What franchises did you used to obsessively follow and then your interest faded out over time?

[Miya Moto]

Kingdom Hearts - completely stopped caring midway through 3.
Persona - obsessively loved the series but for some reason playing 5 sorta made me go "I think i've had enough of this series".
Final Fantasy I thought i was done with but XIV pulled me back in a big way. So good.

 

[ClickyCal']

Very soon to be pokemon.

 

[Elephant]

Another one for Final Fantasy. From the first time i played VI on the SNES, I was hooked. The series died for me after X. I cant even get myself excited for the FF7 remake, because I think they're going to fuck it up.

Also another one for Kingdom Hearts. 3 was awful. I remember loving 1 & 2 when they were first released. Final Fantasy meets Disney? Sign me up! But after playing 3, it left me thinking, "Was Kingdom Hearts always this bad? Were 1&2 this terrible, but my young underdeveloped brain thought it was the best thing ever? In the same way that Barney the dinosaur was my favourite show as a 6 year old in 1993, but it's not something i'd enjoy now".

Destiny. I was hooked on the first game. But the release of the sequel offended me with how many steps backward it took. As well as the MTX and lots of overpriced DLC.

 

[N2BearHugs]

Max Payne.

I hated the reboot. Rockstar wanted to pay homage to Man on Fire more than continue Max's journey. That it was humorless was the cherry on a shit sundae.

 

[DSP]

Assassin's Creed
Final Fantasy
Call of Duty

I guess I just grew up and realized how silly and empty feeling they are.

 

[Mentalist]

I went through a long period of obsession with Blizzard. Largely because I got into gaming via PC in 1997 and, well, Blizzard were kind of undisputed kings at the time.

In high school I used to spend our allotted "computer time" to look up screenshots of WarCraft III. I read every scrap of info there was to know about it. I was obsessed with that game and the world... until they announced they were gonna do an MMO. Then my interest dropped like a sunken stone.

Sometime later, Blizz announced StarCradft II and the hype was real again. I think I still have the early build videos on one of my hard drives. I was absolutely stoked for the game. Bought Wings of Liberty on release date, played it through twice, had a ton of fun. A few months later (I took a break from gaming, because I started a new degree) went back to it... to discover they patched out offline profiles. I kinda dropped it then. (Wo years ago I bought the BattleChest on sale from BestBuy; I replayed the original + BroodWar, then Wings of Liberty; started Heart of the Swarm... and dropped it about halfway through, because the story was just unbearably bad. Haven't touched it since.

I was also pretty excited about Diablo III (same thing, I still have the original reveal cinematics and early demo vids)... until they announced it will be always online and tried to explain it with the absolutely worst, most insulting reasons possible ("we're afraid people will be too stupid to realize that offline only profiles mean you can't ever use them online, and then when they realize they can't use these clearly labelled offline profiles to play with their friends they will get upset"). Diablo III basically stopped existing for me at that point.

When Eidos announced we will get a Deus Ex 3, I joined the Eidos Forums, and was active there for maybe 3 years (?) I enjoyed the hell out of Human Revolution, but when Mankind Divided came out, I was binging on Age of Empires II. After I eventually played (and loved) Mankind Divided I tried to revisit the forums, but they were a ghost town by then.

I'm still sporadically active on the Age of Kings Heaven, among the custom scenario-making scene. When I go through my AoK phases I play a lot of their stuff and post reviews. Can't say I'm anywhere near as hyped about Age4 as I was about the earlier games though. I think I grew out of that.

 

[Niosai]

Final Fantasy used to be an automatic buy for me. The last one I enjoyed was XII though. XIII and XV are both garbage-tier and have basically destroyed my faith in Square Enix's ability to develop a single player FF that I would find appealing. It doesn't look like VII-R is going to change anything either. As pretty as the game looks, I don't think the gameplay looks very compelling.


This is just my hot take but Zelda's timeline feels like fans trying to add a layer of complexity to the series that just wasn't meant to be there imo. I don't know why Nintendo caved in and even acknowledged it in the first place.

Click to shrink...

I honestly wish they never did. I was one of those fans and it was a lot of fun. I will say that the games definitely do imply a timeline, but it's handled with a shroud of mystery. To just go out and make an official one killed it.

Also, I can address your FF post, too! I think FF has evolved into a more mainstream series, chasing after modern gamers who maybe aren't interested as much in classic JRPGs. That's why I can appreciate stuff like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. FF as a series, to me, is still enjoyable. Just different from what it used to be, which isn't a bad thing in my eyes.

 

[Taco_Human]

Everything Nintendo.
I was a fanboy from NES to Wii U.
These days, they do nothing for me.

Click to shrink...

My relationship with Nintendo is over. Now Sega is my best friend!!!

 

[Duty]

Final Fantasy and Call of Duty.

Final Fantasy XII and FFT were the pinnacles of the franchise for me, and I can easily say they still in my favorite list. FFXII remaster on PS4 was marvelous, and I have FFT in every device till today. Then I played the other releases, and nothing made me excited or happy like XII or FFT did in the time. The future of the franchise is not looking good too, I never cared so much for XIV being an MMO and for VII back then, and they are putting a lot of effort in VII-Remake now, I can't see XVI coming out anytime soon, and they will spend a lot of human resource with this remake that I hope turns out good, but still a remake. Tactics, on the other hand, is pretty dead for SE, War of the Visions as a gacha on mobile was the last nail in the coffin.

About CoD, played CoD2 CoD:4 so much and loved the MW series, but when Vince Zampella and his team quit from IW/Activision was the end. Tried to play other releases but it changed too much and not for good, the new MW series looked ok-ish, but my interest faded out from the franchise in general.

Edit: Friendship ended with Blizzard as a whole. Now FromSoft is my best friend.

 

[deftones r cool]

My relationship with Nintendo is over. Now Sega is my best friend!!!

Click to shrink...

More like PC and Xbox are my new best friends, but close enough. 😅

 

[Lost Knight]

Kingdom Hearts, I don't think I want touch this franchise ever again. I dislike almost all aspects of it now except for the music.

 

[Deadceptor]

Assassins's Creed was super interesting, loved the mystery of the modern day stuff. Then the yearly milking and the train wreck that is AC3 happened. Tried to give Black Flag a chance but the series was ruined by then.

Also Metal Gear Solid thanks to Phantom Pain...don't think I have to explain any further.

 

[Haze]

For me it's Halo. Used to love that series and now I couldn't give a frog's ass about it. Halo Infinite could come out tomorrow and I would probably never play it if not for gamepass.

 

[dreamstation]

Final Fantasy. The last one that I played to completion was Final Fantasy XIII. Bought the sequels then fell off the wagon... I guess I haven't missed many after all but I'm not really excited for a new release like I was back during the PS1 and PS2 era. FFVII and FFVIII consumed my life for a long while.

 

[Rob2K19]

Pocket Monsters. It stayed the same, never catering to an older audience, and if it did, it failed. Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth saved my life and filled the hole in my heart. Habumon took a chance and it delivered. All hail Habumon.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

Kingdom Hearts started off as something that I loved and treasured and then became something I didn't want went they stopped making console games for a long time and the story completely lost my interest after 2. I came to KH3 having only ever beaten 1 and 2 back on PS2, though. I was well aware I wasn't going to know what was going on, I just wanted the "theme park" experience of being an original Square-Enix character going through Disney worlds, lol.

Assassin's Creed up through Brotherhood felt like it was going to become my favorite series and I liked the early premise of the story, but AC Revelations and AC3 gave me huge series fatigue and I quit following the games until Origins. I found Origins and Odyssey to be fun games to inhabit as a player, but similar to Far Cry, it's way more of an open ended gameplay sandbox experience than it is an actual appreciation for how the story is playing out, and so with me having kinda burnt out on Odyssey after playing about 50 hours, it's questionable whether or not I have interest in keeping up with the series again.

 

[Temp_User]

Was able to power through and, in spite of the obvious flaws, quite enjoy Reach and Halo 4. The sad-state of the Master Chief Collection especially its multiplayer though made me distance myself from the franchise (and i guess, multiplayer games in general).

 

[Dragoon]

Final Fantasy. X was the last game that blew me away. XII was a really fantastic game but didn't have the iconic moments of X.

XI - don't care for MMOs
XIII - Great OST but not iconic, beautiful graphics, the shittiest ensemble of a team I've ever had the displeasure of playing. As someone that reads manga and watches anime, this felt like a combination of the worst character stereotypes put into one shitty, unlikable team. Tried to finish the game 3 times. It's a huge fucking insult that this game of all games got two sequels.
XIV - don't care for MMOs
XV - Fun.. not iconic. Open world felt like a copy what works for others, it was barren and took away from the game. Had some great moments but really isn't the same..

Saying that, FFVII is the only mainline FF game I haven't played..

This game looks incredible.

 

[upandaway]

I've worn off Pokemon lately, used to follow it obsessively up until the end of gen 6 or so. When the ORAS remakes came out I was super disappointed, then enjoyed SM but USUM again made me disillusioned. Meanwhile I was playing very ambitious games in scale and content like BotW, Xenoblade which made me feel like Pokemon is not prioritizing what I would prioritize and skipped SnS (and I think what changed was my priorities, not theirs, even if I also think that the quality declined somewhat since Platinum and BW2).

 

[HustleBun]

Kingdom Hearts.

I don't think I need to explain all the reasons why, as 90% of gamers seem to agree that it's become an increasingly convoluted mess that seeks to further complicate it's world by dilluting it's mythos into countless spin-offs rather than providing strong character moments and pay-off within it's core games.

Kingdom Hearts 3 offered a bullshit conclusion and an insulting final chapter for longtime fans. Re-Mind and the bullshit pseudo-4th wall breaking references to FF Versus show that it's only gotten worse.

Max Payne.

I hated the reboot. Rockstar wanted to pay homage to Man on Fire more than continue Max's journey. That it was humorless was the cherry on a shit sundae.

Click to shrink...

Curious if you played it all the way through. I was initially repelled and put off by the Man On Fire allusions and the seemingly "rebooted" style of presenting Max Payne as a character.

Really happy to say that I was wrong.

The game got better with each chapter and I still get goosebumps when I think about the final mission. If you did not play it or beat it and you still have love for the first two Max Payne games then I strongly recommend you revisit it some day.

 

[Łazy]

Final Fantasy clearly.

This is just my hot take but Zelda's timeline feels like fans trying to add a layer of complexity to the series that just wasn't meant to be there imo. I don't know why Nintendo caved in and even acknowledged it in the first place.

Click to shrink...

100% agree.
It might actually makes the series worse if you add a fake nonsensical storyline link(lol)ing all games

 

[GamerJM]

I used to be super into DDR but I haven't played A despite living in a region where it's accessible. During the period of time where it was kinda dead in the west I eventually picked up Stepmania/ITG and now I'm too out of shape to really play it in the way I'd want to anyways.

Also not sure if this counts, but if a Rock Band 5 for next-gen consoles were to get announced I don't think I'd care. From 2-3 I followed DLC, personalities who played the games in the early days of YouTube, played pretty much every day and it was a bit of an obsession with my cousins. When 4 came out I bought an Xbox One for it and played for a little while and had good fun with it, but I kept having hardware problems and didn't know anyone who cared enough to play with me anymore. It also doesn't help that 3 is kind of a much better game. Also I eventually want to move out of my parents house and into an apartment and that would make plastic drumming pretty hard. If Clone Hero ever gets drum support I might still try and get into that regardless though.

Everything else I still follow. Being a Nintendo fan is great sometimes.....Fire Emblem, Zelda, Mario, Pokemon (to a certain extent) are still going strong. FF I have a weird relationship with in that I grew up playing 4/5/Tactics games and loved all of those, but now that I've played more of the series as an adult I realize that only like half of it consists of games I like anyways. I still have a fascination with playing all of the games in the franchise, partially just because for years I looked at all of the unplayed FF games as these inaccessible potentially GOAT-tier games.

 

[Sir Sonic]

Yeah Sonic is one of them. I was obsessed with the franchise up until Generations. actually no, Generations was Awesome. It was Lost World that killed the franchise for me. They just don't what are they doing with sonic games
I still love Sonic, but following the games? Nah!

Hitman is another one which... ummm i Don't know but my passion for it burned out over time after Absolution, I liked that game, maybe playing Hitman 2 gets me back to this franchise again.

I also really get bored of GTA (and overall Rockstar games) after GTA V, I loved GTA IV and RDR1

And I don't think there is no explanation needed for why I gave up on Need for Speed?

 

[JCal]

I was a huge Zelda fan growing up. I mean I had all the games and I had completed a variety of playthroughs by my late middle school - early high school days. Zelda 2, yup. Vanilla Link's Awakening and DX, yup. Seasons, Ages, and game link, yup. Ocarina Master Quest, yup. Four Swords Adventure (by myself lol), yup. After Twilight Princess, my deep attachment to the series faded away. It was 2007, I was older and starting college, my interests were changing, etc. I never got those feelings back and I've since skipped most of the new Zelda games. However, BoTW is a megaton; truly a special game that really resonates with me. Still, the Zelda series isn't a priority for me anymore.

Pokemon, how I loved it. Didn't we all, maybe? Then you reach that point where you realize you're doing the same shit over and over again. Blue, Red, Yellow, Silver, Gold, Crystal, Sapphire, Platinum, Soul Silver. Enough was enough for me.

Mario Kart. Nothing against the series. It's still pure joy, I'm sure, but it peaked with Double Dash. That was one hell of a game that really went for it. I don't think I'd buy a MK game for myself anymore, and I'd only ever play some MK in social situations.

Nintendo stuff, basically. I could mention some personal Mario grievances, but this is getting long lol.

 

[TomNinetyTwo]

Off the top of my head, it's probably Call of Duty, Halo and Gears of War.

Too many CoD's in a row added in mechanics that spoiled the multiplayer for me.

With Halo, I'm a bit more gutted. Absolutely loved 1-3 and Reach but I just haven't got on with the direction 343 have taken, hoping they can bring it back for Infinite.

Kinda the same with Gears as with Halo. Loved 1-3 and then the sequels and spin-offs since just haven't clicked with me.

I think I've also changed as a person too, I much prefer playing RPG's now, so I think that's a contributing factor too.

Excited to see whether next-gen will change the type of game I like to play all over again though!

 

[Femto0]

Assassin's creed
Gran turismo

 

[AzureFlame]

Kingdom Hearts definitely, after 2 it was never the same.

 

[Samawati]

100% agree.
It might actually makes the series worse if you add a fake nonsensical storyline link(lol)ing all games

Click to shrink...

The series was fine with the implication that most games were increasingly mythologised retellings and/or three souls constantly being reincarnated. All that weird shit and retcons they threw in with SS was totally unnecessary.

 

[Amin_Parker]

The whole entire Super Mario franchise.

 

[Oddish1]

This is just my hot take but Zelda's timeline feels like fans trying to add a layer of complexity to the series that just wasn't meant to be there imo. I don't know why Nintendo caved in and even acknowledged it in the first place.

Click to shrink...

You have it backwards. Fans talked about it so much and made connections because Nintendo alluded to having a timeline in interviews and left hints in games. It wasn't something fans made up and then Nintendo decided to make canon.

 

[Nephilim]

3D mainline Mario games.
The Galaxy games are incredible, but 3D World completely burnt me out and i didn't even go for Odyssey. They are all too easy too.

 

[StormEagle]

Half-Life
Not a long franchise and that is part of the problem. I was really hyped after the original. The expansion packs showing the events of the main game from different view points were also good. Half-Life 2 was super hype. Then came the Episodes which were super great. And then came the long wait for Ep 3. But Portal and Portal 2 were absolutely stellar. I was even playing those indie games to get Portal 2 to release earlier. I had the best time with Portal 2. But then came nothing. I was still hoping for years and then a few years ago I fell of and resigned that Half-Life is dead. And then I did not care anymore. And I won't care for anything Valve ever again. In the past two years I even started to question if Half-Life was ever really great.
They Announced HL: Alyx late last year, but I did not care anymore at that time. Even if it were a traditional Half-Life game I wouldn't get hyped for it.

 

[Altered]

Sonic

Obsessed for years but ended up getting off the train after generations. Archie's comic series turned into a clusterfuck with its story and I pretty much stopped reading around the time they did a reboot.

 

[StiLteD]

COD - was there from the start right the way through to Black Ops. With WaW and MW2 being my favourite of their MP offerings. Enjoyed Blops for a bit but was all down hill after that.

Zelda - started bouncing off it at Skyward Sword. BotW did nothing to get me back. Won't be grabbing the sequal I don't think. Zero hype.

Elder Scrolls (and just BGS generally) - been same shit, same engine for way too long. The lipstick on the pig has gotten comically thick. Think I'm just disinterested in BGS in general now. They don't seem to care anymore, so why should I. Cynicism earns cynicism. With the lies and shady bullshit they've pulled lately I have zero faith in anything they say or put out.

Turn based RPGs generally - used to love the genre. Don't know why I'm proper struggling with them these days. Still buy a bunch that I never come close to finishing. Maybe they're just way too big and repetitive these days and the fun wears off way before the end of the game. I'm good for like two decent weekend sessions max. I don't have the time for 100 hr games (that only feel that long for the sake of it) . Too much else of quality to play. That said I'll still put hundreds of hours into games if they really grab me (like Souls), but it's never these ones.

 

[Łazy]

Turn based RPGs generally - used to love the genre. Don't know why I'm proper struggling with them these days. Still buy a bunch that I never come close to finishing. Maybe they're just way too big and repetitive these days and the fun wears off way before the end of the game. I'm good for like two decent weekend sessions max. I don't have the time for 100 hr games (that only feel that long for the sake of it) . Too much else of quality to play. That said I'll still put hundreds of hours into games if they really grab me (like Souls), but it's never these ones.

Click to shrink...

The amount of variety in turn base rpg as drastically dropped though.

 

[eXistor]

Final Fantasy. I still really like the series as a whole and am very interested in what they're gonna do with XVI, but their fantastic track-record up until X (which is where it started to go wrong for me) is a thing of the past. No longer is FF a guarantee for quality single player rpg's. It's very much a wait-and-see type situation now for me.

 

[retroman]

I used to be crazy about Street Fighter, until SFIV came along. I just can't stand the art style of the new installments. I've tried to play those but they're graphically too off-putting, sorry.

Still play the old games, though.

 

[Redcrayon]

Definitely Final Fantasy for me. It used to one of the gaming events of the year for me when a new one released, now I just can't muster any enthusiasm for it.

Megaman I used to be really into, but far less so now. No real reason, I thought 11 was pretty good, but I always find myself preferring either the old ones or indies hitting a similar kinda feel (like Shovel Knight).

Trails- I loved Trails in the Sky and enjoyed Trails of Cold Steel, but TOCSII killed my interest in it. Same goes for Persona, Valkyria Chronicles II and more. I'm just tired of 'fantasy anime high school' with all the tropes that go with it, and even Fire Emblem had me rushing through those sections to get back onto the battlefield.

 

[Shopolic]

Halo
First Halo is one of the best games of my life. Really loved Halo 2 too. Didn't like Halo 3 that much, but liked ODST, Reach and also Halo 4. But after that... I don't have X1 and even if I had it, Halo isn't my favorite game anymore.

Gran Turismo
Started playing GT from GT3. I loved it so much and bought Japanese GT4 to play it sooner than other versions. I bought PS3 for GT5 and loved it, even with all those flaws. Liked GT6 too, but GTS... Everything in this game is amazing from graphics to gameplay and... but it doesn't have the feeling that I always wanted from a GT game. Maybe GT7 will be another standard GT and makes me a GT lover again.

 

[Antony]

Final Fantasy.
XV made me reevaluate my feelings for the series and I realised the last games I truly loved were the PS1 entries. Have next to no interest in what comes next.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Final Fantasy for me as well. I guess I mostly just liked the Sakaguchi era games better. It's still a good series, but I'm not as obsessed as I once was.
I was also really into Gradius, but that series died before my interest faded, so it doesn't really count.

 

[monmagman]

I used to like football games back in the day....so FIFA and Pro Evo....zero interest in any sports games these days.

 

[StiLteD]

The amount of variety in turn base rpg as drastically dropped though.

Click to shrink...

Yeah true. Also a factor.

 

[Monstress]

Dragon Age. I bought the World of Thedas books, read the novels and some comics, played the tabletop RPG and participated in a lot of discussions online and with friends. But now, I just... Don't care about DA4.

 

[RestEerie]

StarCraft & Final Fantasy

Still hyped for 7 remake though...

 

[tatwo]

EA NHL games. Used to buy them every year from 1998 to 2013 but now they don't improve them at all so no point buying.

 

[Kraq]

Pokemon is the biggest. Went from playing the games multiple times as a kid to not wanting to touch one nowadays. The gameplay hasn't evolved over the course of 20 years and it shows.

Only got back into Spyro with the remake trilogy. I played Enter the Dragonfly on PS2 back in the day and it was terrible.

Sonic I largely dropped after Sonic Heroes. Watched someone play through Sonic Forces next to me, and yeah I'm not missing anything there.

 

[YukiroCTX]

Ace Attorney series. I think my interest of the series dropped around the time around Dual destinies. There was a quality decrease but also got tired of the poor treatment Capcom had against it's fans internationally.

Dynasty Warriors. I think the 7th game might have been the last I played. I didn't care for the spinoff of the Musou genre's either.

Starcraft - Starcraft 2 happened. A lot tend to play it for the MP but I played it for both SP and MP. It was a fun time for Mp for sure playing with friends LAN but it was the story that was absolute highlight. Broodwar ending was probably one awesome moment seeing Kerrigan win. SC2 stories were awful (even if they were mechanically more diverse than the first game to try making it interesting). Still fun MP but that wasn't enough for me.

Unreal Tournament - I guess this lack of interest was more on Epic Games. UT 2003 was fairly poor and the revival UT was one of the most botched releases I've ever seen.

 

[More Butter]

It's got to be Final Fantasy. Truly my favorite series of games when I was younger, but after 10 I haven't had any interest. They lost something that made them special. Weirdly, I'm not even that excited for FF7 remake even though I recently replayed the original and it's a fantastic game. It's not even that I'm not as into the series anymore, I didn't even buy 13 or 15. I just don't care anymore.

 

[-PXG-]

Gears of War

Holy shit I was neck deep in the community, the games, and everything Gears. But I just got fed up with the games not living up to their potential