Fun Club Have you ever fallen off a franchise just because you felt you got everything you wanted from it? Not out of disappointment.

[Stilt Village]

Thats how I feel about a lot of franchises. Staff have visions, and then they tell those stories, but corporate wants to keep things going. The actual staff move on and the stories change as new people come in.

Regardless of the quality, something is just kinda lost or else they kinda stagnate. Anecdotally I see a lot of people bitter about this. And I felt like that doesnt need to be the prevailing dialogue.

Moving on doesnt need to be always because you hate the current direction, but maybe its just different or not different enough and you got your satisfaction with it. And I just kinda wanted to see a lot of those.

I think people could stand to view more things like the various Batman or TMNT cartoon series. They aren't really a continuation, each one is explicitly its own take. I think it's a lot more accurate to look at most long running series the same way.

Sometimes it really is the original creators going on for decades, and sometimes it's not always so clean a transition, particularly with Nintendo, but I think it's the case more often than not.

Most Castlevania games feel like their own thing that all look to past takes as inspiration, because that's basically what they were. Practically no one involved with creating Castlevania had any influence on Super Castlevania IV, or Rondo of Blood, or Bloodlines, or Symphony of the Night.

I've been feeling this way about Zelda post TotK. I recognize the quality of the open air gameplay and the new direction to worldbuilding. But well, its not quite grabbing me like the old games did.

And well, as long as a new generation are enjoying it. I dont begrudge my own falling of interest. I was one of those people who felt the series was in a bit of a rut following Skyward Sword. I dont think Ill abandon Zelda, but I dont know if Ill pick each new game day one like I used to.

This one was actually the first thing that came to mind for me, but as a counter-example. I'm disappointed with the complete shift in Zelda's design in large part because I felt the original formula never really reached its potential. It would be a lot easier to let go if the Zelda game I wanted actually existed. Zelda has long been incredibly reactive in a way that tends to throw out all the strengths of the previous entry along with its weaknesses, and after making ALBW and seemingly zeroing in on a lot of what worked and what didn't by revisiting their past work, they fell right back into that habit with BotW as if Skyward Sword were still the most recent game to reverse course from and none of that introspection ever happened.

 

[PixelKnight]

Megaman/MMX is another one I still love (MM games are in my top five NES, SNES and GB games) but haven’t picked up a game since whatever the WiiWare one was (9?).

So many good ones, but I’ve played maybe 20 or so of them by now and there’s more than that I haven’t played. I still think it’s enough and tend to just return to my favourites occasionally. I tried the demo of the latest one and, despite 2D action games/platformers still being a passion of mine, I just wasn’t feeling it.

 

[Amin_Parker]

Just anecdotally, when franchises continue on and people fall off the common thread seems to be how the franchise's current direction disappoints them. But that seems to be in threads dedicated to disliking the current direction started by folks who don't like how things are going but still want to participate in discussion.

So I'd like to just ask a different kind of question: There's a franchise going on that you felt complete with, at some point you got your fill of it, but it continues. You give the new games a try and maybe you think they're ok, even good, but you just don't feel like you're getting anything out of it while there are other games you want to play.

Basically: You dropped off from being a fanatic to casual enjoyer.

My go to answer has been: Ratchet and Clank.

I love the OG trilogy and have even dabbled in some of the future games, but as far as my investment in the franchise goes, I'm not super eager to just dive back in the whole fan experience. When I beat the first three games, I poured over them obsessively. Then Deadlocked came, and it was different. Then future came and it was also different especially in the tone of storytelling. It's not even that I think those games were bad, but it wasn't really what I wanted. I'll still play a Ratchet and Clank game if you put it in front of me, but I'm certainly no day 1 purchaser anymore. Rift Apart looks really cool and I'd like to try it, but well, there's just a lot of other games I'd like to play first.

This is a really good post and a fantastic question to ask. My answer is over 95% of video games fit this bill to me. I’ve been playing video games for decades now I’ve been living through every single generation since the very first generation of gaming which started in the mid to late 70s. Yes I am an old man now, but I feel like I’ve seen it all, and now I am to the point where there’s only three video game franchises that I am willing to spend a penny on. This is because nothing really excites me anymore when it comes to gaming but I still have a strong love for the industry. Nonetheless, if these three franchisees that I have in mind begin to get stale to me, then I think that’s when I’ll exit gaming. Those 3 franchises are Zelda, Xenoblade and Fire Emblem. As long as Nintendo keeps innovating and making these series more exciting than the previous installments, then I will always be a loyal fan and be more than willing to buy the next chapter in the series. Unfortunately, most games in the video game industry cannot keep my attention longer than a few minutes or interest me anymore.

 

[Leica]

Smash, played all of them sans Brawl a lot but the idea of another game doesn't do much for me.

 

[Djehuty]

3d Mario.

It’s whatever.

The galaxy -3d world time period was amazing but other than that it’s nitnendo most overated series.

Forgotten land was much better than oddyssey.
Octo expansion was a better 3d platformer than oddyssey.

 

[Mer.Saloon]

This one was actually the first thing that came to mind for me, but as a counter-example. I'm disappointed with the complete shift in Zelda's design in large part because I felt the original formula never really reached its potential. It would be a lot easier to let go if the Zelda game I wanted actually existed. Zelda has long been incredibly reactive in a way that tends to throw out all the strengths of the previous entry along with its weaknesses, and after making ALBW and seemingly zeroing in on a lot of what worked and what didn't by revisiting their past work, they fell right back into that habit with BotW as if Skyward Sword were still the most recent game to reverse course from and none of that introspection ever happened.

See, my perfect Zelda was Majora's Mask, the rough experiment born out of an impossible circumstance that should never be repeated again. So I kinda got my satisfaction there, every game after Majora was a bonus to me. But I understand not everyone got their perfect Zelda, which stinks.

I won't begrudge the current direction, but I ain't judging anyone disappointed. Just that disappointment is the first thing we hear about.

 

[DittoM]

I got my fill of Mario + Rabbids from the first one and have little interest in the sequel.

 

[PixelKnight]

I got my fill of Mario + Rabbids from the first one and have little interest in the sequel.

I think I’ve played games where I’ve had my fill from the demo before, so I understand that entirely.