Also apparently Castlevania? But im no expert
Also i can think of three movie franchises with the opposite perception of the second entry: The Godfather, Star Wars, and Shrek.
I feel like Gen II of Pokémon is strictly better than Gen I. Full color, more fleshed out world (day/night cycle, breeding, getting calls on the Pokégear), various quality of life improvements, has both the National Park and Ecruteak City music–oh, and it’s literally got the entire first game map crammed inside of it as endgame content. What’s not to love?
Yes this might be THE example of a franchise that isnt percieved to have had a sophmore slump.
I can think of a few that fit the billing; Doom 2, Diablo 2, Portal 2, L4D2, Civ2. I think those franchises all managed to take the original concept and actually improve upon it. There’s probably more but those are the ones I could think of
Crash 2
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
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Metroid 2 is also regarded as lesser
The transition from NES to GB probably didn’t help. The only franchise where I can think of the GB version having higher acclaim is (maybe) Link’s Awakening or Donkey Kong 94
Link’s Awakening got the DX GBC version which helped it a lot I think.
Does Dragon Quest also have a bastard child made by another developer that fans don’t consider to be a part of the series like FF Mystic Quest or the Philips CD-i Zelda games?
It’s the same far Dragon Age, although there are only three games and most fans seem to think the first is the only good one. Most of them still hate the second one the most though.
I feel like with games, the pressure to increase sales beyond the first one makes developers feel like have to try reinventing what made the first one good (which often misses instead of hits). With film or lit, they can just continue the story.
It’s kinda an old meme that the second in a series of things is always the worst, to the point where people make a note of pointing out exceptions. It makes sense though, if you don’t change enough it feels pointless but if you change too much it won’t feel like a continuation of the same thing.
More good middles of trilogies: Mass Effect 2, The Dark Forest (Three Body Problem)
