How Far Can A Franchise Push You (Before You Just Quit)?

[Lady Lucky]

I'm going to say it, it's probably already been said. Sqare Enix and Final Fantasy. Especially burned out on it after X-2. No offense to anyone who liked that game, but to me it seemed like one big Britney Spears video... And I was D-O-N-E. It was already a little unsteady with me in X, then X-2.
Then my brother was playing XIII... I didn't even recognize the combat, the comfortable franchise I had come to know and love was completely different. I divorced that franchise.


Oh well, enough of my ranting.

 

[Benni88]

I saw some people mentioning square, and I have to say that's the big one for me. They made so many games that I loved when I was a kid, so the unlimited slew of shite they have been releasing over the last few years feels a lot like betrayal. I keep an eye out on the gaming news websites to see what's up, but i never really consider buying any of their titles anymore. they're going to have to show something really spectacular in order to win back my custom.

 

[MetalMagpie]

I don't really have that sort of loyalty to franchises. *shrug*

There's never a point I'll just put my money down automatically. If a game is good I'll be more optimistic about the sequel. If a game is bad I'll be more sceptical about the sequel. But either way I'll still want more information than just "it's an [insert-franchise-here] game" in order for me to part with money.

I'm confused by people who say they'll "never buy a game from [insert-company-here] again" on the basis of not liking a number of previous titles. Companies change all the time. Staff change, company strategy changes, new ideas come in. It's perfectly plausible that they will produce a game you like in the future. Even if "they" are a completely different collection of people by then!

By all means be sceptical, look for as much information as you can, get opinions from people you trust, and wait until the price goes down. But just declaring you'll never buy from a particular brand again seems a little strange.

 

[Monsterfurby]

I'm not really a franchise-loyalist. I drop in and out of franchises, sometimes skipping installments, sometimes starting at the third part of a trilogy.

There are some cases where I was quasi-loyal, and in those cases the only way a franchise EVER lost me was by introducing humongous spiders as enemies - i haven't played a single Zelda game after Majora's Mask. Then again, that's not really a choice I make. Being a massive arachnophobe, that's just one of the things one has to live with.

 

[Eddie the head]

Well, Mass Effect was already on shaky ground after the ludicrous terminator baby in #2, but after 3/s ending, I'm done. Not just with Mass Effect, but with Bioware entirely.

Can someone explain to me how the as he put it "terminator baby" is "ludicrous" but the giant sentient plant that brain washes people is completely on the up an up? I mean look at the two a big ass cyborg. And a plant that somehow grew muscles and is green despite the fact that it lives underground? Oh also it can clone people. I am a little dumb founded that people can give one a pass but the other "Oh it's just ludicrous!" Maybe it's due to it being at the ending so people remember it more but, I still don't get it.

 

[loc978]

I'm pretty tolerant. I gave the Final Fantasy series 4 strikes, but then the 5th strike came along and I was out.

I only gave it 3. Final Fantasy X-2 (liked the bonus ending), Final Fantasy Return of the Jedi XII and Final Fantasy XIII. What were the games that killed it for you?

the five strikes were II (NES fan translation, not IV), III (NES fan translation, not VI), VIII, IX and then X killed it for me. Hearing that XI was an MMO poured cement on the series' grave.

 

[Judgment90]

several franchises turn me off from the very first game. So, I quit pretty easily.

 

[Ryotknife]

well, i am no longer as excited about FF games as i used to be, but i stll buy and play them simply because RPGs (particularly JRPGs) are kinda rare to begin with this generation. FF13 is still one of the better JRPGs of this generation, as sad as that statement may be.

FF/square-enix games used to be a day 1 purchase, now ill wait for them to go down to 15-20 bucks.

 

[MetroidNut]

Can someone explain to me how the as he put it "terminator baby" is "ludicrous" but the giant sentient plant that brain washes people is completely on the up an up? I mean look at the two a big ass cyborg. And a plant that somehow grew muscles and is green despite the fact that it lives underground? Oh also it can clone people. I am a little dumb founded that people can give one a pass but the other "Oh it's just ludicrous!" Maybe it's due to it being at the ending so people remember it more but, I still don't get it.

I'll take a guess. I'd say that weird mind-controlling creatures and creepy plant monsters are established science fiction tropes. They don't make any more sense than Reaper babies, but the audience is accustomed to them, and as such doesn't really notice the inherent ridiculousness.

That said, I never had a problem with any of it, honestly. Suspending disbelief over questionable physics, biology, etc. has never really been a problem for me. As long as the story works, the characters are interesting and the setting on the whole stands up (IE, no political systems that would very obviously collapse immediately), I'm good. And the Mass Effect trilogy is not lacking for good story, characters and setting.

And before anyone replies with an essay about how Mass Effect is dead and Bioware betrayed the fans, let it be known that I'm perfectly fine with the Extended Cut version of ME3's ending.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Most recent is Resident Evil. #6...just don't want anything to do with that game.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Devil May Cry: A perfect case of Capcom bullshit. I would be fine if 5 was about a different character or something but calling this a reboot is like calling Half Life a CoD clone. I got through 4 knowing that the combat would get more complex than smash the attack button but in 5 it doesn't seem that you can play as DMC3 Dante or something. If they do make DMC 6 the only acceptable thing it could be is an apology note and a game about the secret ending in 3.

Pretty much this. Regardless of whether the gameplay actually manages to reach the heights of 3 and 4 (it won't), the game thoroughly put me off of future Devil May Cry endeavors when its unbelievably shitty story elements became known.

I'd have forgiven the toned-down gameplay (seeing as it does look better than any other 30 frames fighter I've seen) had the story really been that much better. However, profanity-spewing, uncharismatic, undernourished teenager fighting the evil capitalist Demon/Man, which propagates its evil subtly (i.e. not subtly in the slightest) through Fox News and Slurm, with help from Occupy Limbo does not strike me as an interesting story.

One may say, "Well, the original series was also poorly written and stupid." My response: "Yes, and it had the good goddamn graces to not take itself so seriously."

 

[Lopende Paddo]

Final Fantasy.. it was ruined when they introduced voice acting... there's just something about reading the tekst in the older FF (especially before FF7) with the quirky expression thing they did that made it so much more involving and endearing than HAHAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHA , HAHAHAHAHA, badly voiced could ever do.

I hate what direction FF took, 7 8 and 9 were still fun but after 6 it was never again the same...

 

[mirage202]

A franchise I have quit? Mass Effect, #3 really did it in for me personally, to the point I no longer wish to even play 1 or 2 again.

A franchise that has lost its future potential, Command & Conquer, after #4, and the info released so far about Generals 2, I'm done.

I list two different examples to be specific, ME franchise is a true quit, C&C however I still play, and will continue to play, the older games (Gotta love The First Decade collection).

 

[aguspal]

A franchise I have quit? Mass Effect, #3 really did it in for me personally, to the point I no longer wish to even play 1 or 2 again.

A franchise that has lost its future potential, Command & Conquer, after #4, and the info released so far about Generals 2, I'm done.

I list two different examples to be specific, ME franchise is a true quit, C&C however I still play, and will continue to play, the older games (Gotta love The First Decade collection).

Generals 2 actually looks somewhat decent... but yeah, agreded for most of the part.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

I'm probably going to be the only one here who says this, but Resident Evil is most definitely not this. While 4 and 5 weren't exactly survival horror, I still played the crap out of them. They were excellent games. And after playing the demo for 6, I think Leon's section is a nice throwback to the old style.

As for franchises that have pissed me off, definitely Call of Duty. I only started with MW1, but by MW3 (having played World At War and Black Ops), I'm just sick of them. Every Silent Hill game is met with cautious interest these days after the debacles that were 4 and Downpour.

 

[Kyle Downes]

Am I the only one who wasn't disappointed with Resident Evil 6? I really enjoyed the demo, especially Leon's segment. I felt Jake's was a bit unbalanced, but interesting strategically. Sure, I'm a bit late to Resident Evil, I only started playing the games earlier this year, but I've finished every single game except Code Veronica (which along with 5 are the only Resident Evil games I feel are flawed from a gameplay standpoint at least), and I pre-ordered Resident Evil 6 ages ago. The demo only confirmed I'd made the right choice.

On topic, Silent Hill did it for me. I've only played 2, 3 and 4 and some of Downpour, but that little bit of Downpour was enough to kill the series for me.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

Amen, brother. Code Veronica wasn't as innovative as the others, but it was 3 that was my least favorite. Damn Nemesis made it too hard for me... I was a bit worried about the Dragon's Dogma RE6 demo because Leon's controls felt very off to me, but the public release was great.

 

[PirateRose]

Tomb Raider:
1-3 Awesome
4 alright
5 meh
6 burn it with fire
7 meh (so very, very short)
8(anniversary)alright,
9 alright

7-9 had that awful mommy story. Lara Croft was no longer raiding tombs for the fun of it, she was looking for her mommy. She went from a independent, unsociable, anti-hero, to being a dependent, very talkative, friendly, with bad attempts at having the good girl image even though she's still doing the illegal thing known as tomb raiding. I don't even want to touch the newest one, they've presented it too much as "Come protect this precious damsel, boys! Teach the poor delicate flower how to fight."


Mass Effect:
1 Meh
2.awesome
3.Wtf, all of it. Not just the ending, the whole damn thing. I don't even understand how they can possibly think they can make a fourth one.

KOTOR:
1 meh
2 awesome
3 gimmie it. TOR does not suffice and you guys still left plenty of story room for a 3rd.

 

[lunavixen]

I'd have to say I'm done with the Resident Evil games and i'm done with the FEAR series, I'm done with new call of Duty Games, and also, modern Sonic the Hedgehog games, why you ask?

Resident Evil:
~The game series has lost its horror, when I played the first one, there was a point i wouldn't go past because I knew I was going to die and I really didn't want to.
~I hated how the game went to the over the shoulder format in resident evil 4 because Leon turned too slowly and there was nothing worse than surviving a longish fight by the skin of your teeth only to get blindsided by an enemy you couldn't see through Leons fat head.
~Resdient Evil 5 overall was just so ehh. I kept finding excuses to put it down because I was just so bored, The story was rather convoluted and you could easily predict what was going to happen.
~The demo for Resident Evil 6 was just so disappointing.

FEAR:
~For a game that tried to promote fear in people they did a lousy job of it
~Trying to get into the storyline is like trying to tackle the universe made of string theory
~Stripping away the pretentions of horrow and it's merely a competent third person shooter

Call of Duty:
~After I think Call of Duty 4, the game has just become so samey and as of Black Ops the single player is... lacking, at best.
~Sacrificing Single player in favour of multiplayer was never going to win it any points with me.
~How many more third person war games do we need!? You can't go into any shop without tripping over at least 3.

Sonic:
~My biggest gripe is with the 3D Sonic games, trying to control Sonic at high speed in 3D is impossible, it was best in the 2D games.
~It's Dr. Robotnik, not Dr. Eggman