Board 8 > Which series innovates/changes the most with each major new game?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Over the years, many series have been criticized for not changing or evolving enough of their formulas throughout different games (Zelda and Pokemon have received much such criticism). For this topic, let's shift the discussion: which series are the best at changing things up and keeping things fresh?

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Each Dept. Heaven game besides the spinoffs is completely different from the next

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Assassin's Creed

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Call of Duty

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First post nailed it.

The Dept. Heaven games are difficult to even call a series due to the massive changes in system between games in the series.

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Rune Factory.

The differences between each installment are HUGE.

It's a bit odd how Zelda ended up here.

We start off with LoZ, whatever games it was inspired by, it really took things to a new level and culled out it's own space and made adventure gaming into an art. Zelda II was very different in it's gameplay, though plenty of concepts carried forward. LTTP was a total advancement from the original formula, plenty of little innovations. Taking a major step forward like that shouldn't be seen as formulaic.

Then we move up to OoT, and again we get the dungeon concept and many other familiar trends and themes, but it absolutely plays nothing like other games. and MM does it's own thing.

There are some handheld games through this time, but I don't think a handheld experience is necessarily meant to conceptually change the franchise.

So, through Majora's Mask, this is a franchise that has maintained it's unique identity while advancing itself, changing itself, or indeed changing the industry. And since then, they've tried to just re-use the OoT formula, the handhelds have had the only real innovations (and really not stuff we want to talk about outside of maybe 4 swords). I see a lot of "you only like old Zelda because of nostalgia", not true, it used to be that Zelda challenged itself to be something more.

hi

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Super Mario

every game played radically different until Galaxy 2 came along.


Looks like it'll go back to being different though with 3D Land

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Backyard Sports

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also come to think of it star ocean is pretty radically different between games,especially the first 3.

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Veola posted...
Rune Factory.

The differences between each installment are HUGE.

I agree. The amount of improvement each game has over the last is astounding. Even the menus are completely redone each time to make it easier to sort through and manage items. I found it refreshing to play a series where the developers recognized what could be improved, even if it didn't need to be, and changed them in the sequel instead of just adding new areas and scenarios like a normal.

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neonreaper - People complained whenever Zelda got too different, especially with Zelda 2, which is precisely why every game since OoT has been riding its coattails. They don't care if people who don't like Zelda as it is now complain about the games so long as they don't lose the people who think everything is the way it should be.

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Jak did this alot. Jak 2 plays nothing like Jak and Daxter

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The Atelier series changes drastically in groups of 3.

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Honestly, if Nintendo changed Zelda up any further, it probably wouldn't be good. I'm not a Zelda fanboy or anything, but I don't see anywhere the series can go that would be more fun than it already is.

I mean, Nintendo could try and make it hyper realistic like Uncharted or something, and then it would probably have to sacrifice expansive areas like Hyrule Field and the freedom of exploration. If they could somehow make the game realistic and also retain the freedom to go anywhere whenever, then that would be something. Seems impossible on current hardware.

neonreaper posted...
It's a bit odd how Zelda ended up here.

We start off with LoZ, whatever games it was inspired by, it really took things to a new level and culled out it's own space and made adventure gaming into an art. Zelda II was very different in it's gameplay, though plenty of concepts carried forward. LTTP was a total advancement from the original formula, plenty of little innovations. Taking a major step forward like that shouldn't be seen as formulaic.

Then we move up to OoT, and again we get the dungeon concept and many other familiar trends and themes, but it absolutely plays nothing like other games. and MM does it's own thing.

There are some handheld games through this time, but I don't think a handheld experience is necessarily meant to conceptually change the franchise.

So, through Majora's Mask, this is a franchise that has maintained it's unique identity while advancing itself, changing itself, or indeed changing the industry. And since then, they've tried to just re-use the OoT formula, the handhelds have had the only real innovations (and really not stuff we want to talk about outside of maybe 4 swords). I see a lot of "you only like old Zelda because of nostalgia", not true, it used to be that Zelda challenged itself to be something more.


Good post. This is why new Zelda sucks.

As for myself, as much as people hate it, Final Fantasy almost never stayed the same.

Considering the genre, Civilization is fairly different between titles. Pretty much every major mechanic gets significant changes.

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To be fair, OoT lifted just about it's entire set-up from LttP. 3D asside, OoT didn't innovate that much.

If you take a look at Super Mario 64, that game changed the formula around much more than OoT did.

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It'd be nice if modern Zelda totally changed the formula. Even if it were to be more like the 2D games and less like Ocarina of Time, we'd be on a better path.

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Calintares posted...
To be fair, OoT lifted just about it's entire set-up from LttP. 3D asside, OoT didn't innovate that much.

If you take a look at Super Mario 64, that game changed the formula around much more than OoT did.

True, but Super Mario 64 practically genre-shifted, and I prefer my platforming to be linear and precise. Sunshine went even more into the open world direction. Good thing those Galaxy games came along.

Calintares posted...
To be fair, OoT lifted just about it's entire set-up from LttP. 3D asside, OoT didn't innovate that much.

If you take a look at Super Mario 64, that game changed the formula around much more than OoT did.

The move to 3D is certainly innovation enough, though yeah both games have water dungeons and 'alternate' Hyrules. Certainly not the same game in 2D/3D, though. Even if you look at OoT as a giant enhancement of LTTP, we're still talking about Zelda through MM.

I agree about Mario 64 though I'm not sure why it's brought up

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WazzupGenius00 posted...
Each Dept. Heaven game besides the spinoffs is completely different from the next

This. It also helps that most of the Dept. Heaven games taken alone are wildly different from anything else.

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Mario series is insanely varied for something so popular.

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If we're going by "Major New Game", and not directors cuts, Street Fighter. The differences between each installment are quite major.

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