Series that are starting to lose what made them good, or your just not enjoying as much as you used

[remnant_phoenix]

...Final Fantasy. 1-10 were wonderful, then 11 and 14 are MMO's so I didnt play them, but 12 and 13 just weren't as good.

Bah, you ninja'd me within your original post before you even got to the topic question.

To me, Final Fantasy is the poster-child for "started good, then lost its magic." I personally believe that the departure of Hironobu Sakaguchi (the original creator who was directly involved with 1-10, but then left Square) is what caused the series to lose touch with what made it good.

If you're a fan of the older FF games, I recommend this article series: http://www.socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=patff. "The Rise and Fall of Final Fantasy" It's basically series of articles on how the games came to be, how they changed over time, and how and why 12 and 13 were so...off...

I know that, because of its name, that URL may seem sketchy, but I assure that it's legit and SFW (the site's name is based on a goofy inside joke that the webmaster has with close friend). If you don't trust me, I understand, but you're missing out on some great reads.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

I'll say Resident Evil as well, I couldn't get enough of it when I was young, 2 had me absolutely hooked. I felt like the Gamecube era was a golden age, one of the main reasons I bought that system was to play the Remake, and 4 at launch was a game changer.

Now I'm not even mildly excited about 6. =/

Also Kingdom Hearts, which I'm unable to care about due to it being on handhelds.

Oh, and Silent Hill, that series has been dead for almost a decade now (maybe more if you don't count 4, which is understandable), with the only enjoyable death twitch being Shattered Memories. It feels almost like Konami is getting deeply conceptual with their horror at this point, rather than trying to scare us through the game they're trying to horrify us as they rape our fond childhood memories.

 

[OniYouji]

I'd have to agree with a few others and say Resident Evil. RE4 was different and more action-packed, but there was still an element of horror and suspense to it. RE5 tossed that out and became a generic zombie blockbuster. Darkside Chronicles was an insult because their idea of adding scary back in was "shake the camera", a bad idea in rail shooters. Revelations looked like it might bring the scary back, but the story still smacks of Hollywood's most generic, and 6, while looking epic in scale, is now nothing but a third person shooter with lots of zombies and seems to have the most cliched of cliched plots.

RE's plots were never anything amazing, but at least there was intrigue to them. Now, the writing just feels so blase and effortless.

 

[shrekfan246]

Snip

I see what you did there... too bad the guy you quoted is still going to get that huge rant in his inbox, huh?

OT: Well, I'm probably going to be a good little sheep and buy Halo 4 eventually, seeing as how I bought an Xbox 360 just so I could get Halo 3 and Reach, so that's out the window.

Kingdom Hearts will get an honorable mention pretty soon if they keep making endless sequels on every single different game system known to man instead of just compiling them on one damn system. Or even multi-console, I don't care. I just think it's ridiculous that they've released separate games that all have ties to the story on: The PS2, the Gameboy (to be fair, later released on the PS2 as a full-blown remake), the Nintendo DS, the PSP, and now the 3DS as well. Ugh.

Final Fantasy certainly might as well be put up here... I've not put much time into XIII-2 yet, but what I have played of it certainly left me with a better taste in my mouth than XIII did, so it's teetering on the edge of being able to have this thread applied to it for me.

If another Batman game is made in the Arkham series, it has a high chance of making it to this thread as well. Sure, Asylum wasn't really known for its epic, grandiose story-telling ability, but City threw a lot of the characters into the loony bin as far as how their personalities go. Even Batman himself came across as fairly psychotic at a few different intervals.

Hm. Can I say Knights of the Old Republic? I will forever hold the firm belief that if Bioware had made KotOR 3 instead of an MMO, it would have been substantially better for them.

Oh, Pokemon. I followed them from Red&Blue all the way to those first DS games, and had a passing interest in Black&White until I saw that the majority of the Pokemon designs and names are even more ridiculous and insane than back in Ruby&Sapphire, and now that they're releasing Black&White 2 instead of actually trying to move forward with the series (Like, perhaps, making a fully 3D Pokemon game on a console that encompasses every in-game region so far and allows the player to encounter every Pokemon? With perhaps an increased level cap, or reduced experience gain, or a full party reset every time the player moves to a new region for the first time?) ... what was I saying? Oh, well, I've pretty much lost hope for the franchise.

I was never very interested in Mario/Metroid/Zelda, so I'm not really heartbroken over those, and I actually quite enjoy Kirby's Return to Dreamland and Donkey Kong Country Returns so I suppose Pokemon is really the only Nintendo franchise on the list for me...

Anyway, have a blast of nostalgia folks:

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Pokemon...specifically Gen 5 and onward.

 

[SilverBullets000]

If we take it out from videogames, we can throw in Family Guy (completely lost its soul after cancellation. Also, I think Seth McFarlane lost his everloving mind) and The Simpsons (gets less funny every year).

I don't really watch the Simpsons myself, but I agree with Family Guy. I can't really put my finger on why it's worse, though.

Sonic the Hedgehog
This series has lost complete and total focus on what made it good in the first place.

Physics-based gameplay? Gone.
Awesome, clever stories that don't rely on stupid gimmicks or being extremely linear? Gone.
Important cast of characters? Gone.
At least some degree of realism, seriousness, and edge? Gone.
Robotnik being a chaotic threat? Gone.
Characters never breaking the 4th wall? Gone.
Consistency? Gone.
A good balance of levels (like, some are more slow/puzzling like Casinopolis and others are fast/action-packed, like Sky Deck)? Gone.
Additional mechanics and innovative game modes to keep the fun coming after the story? Gone.
Characters actually being rather mature and decently fleshed-out? Gone.
Going the extra mile four authenticity (like the Adventure titles)? Gone.
Actually performing actual platforming, rather than cruising non-stop or having awkward "jump from this block to that block" sections? Gone.
Actually having to figure out how certain things may work? Gone.
Having to carefully and strategically take out certain enemies? Gone.
Having level-specific mechanics? Gone.
Having well-spaced bosses that actually have context? Gone.
Having woodland creatures come out of the badniks and do stuff with them? Gone.
Being able to use the Spindash? Gone.
Constant wonder of how the adventure at hand is going to end? Gone.
Quality? Gone.

Hey, that's pretty much every reason I feel that Sonic games have gone downhill! Bravo sir!
Everyone can complain and say that Sonic didn't need a story, but I always felt that Sonic is made better when he has one. The one misconception I spot in here is that you feel as if all Sonic games need to be grand dramas. They don't, some of them can have comedic moments, but going too far and making your main villian a joke is definetly a no-no. If you feel that there needs to be a comedic villian, make another one to do so.
Also, adding too much characters hurts the games more than anything, but getting rid of them would be equally bad. Basically, Sonic Team would do better just to narrow their focus to a few characters per game. Sure, you wouldn't see Silver or Espio in one game, but they'd be in the next.