Worst Games in Great Franchises

[CriticalGaming]

We all have game franchises we love, some of those franchises are long running, while others may only have a few games in them. But every franchise seems to always have that one game that ever fan of series looks at and just goes "ewww". Recently, as you guys might know, I've been on a huge Yakuza binge having played four out of the seven games in the series so far. My most recent game Yakuza 3 is easily the worse game in the Yakuza series i've played so far and after reading a few reviews online it seems that I'm not the only person who feels that way.

This got me wondering about other franchises, and what would be the worst game in a given series.

For Final Fantasy, i think FF2 is universally hated equally. Though there is debate about FF8 and FF13 as well.

So what is your most hated game in a series you otherwise love? What's the MGS stinker? The Mario? The GTA?

Let's see if there is any agreement between fans of which games in otherwise great franchises that just fail to hit the mark.

 

[sXeth]

Ultima > Well we all know there was no Ultima 9, so I'll say 2. Which even though the series acknowledges it, it glosses over every aspect of it. Ultima 2 for whatever reason randomly took place in a settled Sol (our) solar system. but still in fantasy land. With moongates connecting different planets and times. There was a weird time limit mechanic, and iirc at least one instance where you literally had to randomly say something to an Npc without any warning for a completion (there was a bug or missing clue to do this). Also, it just kind of recycled the evil wizard (but this time its a girl) generic antagnoist, which was in keeping with Ultima 1, but sticks out like a sore thumb to the rest of the series.


Heroes of Might and Magic 4 : 6 (and probably 7, though never played that one) certainly tanked the series by only being bothered with MP. But 4 was just a weird experiment that didn't really work. Nuking the entire setting that had been built up across both the main and Heroes series right after Blood and Honor and Heroes 3 had really hit the high marks didn't help it. A vast reduction in the overall variety of units and towns (probably due to switching to 3d rendering from previous 2d work) was also an anchorweight. Adding on to that they also tried to make Heroes into actual units, giving it this weird pseudo-tactical RPG vibe (or possibly cribbing notes from Warcraft 3) that didn't really work out, with the Heroes landing on the extremes of pitifully weak (if you built them with management skills) wastes of a unit slot, or horrifically overpowered.

 

[happyninja42]

Prince of Persia 2: Warrior Within

Took the first game, with an awesomely fun, light hearted, but also dark as hell premise, loveable main characters, killer soundtrack, and just a joy of a game....and turned the protag into an edgy, emo edgelord, complete with deathmetal music during the tutorial, which culminates in a battle against Metal Thong Girl! When you introduce your main antagonist, ASS FIRST, and make a point to slow motion zoom onto her METAL THONG as her cheeks sway back and forth, you've fucking lost me. I refuse to finish that game, I turned it off after that, feeling like they took a shotgun to the entire mood of the first game. PoP: Two Thrones was kind of better, so I just kind of pretended 2 didn't happen. But I didn't really care about what was happening enough to finish that one.

 

[FakeSympathy]

I love Zelda series. I really do. BBUUUTTT When I see people worshipping Skyward Sword as some sort of holy grail in gaming, I have doubts. The characters and the aesthetic of the game is great, but there's that inconvenience of always having to travel back and forth between the ground and sky. While the sword angle mechanic sounds cool in theory, it felt really clunky in practice. The ability to fly around sounds cool, but the rooms to fly around are rather limited. After Midna in TP I guess there wasn't a companion to top her, but Fi was super disappointing for how robotic she felt.

I hate Sonic Adventures 2. Why tf is it so praised is beyond me. I think the praises come from that first level, and while these speed sections are great, the rest of the game sucks ass. Knuckles/Rouge's treasure hunting is painfully tedious. The voice acting can really suck. The whole idea of "People confusing Sonic with Shadow" is stupid. While the whole hero/villain storyline idea sounds cool, the gameplay for them really isn't any different.

I know it's cool to hate the Call of Duty series these days, but when you ask me which one I hate the most, I can say without second thought Black Ops 4 is the worst. $60 for a multiplayer that lost its identity, zombie mode which is even more cryptic than the last, and a battle royale fad that Activision thinks will be hip and relevant years down the road. You tell me if all of this sounds worth $60 at launch? On top of that, there's no single-player campaign. I know campaigns are mostly ignored by the players, but they are the very things that set the stages for COD games. BO4 feels so disjointed, like, I have no idea where the game belongs.

I have always considered Battlefield to be a superior series when compared to COD. But Hardline felt so... forced. It could've been its own ip telling a crime drama storyline (albeit cliche), but because it has the name Battlefield it can't decide whether it wants to be a smaller-scale shootout or large-scale war. Weapons variety are too small, the only game modes that seem to work are control, heist, and rush, and it's overpriced

I have a hard time deciding which Metal Gear Solid Game I hate more; MGS3 Pachinko, or Metal Gear Survive. Both are the results of Konami's greedy antics, using a good franchise name to sell themselves. On one hand, we got a remake with AMAZING-LOOKING visuals but is unfortunately restricted to pachinko. On the other hand, we got a shitty survival game with terrible mechanics and PURCHASABLE SAVE SLOT that doesn't even fit well into MGS universe.

 

[Elijin]

I really liked Dungeon Siege and Torchlight. Both franchises which "took a different direction" in their third entries. The direction being headfirst into landfill.

I find them excellent examples of change for the sake of change, as well cheap, buggy cash ins of their names.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I really liked Dungeon Siege and Torchlight. Both franchises which "took a different direction" in their third entries. The direction being headfirst into landfill.

I find them excellent examples of change for the sake of change, as well cheap, buggy cash ins of their names.

I totally agree. Especially with TL3, I had no idea they were making it until it was out in early access and I bought it immediately.......which regret now.

 

[sXeth]

I love Zelda series. I really do. BBUUUTTT When I see people worshipping Skyward Sword as some sort of holy grail in gaming, I have doubts. The characters are the aesthetic of the game is great, but there's that inconvinience of always having to travel back and forth between the ground and sky. While the sword angle mechanic sounds cool in theory, it felt really clunky in practice. The ability to fly around sounds cool, but the rooms to fly around are rather limited. After Midna in TP I guess there wasn't a companion to top her, but Fi was super disappointing for how robotic she felt.

Taking out all the problems of being bogged down the Wii controls (and thats being EXTREMELY generous). Skyward Sword is still kind of a plodding awkwardly paced game. Excessive repetitions of much of its content (oh boy... another seed collecting course, another fight with the sealed evil, three cycles through the same 3 areas). Inventory management annoyance. The flying gimmick is basically unused except to further pad out travel time. And its got the same collectathon/crafting stuff that BotW does, but somehow even less rewarding.


And yeah, Fi was the worst of the helper drones by far. Repeating pause-action descriptions for items you had dozens of, usually telling you how to solve puzzles before you even tried, or expositioning the most obvious things.

 

[FakeSympathy]

And yeah, Fi was the worst of the helper drones by far. Repeating pause-action descriptions for items you had dozens of, usually telling you how to solve puzzles before you even tried, or expositioning the most obvious things.

I have to wonder; How tf they go from the snarky yet likable Midna who probably has one of the best character arcs I've ever seen in gaming, to... Fi? I think Navi was more interesting than Fi, and everyone is annoyed by how game-interrupting Navi is

 

[happyninja42]

I have to wonder; How tf they go from the snarky yet likable Midna who probably has one of the best character arcs I've ever seen in gaming, to... Fi? I think Navi was more interesting than Fi, and everyone is annoyed by how game-interrupting Navi is

I've never been a fan of the Zelda franchise. Ok well, that's not true, I played the shit out of Zelda 1 and 2 as a kid, but after I stopped buying Nintendo systems, I stopped following it until recently with BotW. So I have no real personal stake in the series, but I found Fi's look and design, and overall concept, REALLY cool. Granted, I'm impartial to "Living Weapons" as a concept, or any sentient object, that has a life of it's own, and interacts with the protagonists in a story. I eat that shit up. So the idea, that the master sword of that game, is actually some sentient weapon, sort of like that game Transistor, and she's the manifestation of the AI, trying to insure the probable outcome she wants to happen goes forward, is REALLY cool to me. Sadly, I've seen how she was implemented in the game, from watching Game Grumps, and yeah, she seems poorly implemented. Which is a shame, because she's slick as hell, as far as the design and stuff goes.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Silent Hill Homecoming. At least disregarding any phone games, dungeon crawlers and arcade games no one has actually played. Of course, that being said, calling the Silent Hill franchise great is probably very generous, considering 1, 2 and Shattered Memories are the only genuinely great games in it. 3 is already a pretty mixed experience.

Zelda Skyward Sword is a no brainer. It sure failed to capture anything that's appealing about the Zelda series. I have no fucking idea what that game was even going for. No exploration, gimmicky combat, the most annoying sidekick in a series that also brought us Navi and an artstyle undergoing a devastating identity crisis. My entire time playing it I was waiting for it to get good. It didn't.

Metal Gear Solid 4. To be fair, MGS V was a slog too but at least that had the excuse of an obviously very troubled development. See, Kojima games tend to have long cutscenes, outside of V where he literally ran put of time to put them in, and I don't think that the cutscenes in MGS 4 are, categorically, too long. It's just that there's not nearly enough gameplay inbetween them. The whole thing ist just a pacing nightmare. Might have gone easier on it if the story had at least been good but more than anything it felt like Kojima throwing his hands up and coming up with the most contrived plot devices he could think of to finish the series. Maybe one could make a point that MGS 4 is some super ironic meta commentary on unnecessary sequelization and jumping the shark. That would redeem the story in these cutscenes, but I still wish there would have been more of a game between them.

 

[Xprimentyl]

For Final Fantasy, i think FF2 is universally hated equally. Though there is debate about FF8 and FF13 as well.

Funnily enough, 8 and 13 are the only two FFs I've completed; loved 8 and hated 13. I tried FF7 (arguably the franchise darling,) but I couldn't get into it.

Personal franchise gripe? Halo 5 *Puts ear to the ground for Hawki hooves* 343 took ownership of the franchise with Halo 4, did a descent enough job, the gave us the Master Chief Collection (amazing,) then shat out Halo 5 like "fuck all that shit." Basically spit in the collective faces of Halo fans by side-lining the franchise's iconic protagonist, and making him secondary and effectively an antagonist in a nonsense conspiracy plot we all knew was bullshit from the beginning. It's the only [main installment of] Halo I've only played once and will never play again. Then the multiplayer has that insipid "pay to win" aspect which is a huge slight to the game that arguably made multiplayer gaming as huge as it has become.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Silent Hill Homecoming. At least disregarding any phone games, dungeon crawlers and arcade games no one has actually played. Of course, that being said, calling the Silent Hill franchise great is probably very generous, considering 1, 2 and Shattered Memories are the only genuinely great games in it. 3 is already a pretty mixed experience.

Staying within the "odd man out" trope, Homecoming is the only Silent Hill I've played, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Creepy as shit. That fight with Scarlet gave me literal nightmares.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

Staying within the "odd man out" trope, Homecoming is the only Silent Hill I've played, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Creepy as shit. That fight with Scarlet gave me literal nightmares.

That's fair enough. You do owe it to yourself to at least play 1 and 2 at some point. 1 is easy to emulate, 2 actually has a PC-Port that, along with some fanpatches is arguably the best possible way to play it. Shattered Memories is also a masterpiece, but being a Wii game, not quite as comfortable to emulate. Still, great game. 3 has its moments. The rest is take it or leave t.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Funnily enough, 8 and 13 are the only two FFs I've completed; loved 8 and hated 13. I tried FF7 (arguably the franchise darling,) but I couldn't get into it.

This statement absolutely blows my mind and you aren't the only person I've seen hold this view. There are people who love FF8 or 9 and usually 10, but all say that for whatever reason couldn't get into FF7.

IMO there are a couple of possible reasons for this. FF7 original has graphically aged like milk. And these days playing PS1 era games is hard for people unless incredibly well done like FF8 or 9 in that department. So i think unless you were playing these games in the era, it's hard to go back and try the OG game for many. Though if you can overlook the graphics (as more and more people are able to do these days, thanks to the resurgence of retro style graphics) then people do end up loving the game.

As for gameplay and story. I feel like FF7 is the best playing game of the playstation 1 era. It's combat system and materia system are deep but also very straight forward especially compared to FF8's junction bullshit. Additionally FF7 is much better paced and has a much better story than 8 and 9 imo, from moment one you are thrown into an intense battle to bomb a government building basically and the action never really dips until 3 or 4 hours in and you cross-dress with Aerith. However 8 and 9 tell a much slower story that takes quite a long time to build up into anything at all.

Yet some people still really like those games, and that's great. i don't understand how, but whatever you like.

 

[Worgen]

I love Zelda series. I really do. BBUUUTTT When I see people worshipping Skyward Sword as some sort of holy grail in gaming, I have doubts. The characters are the aesthetic of the game is great, but there's that inconvenience of always having to travel back and forth between the ground and sky. While the sword angle mechanic sounds cool in theory, it felt really clunky in practice. The ability to fly around sounds cool, but the rooms to fly around are rather limited. After Midna in TP I guess there wasn't a companion to top her, but Fi was super disappointing for how robotic she felt.

Who have you seen worshipping Skyward Sword? Its well known as the worst Zelda. I have literally never heard of anyone worshipping it, the closest was just people saying it probably didn't deserver all the hate it got.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Who have you seen worshipping Skyward Sword? Its well known as the worst Zelda. I have literally never heard of anyone worshipping it, the closest was just people saying it probably didn't deserver all the hate it got.

Really? Because I remember when the game was released, people treated as some sort of a godsend, and was salty towards anyone who DARED to criticize its flaws. I think it may had something to do with COD getting a better score, but I an not exactly sure why.

 

[BrawlMan]

I've never been a fan of the Zelda franchise. Ok well, that's not true, I played the shit out of Zelda 1 and 2 as a kid, but after I stopped buying Nintendo systems, I stopped following it until recently with BotW. So I have no real personal stake in the series, but I found Fi's look and design, and overall concept, REALLY cool. Granted, I'm impartial to "Living Weapons" as a concept, or any sentient object, that has a life of it's own, and interacts with the protagonists in a story. I eat that shit up. So the idea, that the master sword of that game, is actually some sentient weapon, sort of like that game Transistor, and she's the manifestation of the AI, trying to insure the probable outcome she wants to happen goes forward, is REALLY cool to me. Sadly, I've seen how she was implemented in the game, from watching Game Grumps, and yeah, she seems poorly implemented. Which is a shame, because she's slick as hell, as far as the design and stuff goes.

At least she was fun to play in Hyrule Warriors. Hear something for you.

​

 

[sXeth]

Funnily enough, 8 and 13 are the only two FFs I've completed; loved 8 and hated 13. I tried FF7 (arguably the franchise darling,) but I couldn't get into it.

My two main critiques of 8 are that they don't present the magic system well, so the first inclination is to do the incredibly tedious Dfraw farming because Refine is literally never explained, and that overall Laguna's story in the past seemed like it would've been the better one (or at least should've gotten equal screen time if they wanted to do the dual timelines, rather then resolving more or less offscreen after vanishing midway through).


9 and 6 are what I'd call the high points of the franchise though. 9 has more emotional weight and storytelling, but occasional bits of awkwardness mechanically (and a bit of a pacing issue in mid-game), 6 is overall more polished, but some of the\ character and emotional presence gets a little muddied because theres such a large cast (and you get oddities where some main/major characters turn into optional characters in the second half even)

 

[happyninja42]

At least she was fun to play in Hyrule Warriors. Hear something for you.

​

You mean the first Hyrule Warriors? Or is she unlockable in AoC? Wifey and I haven't progressed the plot beyond like chapter 2-3 at this point. we keep getting sidetracked by side missions and gathering quests.

 

[Gordon_4]

DragonAge: Origins is the worst game of its trilogy. Yes, you read it right. It’s talent system is stupid, the combat is garbage and frankly silent protagonists in massive RPGs like this need to die in a fire. Also the entire colour palette was stolen from a call of duty knock off. And that Fade level can go get fucked.