Least Favorite Entry In Your Favorite Franchise ?

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Picture this, it's time for the annual play-through of your favorite franchise.

What is the one game in said franchise that you dread reaching, be it for any reason.

For me it would be Resident Evil Zero. Poor characters, bad item management system and a lot of rehashed RE2 content.

What's yours?
 
Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Funny enough, it's easier to appreciate these days. What was once a harbinger of decline and the death of PC as its own platform still managed better design than a lot of big modern titles 20+ years later.
 
If I can cheat a bit, The Last Guardian would be my least favorite of the Ueda trilogy. It's not bad by any means and it's hard to judge on its' own as it brings back too many memories of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but it didn't have nearly the impact that those games have on me.

And if I can cheat even more, Dark Souls 3 kind of reminds me of a greatest hits album that includes a bonus track or two. It might not be the worst game in the series, but it is my least favorite, at least after my most recent round of playthroughs.

For a more traditional answer, Everybody's Golf for the PS4 with it's open world course design which I think detracted from the overall hole design and didn't serve much of a purpose otherwise.
 
Assuming bullshit spinoffs don't count, Resident Evil 6. Way too long with characters I can't stand. And I absolutely despise how often the game takes control of the camera or forces you to walk between cutscenes.

 
Lost Levels is easily my least favorite in the mainline Mario games. It's just bad level design. We made the right decision copping Doki Doki Panic for the US.
 
Assuming bullshit spinoffs don't count, Resident Evil 6. Way too long with characters I can't stand. And I absolutely despise how often the game takes control of the camera or forces you to walk between cutscenes.



It's probably the worst mainline entry, but I still admire the depth of move set and while I wouldn't want to replay it, I'd probably pick it over RE5, RE:0, Code Veronica, and maybe even RE7/8 depending on my mood.
 
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I'm torn between choosing Persona or Halo so I'll choose both.

Persona: Definitely Revelations Persona. It's got promise but it's just not a good game and not really a Persona game.
Halo: Halo 5. This game has nothing good about it in the slightest and its existence pisses me off. That being said I decided that I'm gonna play through the entire series (Reach, 1-5, Infinite, Wars 1/2) so I'll suffer through it soon.
 
It's probably the worst mainline entry, but I still admire the depth of move set and while I wouldn't want to replay it, I'd probably pick it over RE5, RE:0, Code Veronica, and maybe even RE7/8 depending on my mood.
I mean, mercenaries is pretty fun since it strips away all the bad parts but if its just about the main game...

I actually find RE5 quite fun in the way dumb popcorn movies are and unironically like Sheva more than most franchise characters (partner AI is doo-doo of course) and RE0 is short enough that the pain doesn't last too long. Especially since this wouldn't be a blind playthrough.

Code Veronica though would be a close second choice. I love the terrible voice work and goofy ass story but damn it's a slog to play.

I honestly like all the games to some extent.
 
I mean, mercenaries is pretty fun since it strips away all the bad parts but if its just about the main game...

I actually find RE5 quite fun in the way dumb popcorn movies are and unironically like Sheva more than most franchise characters (partner AI is doo-doo of course) and RE0 is short enough that the pain doesn't last too long. Especially since this wouldn't be a blind playthrough.

Code Veronica though would be a close second choice. I love the terrible voice work and goofy ass story but damn it's a slog to play.

I honestly like all the games to some extent.


For a series that contains a few of my all time favorite games, it's mostly filled entries that I can't stand. haha
 
Final Fantasy: XIII, though XVI isn't far behind honestly. Both are huge disappointments but I was able to force myself to finish XVI. Still haven't been able to do so for XIII.

Resident Evil: 0 because it's a giant piece of shit, and Code Veronica because that's when the story officially jumped the shark
 
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Eh, most of my favorite franchises other than Castlevania and Persona have a ton of stinkers. I'm not going to include fighting games.

Castlevania - curse of darkness(I'm excluding lords of shadow and the weird multiplayer stuff)
Resident Evil - REmake 3
Silent Hill - Silent Hill 4/SH2 remake
Persona - Persona 3
Metroid - Dread
Legend of Zelda - TotK/BotW, couldn't even finish TotK
 
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Assassin's Creed Valhalla: I didn't play Assassin's Creed Shadows, and Valhalla was part of the reason why. The map is huge, there is a lot of fast traveling everywhere, and it was an absolute slog to get all collectibles and such.

Far Cry 5: I didn't play Far Cry 6, so maybe it's worse. I play games the way I want to play them, but Far Cry 5 came along and forced the story along while I was trying to do all of the side quests and map exploration. That pissed me off more than anything, and I will never play it again.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Final Fantasy XVI: Both of these were so boring I couldn't finish them.

Halo 5 Guardians: No clue what 343 Industries was thinking. It's a stupid game with a stupid storyline and stupid mechanics.

Mass Effect Andromeda: The game wasn't terrible, but it was forgettable. Considering the previous titles were bangers, this is easily the worst in the series.

Star Ocean The Divine Force: I didn't finish it. It didn't resonate with me like other entries in the series.

The Last of Us Part II: You thought killing off Joel and forcing me to play as a crippled lesbian was what I wanted? Piss off, mate.
 
Skyward sword. Not a bad game, really enjoyable until you have to slog through an item hunt in the last bit of the game. It does have an incredible soundtrack.

I'll cut zelda 2 some slack as they didn't know what direction to take the series.
 
I read FF XIII a lot in here, but for me it's FF IX (don't kill me, I know its beloved by many) i just never could get into it.
 
For me it's dark souls 3. 2 fumbled but at least tried, 3 felt like it didn't have its own identity and that REALLY bothered me. Still a fun game though.
 
Doom the Dark Ages.
For me, it was DOOM Eternal. I didn't play for more than 2 hours before binning it off and selling my copy. I've still got PTSD from seeing "Low Ammo" constantly.

I'm actually considering skipping The Dark Ages, too, because I feel only that 2016 was actually decent.
 
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Total War: Pharaoh

Feels like an add on to Troy, or a separate Saga entry.

Favourite in the series is still Medieval 2.
 
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Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

On its own, it's a really solid RTS. The campaign is entertaining, the multiplayer is neat. It's just that EA retconned the nature of Tiberium. They changed it from a plant-like alien lifeform to just alien crystals. Those crystals still kill and mutate living beings but it doesn't have the same mystery and unpredictability that a live form has. They also scaled back the devastation of Earth by Tiberium in C&C3 (including many of the weird live forms introduced in Tiberian Sun and Firestorm. They were just gone in C&C3). I would've loved if they continued from Firestorm and pushed the Earth above the brink in terms of being infested with Tiberium up to the point where all the Tiberium fields / plants connect globally via some form of mycelium (like mushrooms) and the planet basically starts to "fight" the humans actively via its flora and fauna. Also: EA (for really shitty in-universe reasons), removed the mechs from GDI. That really hurt me on a personal level, as a big Battletech fan (I know that they re-introduced Titans and Wolverines in Kane's Wrath, but it never felt the same).

I always loved this "slow apocalypse" you get to witness unfolding in real time, that the Tiberium universe set up. It's a shame that EA never recognized what potential this universe had. And C&C4 is just a fucking bad fan fiction fever dream; I don't recognize it as a C&C game.
 
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Yeah gonna hop on that FF XIII train. Only FF I started and never played through. Couldnt even make it through watching a playthrough. Doesnt matter how people who like it try to justify the characters or world or storytelling, I just dont like it. The level design is poor, the gameplay does not hold up for how much grinding they want you to do (by which I mean just slogging to the endless corridors) and the characters are simply annoying. Also the world just doenst make any sense, how do people in that first area get to their houses?? Where does that train go, what purpose does it serve? Why is there a giant skywalk in a cyber forest with robots as animals. Who build these and why if their only reason to be there is to attack people???? None of this makes sense.

XV is disappointing because there is a good game in there. Its not great but you can see brilliance every once in a while, even through all the bad decisions they made along the way.

XVI might not be very FF in terms of gameplay, but I still love the characters and world they have build and especially the music. My only real gripes are the lack of rpg mechanics and the poor side quests.
 
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