Current Events > Has any game series ever had a more drastic change in genre than Jak and Daxter?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Went from a collectathon platformer to... GTA clone lmao.

And somehow it worked. That trilogy is wack.

Puyo Puyo started as a dungeon crawler

Touhou went from a shmup to a literally everything

From a score-based arcade maze game, to a...point-n-click pseudo virtual pet thing?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1164a70e.jpg

Rayman. Started as a side scroller, changed to a 3rd person game, and finally whatever the fuck Rabbids were.

EDIT: I guess tbf the Rabbids crap were spinoffs.

The first two Duke Nukem games were 2D platformers then the third was a first-person shooter.

Mario might be the winner just by sheer virtue of him being in every fuckin' genre

If you count spinoffs, then Mario has gone from platformer to...dozens of different genres.

jackgunney posted...

Rayman. Started as a side scroller, changed to a 3rd person game, and finally whatever the fuck Rabbids were.

EDIT: I guess tbf the Rabbids crap were spinoffs.

Eh, the 3d ones were still platformers... just changed perspective lol

pegusus123456 posted...

Mario might be the winner just by sheer virtue of him being in every fuckin' genre

rick_alverado posted...

If you count spinoffs, then Mario has gone from platformer to...dozens of different genres.

I'm not counting spin offs, main titles only.

Wasn't the first Dynasty Warriors like a fighting game or something?

Spyro the Dragon.

myusernameislame posted...

Wasn't the first Dynasty Warriors like a fighting game or something?

It was.

Then the next one became the 3D hack and slash we know today.
They're "different" series in Japan though

Hayame_Zero posted...

From a score-based arcade maze game, to a...point-n-click pseudo virtual pet thing?

to a few 3D collectathons

While it might be the same theme those top down GTA games feel so much different than the 3D era games. Speaking of Rockstar The Red Dead Redemption games are way different than the story mode duel focused Red Dead Revolver.

But yeah Jak and Daxter makes me sad because I LOVE the first game and don't like 2 or 3. First game was so good.

Dead or Alive went from a fighting game to a "yeah, we're gonna stop pretending you're not here to goon to our female characters" volleyball game

I'm really not even sure I would characterize Jak & Daxter as a complete change. The platforming mechanics are still there and used a fair amount. They basically just changed the progression structure and added guns and vehicles.

First couple of Fallouts were isometric. Not trying to turn this into a competition or anything, it's interesting how many game series switch up.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Touhou went from a shmup to a literally everything

It's even weirder since the first game is more like an Arkanoid clone than a shmup

Yakuza/LAD went from beat-em-up to a turn based RPG while keeping the rest of the game the same

The later Jak games are still about as much of a platformer as say the R&C games.

Anyway, how about Dept. Heaven? Adventure game with RPG elements -> SRPG -> bullet hell tower defense -> SRPG again

myusernameislame posted...

Wasn't the first Dynasty Warriors like a fighting game or something?

Well fighting games and beat-em ups are pretty darn related since they have a fundamental starting point of beating up the other guy. So something like Fatal Fury was initially conceived as a game like Final Fight. In this case Dynasty Warriors went in the opposing direction.

Yooka Laylee

Oh yeah, Spyro.

3D platformer to a low effort toys to life game, which comoeltely ignored Spyro as it went on.

_____Cait posted...

Puyo Puyo started as a dungeon crawler

TIL

_____Cait posted...

Oh yeah, Spyro.

3D platformer to a low effort toys to life game, which comoeltely ignored Spyro as it went on.

It's wild how degraded poor Spyro got

UnfairRepresent posted...

It's wild how degraded poor Spyro got

What do you mean
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/bc5a211a.jpg

He never looked better

By all that is holy what did they do to my boy? They massacred my poor purple dragon...

How has Resident Evil not been mentioned?

Even before Skylanders, they tried to make Spyro go from whimsy cartoon platformer to a dark and serious epic fantasy beat 'em up in the late 2000s. And Legend of Spyro Spyro is almost as ugly as Skylanders Spyro. Almost.

(oddly enough, around the same time, some developers also tried to turn Crash Bandicoot into a beat 'em up. With the main mechanic being body surfing. In the first one, you had to unlock the ability to spin.)

Yakuza went from action games to turn based RPGs while Final Fantasy went from Turn based RPG to Action games.

Aztex posted...

How has Resident Evil not been mentioned?

Eh, Resident Evil was always more actiony than people like to think. It transitioned pretty slowly all told.

Lol does Brutal Legend Demo to --> Brutal Legend game count, because I was almost going to be suckered into buying the game based on the fun demo if helpful internet denizens hadn't warned me that the game is actually one of those RTS types, not a fun action adventure with jack black.

Also I wouldn't necessarily say jak dax "worked" but then again I never liked that series, for me sly cooper was the best of the sony ps2 era second party offerings, followed closely by ratchet and clank which was at least closer to being a fun platformer than jak daxter.

Hayame_Zero posted...

From a score-based arcade maze game, to a...point-n-click pseudo virtual pet thing?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1164a70e.jpg

I still think the Secret Level episode about Pac Man was crazy good but alsocreepy.

Yakuza/Like a Dragon

I'm not sure why people are surprised by the spyro evolution. After finally playing the trilogy, I felt it made sense, each sequel to me gave diminishing returns in terms of enjoyment. I liked the first one, still like the second one although the mini games were annoying, and then by the third one was even more annoyed by the minigames and liked it less. Still glad I got to play them though.

OP, you've been here long enough to know this but lemme help you out because I see you -

If you want to discuss a specific thing, you can't have a topic title like this with a rhetorical question that's begging for "but actually" responses. No one is going to talk about Jak And Daxter now, even though that's probably what you hoped would happen.

Nah, you need a to not offer that rhetorical question. Some helpful suggestions:

• Jak and Daxter had the most insane genre shift
• Still thinking about how Jak and Daxter went from collectathon to GTA clone

etc.

hope this helps

pinky0926 posted...

OP, you've been here long enough to know this but lemme help you out because I see you -

If you want to discuss a specific thing, you can't have a topic title like this with a rhetorical question that's begging for "but actually" responses. No one is going to talk about Jak And Daxter now, even though that's probably what you hoped would happen.

Nah, you need a to not offer that rhetorical question. Some helpful suggestions:

* Jak and Daxter had the most insane genre shift
* Still thinking about how Jak and Daxter went from collectathon to GTA clone
etc.

hope this helps

On the contrary, this is quite possibly the only way to get people to click a topic about Jak and Daxter.

saspa posted...

I'm not sure why people are surprised by the spyro evolution. After finally playing the trilogy, I felt it made sense, each sequel to me gave diminishing returns in terms of enjoyment. I liked the first one, still like the second one although the mini games were annoying, and then by the third one was even more annoyed by the minigames and liked it less. Still glad I got to play them though.

And then came Enter The Dragonfly.....
A Hero's Tail was mildly better.

Fighting Force series on PS1 started as a beat em up then the sequel became a third person shooter

Darksiders games are all half beat 'em ups and then they swap the other half out for a different genre in every single one.

DrizztLink posted...

Darksiders games are all half beat 'em ups and then they swap the other half out for a different genre in every single one.

I really, seriously need to consider some day trying/playing these games, especially to see if they're really the zelda clone people built them up to be. I remember the demo for the first game like, 15 years ago, and it felt kinda clunky, so I never did get the series. And at different times the game(s) have been on sale for like, $5-$10 and for some reason I never got them.

saspa posted...

I really, seriously need to consider some day trying/playing these games, especially to see if they're really the zelda clone people built them up to be.

First one straight up is a Zelda clone.

Second one is more of a Diablo/Torchlight gear-and-skilltree thing.

Third one's basically a Soulslike.

The other one was pretty boring for the ten minutes I gave it.

_____Cait posted...

Puyo Puyo started as a dungeon crawler

Puyo Puyo is a spinoff of a dungeon crawler. Not quite the same.

saspa posted...

I really, seriously need to consider some day trying/playing these games, especially to see if they're really the zelda clone people built them up to be. I remember the demo for the first game like, 15 years ago, and it felt kinda clunky, so I never did get the series. And at different times the game(s) have been on sale for like, $5-$10 and for some reason I never got them.

You can definitely feel the Zelda in the first two. They're worth playing, I played DS2 for the first time earlier this year and mostly enjoyed it, though a section of it definitely dragged on. It's one of those games where if I'd gotten to play it on release it'd be one of my favorite games of all time, but because I played it now I "merely" like it a lot.

pinky0926 posted...

OP, you've been here long enough to know this but lemme help you out because I see you -

If you want to discuss a specific thing, you can't have a topic title like this with a rhetorical question that's begging for "but actually" responses. No one is going to talk about Jak And Daxter now, even though that's probably what you hoped would happen.

Nah, you need a to not offer that rhetorical question. Some helpful suggestions:

* Jak and Daxter had the most insane genre shift
* Still thinking about how Jak and Daxter went from collectathon to GTA clone
etc.

hope this helps

What lmao. I did not intend to talk about Jak and Daxter at all, this was about crazy genre jumps in the first place

I think calling Jak & Daxter a GTA clone is exaggerating. It had a GTA-ish city but for the most part it was only for progressing the story. The vast bulk of the game took place outside the city in platforming sections. What changed massively was the tone. It went from this kind of whimsy fantasy collectathon to this post apocalyptic dystopia with guns.

Command and Conquer had the first person shooter Renegade.