During all these years, many franchises emerged and became biggest hits in the video game industry. In each generation, many sagas appeared to win the hearts of gamers, starting journeys that would last countless years, with sequels and more sequels being released.
With the advancement of technology, franchises have taken incredible leaps in quality and impressive evolutions. Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy, Pokémon... if we were to name all the names, we'd be here for a long time. The fact is that many sagas have marked the history of video games and delivered several adventures to their fans, with the vast majority always keeping the essence and all the characteristics that led to their success. Despite delivering evolutions and innovations, companies usually choose the "safe game", keeping their franchises in the traditional molds.
However, there are also those franchises that have undergone major changes, which in turn appear when developers show a desire to deliver a complete turnaround. Such changes have varied reasons, with developers trying to avoid the natural wear and tear of some brand or even choosing to change solely to adapt to what sells more in the current market.
Usually bringing discussions and generating a lot of controversy, the general change in a franchise always gives something to talk about! In this article, we will remember franchises that have undergone major changes and started to deliver new proposals to their players.
resident evil
Let's start with the franchise that is "on the lips of the people". With the launch of Resident evil village, the discussions, which originated with Resident Evil 7, have returned to full force on social networks, while fans hold debates about the changes presented in the most recent titles.
Released in 1996, the first Resident Evil brought the essence of a true survival horror. With the camera fixed, the title stood out with its challenging puzzles and other features that made it an even more tense game, such as the fact that the player had to deal with the lack of resources to survive.
With the need to advance through each scenario a daunting challenge, Resident Evil was a major release at the time and won over fans around the world. establishing itself as an excellent survival horror experience.
With the success of the first game, Capcom decided to continue its franchise and delivered Resident Evil 2 and 3 with the same essence. With great villains, being them Mister X in RE2 and Nemesis in RE3, the same atmosphere of tension seen in the previous game and the already known elements of the survival horror genre, the sequels of Resident Evil also pleased the players and marked their names in the history of video games.
Resident Evil Code Veronica would still have the known features, but over the years, Capcom's interest in modifying the elements of its great success would arise.
Em Resident Evil 4, the franchise has changed considerably and has fully embraced the action, leaving aside all the elements of a survival horror. With all its elements pulling the title to the side of the new proposal, RE4 showed the way for the franchise games that would be released in the following years.
Other games like Resident Evil 5 and 6 embrace even more action, featuring adventures where scares were non-existent, with these being literally shooting games. Such changes did not work out very well, as Resident Evil lost its relevance and the public massacred the releases that followed this path. However, this would come to an end and the franchise would return to horror.
The curious thing is that the return to horror also marks the most controversial change in the franchise. Resident Evil 7 was the kick-off of a general and practically absolute change, delivering a journey with a first-person view and presenting a more "supernatural and fantasy" feel, but with explanations that fit everything into the complete story of Capcom's game series.
Despite part of the public showing annoyance with the first-person camera, Resident Evil 7 was well received by critics and pleased many players, making way for Resident Evil Village.
With the return of Ethan Winters, Village also brought back the first person camera and delivered several new elements, including non-traditional enemies like "vampires", "werewolves" and more. Village seems to have put Resident Evil back on top, standing out in the survival horror genre and achieving great recognition.
Moving from horror to pure action and finally returning to horror with a whole new proposition, Resident Evil is a franchise that has undergone many changes over the years.
Speaking village, in this link you can check our full review about the game!
Assassin's Creed
The Ubisoft franchise is another heavyweight name that has undergone heavy changes over the years. The subject even generates a lot of debate among fans, with several players claiming that Assassin's Creed has lost its essence.
with the first title released in 2007, the franchise had the proposal to deliver games of action and stealth, focusing on parkour mechanics. Assassin's Creed 2 followed this path, as did the following Ezio games and the other titles released on the seventh generation of consoles. With natural innovations like bigger worlds, more interesting exploration games and gameplay improvements, AC remained in the same direction for a long time..
It is worth remembering that we have already made an article listing the best to the worst Assassin's Creed of the seventh generation! You can check this link.
With the arrival of the eighth generation, the franchise underwent some minor changes, including changes in combat, but still remained firm in the initial idea. The problem is that while in the seventh generation Assassin's Creed lived its golden phase, with titles that were well received by critics and drew praise from players, already in the eighth generation the situation began to change.
AC Unity e Syndicate were targets of strong criticism, especially the first game that had a completely troubled launch. Feeling that the franchise was worn out, Ubisoft decided to stop the annual releases and change the focus of the games entirely.
Assassin's Creed has become an action RPG, including damage points, levels, and even dialogue options, meaning the franchise has truly embraced a new genre. Furthermore, Origins, Odyssey e Valhalla, which are the games in this footprint, also dropped the idea of a more "down to earth" franchise and showed inclined to take advantage of mythological elements.
With many players believing that this change happened solely to make Ubisoft make more money, the fact is that Assassin's Creed has changed and will likely remain in this new path. for a long time.
God of War
This is one of the biggest changes in the franchise, but curiously it is one of the least controversial! Many attribute this to the fact that it is a exclusive NEROX, stating that this way there is a different treatment by the fans.
Anyway, God of War is a franchise that has completely changed. While the previous titles were games of action adventure/hack n slash, the 2018 game decided to embrace new elements and deliver a different gameplay. What's interesting is that the franchise didn't even show so much wear and tear and wasn't even slammed by critics with releases below the expected level. In this way, the change that arrived in 2018 came about surprisingly, but completely natural and without having been imposed by failures.
With many Action RPG genre influences, God of War also presented another face to the change your mythology. Set in Norse mythology, the most recent release of the franchise introduced several new elements and situations, thus managing to use new characters, enemies and scenarios, very different from those seen in other games in the saga.
Além disso, Kratos also appeared more mature and wiser., showing that age has brought him experience.
There are many changes presented by God of War (2018), but the fact is that the developers nailed it. With all these innovations and differences, the title was elected the best game of the year 2018, being one of the great exclusives in the history of PlayStation.
God of War has already appeared on our list of best PlayStation 4 exclusives! Check out in this link the games that marked the eighth generation.
Fallout
The famous post-apocalyptic franchise has also undergone major changes over the years, despite having always remained in the RPG genre.
Released in 1997 the first Fallout was developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Entertainment. Exactly... there was no involvement from the Bethesda. In addition, Black Isle was also the developer of Fallout 2.
Following the pattern of a root RPG, the first Fallout already had choices, dialogues and other familiar elements, but they were much slower and more strategic. Their battles were solely in turns and the view was isometric. The fact is that the games achieved some success and gained fans, who were not even satisfied when the changes came.
Microsoft officially announces the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, parent company of BethesdaAfter the bankruptcy of Black Isle Studios, the Bethesda acquired the franchise and decided to restart the development of Fallout 3 from scratch, which was already being made by the previous owners. Leaving aside the isometric view and starting to offer the possibility to play Fallout 3 in both first and third person, Bethesda also innovated in gameplay.
Fallout now has real-time battles, with elements of the already known action RPG that we have in the industry. Although the changes did not please many players, the franchise managed to become increasingly relevant.
Bethesda still decided to offer another proposal, with Fallout 76 which is a Franchise online RPG. However, even if the company continues to dedicate itself to the title, if we judge by the reception of the game we can come to the conclusion that this path will probably be left aside.
Remember any other franchises that have undergone major changes? Talk about it in the comments!
