Great games that took a series in an entirely different direction?

[yamatou]

Okay, I'll bite

Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter

(I never played it so I have no idea)

People just didn't get roguelites back then, if it released now it would be considered a great game.

 

[bjork]

It's wild how a simple platformer ended up spawning two separate series, one of which was an adaption involving a Japanese superplayer (Takahashi Meijin) and the other being basically a sub-series that was more RPG like (which is also good). It's more confusing than Zelda lol.

Good old 16 shots per second Takahashi Meijin.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Really anything that transitioned into 3d

 

[Bakuma1997]

Super Paper Mario, it proved that Paper Mario can shake its formula while retaining both the PM escence and the Mainline Mario gameplay, and its plot *Cries in Bleck's backstory*

Sadly both the big N and the audience back then wasn't satisfied and what we got next was

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Dragon Quest post-Squarenix? DQ8 market a shift and how it was the first game to never be called Dragon Warrior in the west.

 

[Mal]

Okay, I'll bite

Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter

(I never played it so I have no idea)

aaawww, okay its one of those games that was trying something drastically diferent at the time people hated it and followed after the franchise did went an interesting route, gacha game xD...... a horrible one at that even, so many blame the death of the franchise starting from here as the cause.

but nowadays ive seen people get more soft towrds this title and while not for everyone, it does have some really neat ideas that some could consider great even haha.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I don't want to derail this thread but could this be a commentary about the conflict between older fans complaining about how a franchise has changed from back when they knew it in the beginning and newer fans wanting it to become more modern and less old fashioned?

Doom has shifted in a direction with its third episode

Then went back (kinda) to its roots with 2016

But then there are people still considering that it's not an actual comeback like the classic games but a third direction between both paths...

 

[mortuz]

Any game that pushes from 2D to 3D is always a good example (or vice versa).

GTA 3 went from top down car racing to 3rd person over the shoulder crime sim.

Zelda Ocarina of Time went 2D to 3D while Breath of the Wild went open world. I would argue Zelda 2 is also a huge change for better or worse.

Super Mario 64 went 3D and revolutionized 3D platformers.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare went to a modern shooter from a WWII series and honed in on multiplayer over campaign.

Monster Hunter World removed tons of loading screens, aimed for more fluid movement, added tons of mechanics and QoL improvements, and allowed moving while shooting for ranged weapons. There’s a clear divide between the “old world” and the “new world” MH games.

Risk of Rain 2 went from a 2D side scroller to a full 3D shooter.

Resident Evil 4 changed from survival horror to more of an action game and RE7 changed it back.

Fallout 3 went to adventure RPG from the isometric CRPG style of 1 and 2.

The Witcher 2 moved from a weird (and imo very bad) almost rhythm-based combat style to more of an action style.

Dawn of War 2 went from a Company of Heroes style RTS to a more hero-focused RTS. It was very hard for me to make the transition.