characters became a lot more uninspired (for me) and the overall feel or helplessly being lost in a surreal world was almost completely lost and this trend continued into Origins, Shattered Memories and Downpour, now with Book of Memories on the way the franchise is little like it once was and i find myself no longer caring for something i once loved and hold wonderful memories of...

I so agree with this. In fact, when I clicked on your thread, my immediate thought was Silent Hill. I loved it too- the music, the atmosphere, the characters. Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Then 4 came. I didn't even finish it. The only one I have beaten since is Shattered Memories, which I actually kind of liked. It was a little generic at times, but overall that one wasn't too bad. Such a shame. I also think it is because it left Japan. Overall, their idea of horror is waaaay more creepy than the mainstream here in the states. Just look at the Japanese horror movie genre.
 
I've always been a fan of the Halo franchise but I feel as though it's lost some of its luster in recent years especially after the release of Halo 3. Halo 3: ODST failed to deliver a memorable story and was low on new features with the new highlight multiplayer mode, Firefight, limited to local play. These options were improved in Halo Reach but even in that game where the majority of the Spartan crew perished I felt no connection to their personas. They were mere suits of armor unlike Spartan 117-the Master Chief. With Chief returning to the front line later this year hopefully Halo 4 can reverse the trend.

Another recent series direction I'm not particularly fond of is Paper Mario's. The first two installments were great RPGs while Super Paper Mario bucked that progress and transitioned into a slow moving platformer. The dimension switching gimmick is much appreciated but the core gameplay mechanics seem out of place and sluggish in a franchise that once belonged to a different genre. Paper Mario: Sticker Star, however, looks to return to RPG roots.

Then there's Burnout. I'm not entirely sure why EA allowed its greatest arcade racer and one of the most acclaimed franchises of all time to fall down into the dump. In fact Burnout switched places with Need for Speed entirely and rather than jumping right into races players must actually roam the city searching for events. This is a drastic deviation from the original source material and should be corrected immediately.
 

athenian200

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I agree with Amy somewhat regarding Pokemon, I can see how someone would feel the series has been too static and not innovated enough, although personally I still like the games.

The biggest example in my mind of a series that has fallen out of favor, though... is Final Fantasy. I loved the earlier Final Fantasy games, but it felt like after FF7, they started to lose their way. From what I've heard other FF fans say, FF10 was the last good Final Fantasy game, and every game since has been lackluster or completely out of touch with the spirit of the original. There are a couple of spin-off games that I see good qualities in, and I can often appreciate games that others find disappointing due to their high expectations. But as a series, I would say that Final Fantasy is one of those that has most clearly lost its appeal to the original audience.
 
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Then there's Burnout. I'm not entirely sure why EA allowed its greatest arcade racer and one of the most acclaimed franchises of all time to fall down into the dump. In fact Burnout switched places with Need for Speed entirely and rather than jumping right into races players must actually roam the city searching for events. This is a drastic deviation from the original source material and should be corrected immediately.


Cause EA only care about making money not making games :P

I love the two Bioshock games yet for some reason am totally put off now with the 3rd game, Bioshock Infinite...will still get it though as the other 2 Bioshock games are outstanding games (play them! :P )
 
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Final Fantasy

I agree. I love all of the Older games, Especially those for SNES (IV, V and VI).
But the latest games have lost it completely.
Although Final Fantasy IX is really wonderful. Its one of the best games for PSX.

Other than Final Fantasy i'd say:
Resident evil. I love RE4 and those before it... but with the "more action will get the call of duty players to play it"-attitude they've completely lost it. Horrible.

Also:
Harvest Moon, the one for the SNES is wonderful, and i love the ones for GBA, N64 and even Gamecube. But they've lost their charm now, they arent giving the series anything new or interesting, and they are leaving the serious style and feel for Chibi-style. I dont like that, it doesnt fit. They are literarly making farming look like childs-play... Thankfully we've got Rune Factory instead now. Harvest Moon is doomed... as it looks now.
 

Mido

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Games I think have lost touch:

Saints Row: Not usually mentioned on ZD, but the war between gangs used to have a pretty solid story. Then when Saints Row: The Third came along, it just became too wacky for me. Not that the gameplay was bad, but it lost everything in story.

Star Fox: This series is by far my favorite of all time. But Command was a disgrace in my eyes. Even though Assault strayed from roots a bit, it was still a solid game, and that fact should have been built on. The time system irked me, and it just felt out of place. I miss the console games.
 
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I so agree with this. In fact, when I clicked on your thread, my immediate thought was Silent Hill. I loved it too- the music, the atmosphere, the characters. Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. Then 4 came. I didn't even finish it. The only one I have beaten since is Shattered Memories, which I actually kind of liked. It was a little generic at times, but overall that one wasn't too bad. Such a shame. I also think it is because it left Japan. Overall, their idea of horror is waaaay more creepy than the mainstream here in the states. Just look at the Japanese horror movie genre.

Actually, the Silent Hill series was inspired by american horror. The names of the streets were named after american authors if you want more proof. Team Silent's inspirations came from Stephen King, Dean Koontz, ect. Anyways, I haven't played all of the SH games(working on it), but I think the reason why SH isn't as good as it used to be is because the games try to be more like SH2 from what I've seen.
 

guapo2003

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This is one of my all-time favorite franchises, but it's definitely started losing it's touch and that's Final Fantasy. It was the absolute best when Hironobu Sakaguchi was invloved with it. They also lost it when Square and Enix merged together which was a complete shocker. And it's not that I don't like the ones after FFX, but they don't have the same feeling as the original ones. I just miss those good ole days. *sighs*
 

Cfrock

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Mass Effect. I loved the first two but after the ending to Mass Effect 3 I could never play any of them ever again. They had a good thing going and then just stabbed it in the chest, wrenched its ribs open, ripped out the heart and squeezed it to pulp. Shocking.
 

SheikahWarrior

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Actually, the Silent Hill series was inspired by american horror. The names of the streets were named after american authors if you want more proof. Team Silent's inspirations came from Stephen King, Dean Koontz, ect. Anyways, I haven't played all of the SH games(working on it), but I think the reason why SH isn't as good as it used to be is because the games try to be more like SH2 from what I've seen.

What he meant was that Silent Hill started getting developed by an American team rather than the old (better) Japanese team.
 

JuicieJ

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Final Fantasy and Resident Evil come to mind.

Mass Effect. I loved the first two but after the ending to Mass Effect 3 I could never play any of them ever again. They had a good thing going and then just stabbed it in the chest, wrenched its ribs open, ripped out the heart and squeezed it to pulp. Shocking.

So you now hate an entire series because of a dumb ending to a fantastic game?
 
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For me, it would be Zelda. The series is really starting to throw me off. Not a bad game by any means, but I think it all started going downhill since MM. I'll try to explain it.

Majora's Mask: One of the things I didn't like was the familiarity we had with the characters. The fact that they reused some of the character models, I felt like it was distracting and lazy. Another thing I find annoying is the three-day system. I find it annoying because it is the only way to save your game. Previous Zelda games had you save anywhere and anytime. But I can still digest it ok. Another thing are the items. Another thing that has be reused from OoT. There were things that I really enjoyed. For instance, the amount of things you can do in this game. I also think that the music was memorable. I especially loved the Stone Tower Temple music. I loved the dark atmosphere, as well. Overall, before SS came out, this was my least favourite game. The keyword here is least because I could find some replayability with the game.

The Wind Waker: To be fair, this game wasn't that bad either. It had a good sense of exploration, great story, good characters, etc. What I didn't like was the fact that the controls were similar to those of OoT. I felt like the control scheme hadn't changed much since then and it was then I started to get a little bored. Another thing would be the overworld. I'm sure we all heard of this about a million times already but traveling from point A to point B is a bit long. The Triforce quest doesn't help either.

Twilight Princess : I've never really got the Wii version so what I'll be explaining would be from the GC perspective. I'm probably one of the few who actually doesn't mind Wolf Link and the Twilight Realm. One of the things I didn't enjoyed was the second half of the game. With the first half, I felt we had quite a few interesting things that was happening: the time it takes to get to the first dungeon, sumo wrestling, rescuing Colin, getting the MS, etc. After completing the fourth dungeon, it's just one dungeon after another with little to no interactions in-between. It's around this time I'm forcing myself to finish this game due to lack of activity. Another problem was the overworld. We had this big map with little things to do in it. Not much exploration, not a lot of mini-games. Many of the items are also been reused from previous games. Also, I felt like the story revoled more around Midna then Link. Even the final boss addressed Midna instead of Link. However, I still see comments about how similar this game is to OoT. It's something I'll never understand.

Skyward Sword : I hate to say it but this is my most hated game in the franchise. Buckle up, I've got things to say about this game. First off, the provinces. The very fact that they are not connected really is a nuisance. Say you want to go to anther province, you've got find a bird statue, select your intention, fly to desired province and then land where you want to go. Maybe I would have accepted this concept if it were a handheld but for a console game, I don't. Also, exploration is pretty much none existant in this game. Another complaint of be Fi. I think she's even worse than Navi. At the beginning of the game, Navi is used as a tutorial for new players. She's annoying to us because we've beaten OoT a million time already. Navi also helps you where to go if the games doesn't make it obvious. Navi warns the player about wallmasters that would be unknown to players. After the first dungeon, Navi isn't all bad. With Fi, she's interrupting us with things we already know. With previous Zelda titles, when you were running out of health, you would constantly hear a beeping. In SS, you hear that to BUT Fi would pop out and tell you that as well. Fi also repeats when you got an item, after the game already told you. Fi tells you a boss door, a big chest is important. She also tells you the boss key is important. I'm sorry, but I really feel like Fi is insulting our intelligence.

I'll also talk about the one thing that almost ruined the entire game for me: the Silent Realms. I'll state right off the bat that I don't like stealth missions. Even though the Silent Reams isn't technically a stealth mission, it's still trying to be. The reason why I don't mind TP's Twilight Ream is because you don't have to go back to the beginning when an enemy touched you. One thing that got me frustrated are those "things" following you when the timer runs out. They're after you and I'm trying to avoid them. I've done a few mistake deaths while trying to avoid them and I'd probably wouldn't have if they weren't there. I dunno, it just really irks me that they had something that could've been really nice and then they go and make it unenjoyable by having this forced "don't get caught" crap. It's just not the sort of gameplay element I think Zelda needs. At least in Wind Waker you could hide.

I guess that's it. Sorry for the long rant.
 
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CynicalSquid

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halo. i love the first 2 halos but the newer ones weren't that good in my opinion i'm not even excited for halo 4
 

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