Frachise, Best and Worst

Rules are simple:

Choose five of you favorite gaming franchises, and then list which one you consider to be the best and the worst within that franchise. Now go!

Ho yeah this one sounds cool.

Final Fantasy: Have to start with this one ofcourse. Best is FFIX, because its fun and has a great story and almost a good battle system and has a unique leveling system too.
Worst is: Either got to be X-2 or XV, neither of which i have completed which should show that i don't like them. The stories didnt really grab me and the battle system of XV i don't like so yup.

Halo: Throwing this in here cos its a childhood game and it pains me to see its betrayal. If Destiny counted as halo id put that joint worst. anyway, Best is Halo 2, its kinda hard to choose a best because halo 1 and 3 are definately geat and i had alot of fun in 3's and Reaches multiplayer but Halo 2 wins it because it had the best story, and i loved playing as the Arbiter and we cannot forget all the out of map secrets and stuff like the Scarab gun. Definately fun game.
Worst is: to no ones surprise who has played this series, Halo 5. Its so bad i dont even think the developers even care about it. Story is lackluster, and the new characters are kinda boring. Not to mention that, like Halo 4, to understand half the story and characters you need to read the books. but its worse here as not only that, you need to watch the nightfall movie, all the trailers, all the books, and a multitiude of other stuff. I could go into more detail but ill leave it here since im probably the only one here who even plays the series. and thats not even touching the multiplayer.

Pokemon: So gonna include spin offs with this one, but ill also mention my favourite main series too.Best: Pokemon Mystery dungeon Explroers of Time/Darkness/Sky. You probably all already know how much i love these games so ill just leave it at this. You probably wont ever find a deceptively childish looking game with such an emotional and good plot. and Diamond/pearl/platinum is my fav main series game cos nostalgia, though i guess it would apply to PMD aswell.
Worst: It isnt worst because its bad this time but, Pokemon generation 1 is my least favourite because well, it is really outdated and outclassed by every other Main series game. so yeah.

Zelda: Best: Twilight princess. Its pretty dark, not like majoras mask but still dark. and i think it has the most atmospheric music and design. and honestly i just like going through the game.
Worst: eh probably 1 or 2, i dunno i havent played much of them. dont mean they are bad.


i cant think of a 5th series but meow. good to see you still kicking Wolf Canoe!

EDIT: ohhh trout i completely missed the point of the thread xD well i aint removing everything so screw it.

Best:Final fantasy probably. and Worst uhhh i guess Zelda but its not really worst i just have more connection to the rest. sorry for the mix up >{_>

EDit2: nevermind i did the thread right, im so goofy but i i aint gonna remove any of this cos some weirdo in 60 years will see this and ridicule me in the future.

Wait, best and worst or favorite and least favorite? Because I consider these quite different things. D: Meh, whatever, I'll do both.

Final Fantasy:

Favorite: FF6

FF6 has my favorite collection of mechanics in the series, I like most of the characters, and I like the story. There's also a running theme in the game about 'moving on and getting over the past' with a lot of characters, and I kinda dig that, especially because it isn't really shoved down your throat. Every character in my party would have told me about Cyan having a hard time in at least five conversations by the time I finally enter his dream in a modern title.

Best: FF4

It's been said before, but I find this game kind of best sums up the elements the series is known for: it has a respectable story and characters, classes are unique, locations are memorable, the last boss is cheesy, exploration is rewarded with side quests, the music is great, the summons are cool to watch; it's all there and all done well.

Least Favorite: FF2
Worst : FF2

These two overlap. I don't want to bash on the game because I know some people really like it and it gets enough, perhaps somewhat undue, crap already, but I can't help but think of it as little more than a completely unrealized vision of a great game. Exploration is completely unrewarded when it isn't outright punished, the combat is tedious and poorly balanced (seriously, don't buy armor, trust me.), and the story is . . . fine, but not enough to really redeem the title.


Mega Man

Favorite: Mega Man X2

X2 and X1 are extremely close picks for me, and there are a lot of things I believe X1 does much better, but the stages and bosses in X2 slightly edge out their X1 counterparts for me, especially when it comes to the X-Hunter stages, and assembling Zero or fighting him as a boss is a pretty awesome twist when you are kid playing through for the first time. I'm also one of the weird guys that likes to buster kill all of the bosses and the fights, barring the Octopus, I find a lot better in the second title, especially if you are avoiding upgrades.

Best: Mega Man X

That said, I'm fully up to calling X1 the actual better game. The dynamic stage changes based on the bosses you've beaten is one of the coolest ideas in the franchise, and the upgraded attacks in the first game are waaaaaaaay better than in the second. Its opening stage is also arguably the most iconic on the SNES, and its bosses are much more visually appealing than in the second game.

Least Favorite: Mega Man 5

So, the other three picks here are all X games, and I actually absolutely hate the next title, but there's some sick joy to be had in reaffirming your hatred -- MM5 is just boring and uninspired without ever quite managing offensive, and I . . . never want to play it. Ever. The weapons suck, the bosses suck, the stages aren't fun or interesting (and I include Gravity Man here, that stage is lame. Fight me.), and what the hell happened to Rush? At least the music is good, but that's all the game really has to offer. Bleh.

Worst: Mega Man X7

Tupac once said, "revenge is the sweetest joy next to watching someone play MMX7", and he didn't lie. This game is a hot mess without a single non-damning quality I can think of, from the camera to X moping and being unplayable for the first half of the damn game, to irritating maps and bosses. Let someone else suffer through it, then you can enjoy it, but don't touch it yourself. Oh, music is fine too. You can touch that. Probably won't die.


Street Fighter

Favorite: Street Fighter Alpha 3

I love the graphical style of the Alpha series in general, and the character and mechanical options in A3 are the best of the subseries. There is a ton of depth in the game, and you can get craaaaaaazy good at this title once you fully understand V-Ism and when to pop it for those I-frames. The only thing I really dislike is the severe nerfing Alpha Counters took from A2, to the point you shouldn't ever use them A3, as you lose both guard AND super meter for them as I recall, and you can never actually GET anything out of them. For bonus fun, the console releases also included this awesome world tour mode where you could power up your characters and change up their mechanics and stats, which was a total blast.

Best: Hyper Street Fighter 2

I honestly think Capcom somehow got it right with their second outing, simple as it may be mechanically from where they've gotten the series now, and Hyper is what I consider the best release of SF2 if only for purists getting to enjoy their favorite versions of each character. Unless they are playing release Guile, then you kick them off of the couch.

Least Favorite: Street Fighter Alpha

For as much as I love Alpha 2 and 3, the original just feels wrong. It's roster is unimpressive, it runs fine but feels slow, if that makes sense at all. I dunno, I just . . . do not like it.

Worst: Street Fighter EX3

I haven't played EX1 or 2, they may be worse, but EX3 has aged extremely unwell, and there isn't anything about it that feels good; it's kind of the joke entry I force people to play sometimes and no one enjoys the Darun bombs. That said, unlike X7 where I force people to play it for my sadistic glee, I actually kind of like this game. < .<

Warcraft

Favorite: Warcraft II

YOUR SOUND CARD IS WORKING PERFECTLY! Seriously, IT DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS. I played this game waaaaaaaaay too much as a kid and I've got a kind of lingering love for it, but that isn't to say all of what I love about the game is nostalgia. I want to say this was the last Blizzard game with roughly symmetrical factions, where you are fundamentally the same but what really matters are the spells you unlock, and it works out in a surprising way in WC2, because both sides end up EXTREMELY strong at different points in the game. Most notably, Ogre Mages drop Bloodlust relatively early, and the orcs are complete terrors once that happens, but the Wizards hit Polymorph and Blizzard later on negate huge amount of resources with the damage those spells do. It's great having to push an advantage when you have it, you know? WC3 is also a completely wonderful title, don't get me wrong, but Hero's massively changed up the multiplayer dynamic and I don't feel it was any form of positive change -- I actually liked them more in Dark Portal where they were just buffed up versions of normal units.

Best: World of Warcraft

I mean . . . it's hard to argue. Just the scale of lore expansion the game did outdoes everything WC 1-3 really accomplished, and it remains at least as engaging an experience. I really have nothing bad to say about the game. . .


Least Favorite: World of Warcraft

Other than that I completely resent everything about it and blame its success for my not getting my Warcraft 4. >: I But no, seriously, WoW is kind of the natural end result of the direction the series was going, and I don't honestly fault it for that, but it also isn't the kind of game I enjoy playing, and I've missed out on quiiiiite a lot lore because of that.

Worse: Warcraft

That said, I am under no illusions here; WC1 is the worst entry in the series, and to hell with those $!**@#$ Water Elementals. The game feels really slow, its missions aren't particularly interesting, and nothing about the game shines at all once you've touched later entries. It's the first step, annnnnnd, really, credit to Blizzard for ever subsequent one being such improvements over it.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Favorite: Sonic 2

First game I owned, still probably my favorite overall -- it has fantastic music, solid stage designs, a great difficulty curve for its target demographic, colorful graphics, pretty much everything one would want in a speed based platformer.

Best: Sonic Mania

Before Mania released I'd have been torn between S2 and SCD, but Mania is just better than the other two. The remixed stages are a complete treat for anyone familiar with the series, and even one wasn't they stand at least as well on their own as the originals ever did. There's more humor to the game as well, physics feel perfect, the special stages are . . . well, I like the original Sonic's the most, but they are probably the best in Mania. More characters came out too, so you get more varied mechanics to explore the game with than in S2 or CD. It's simply what I consider the all around best entry.

Least Favorite: Sonic 2 (8-bit)

I . . . do not enjoy this game AT ALL, even on the Master System where you can actually see things. The levels are more annoying than anything else, I hate the bosses, finding the emerald in Sky High Zone 2 is orfgij3oiwrhjgklsdgj, just, uh, nothing good to say about this title.

Worst: Sonic '06

I've barely played the game, but from what I did play I was extremely annoyed. It might get better, but, its reputation leads me to believe otherwise.

Used to be Final Fantasy, now it's Persona. Suikoden was a contender but never quite got there because it's best game was still during the heyday of FF and it disappeared not long after FF got bad. You want 5 though? Um......Chrono and.... I don't know.

Tales? I really consider them pretty mediocre but fun. BoF? I really did like the BoF series, but top 5...I dunno. Mana? Secret of Mana is up there for me, but can I consider it a top 5 series when that's the only entry I really like? Wild Arms? I quite liked the first one, but... Ace Attorney? First non-RPG suggestion that comes to mind...I do quite enjoy them, but I don't know if it's THAT much, especially since the replay value is pretty low. Ditto for Zero Escape. Yoshi's Island? Well, I consider the first game to be the best pure platform game of all time, but as a series it's a bit redundant and declining in quality. I still enjoy them, but probably not enough to rank it as number 5 on my top 5 series. Zelda? Not for me, sorry. The original is possibly my favorite NES game, but Link to the Past, despite being arguably the best in the series, is only middling among SNES games. I hated Ocarina, didn't bother with most of the others, loved Breath of the Wild, but it's not quite enough to make the list. Xenogears? Isn't a series...and my hatred of Xenosaga is more than enough to cancel out any love for the Gears if I were to consider those. Dragon Quest? Just the fact that it took me this long to consider it despite currently playing DQXI is reason enough for me to realize it's not. Mega Man? It's a fun classic, but no. I'm always going to choose RPGs over that sort of game.

Okay, I'm just going to choose Breath of Fire.
Best in the series: BoFIII - I've already given my reasons in the poll on this. Best dragon transformations, best story. Possibly, best gameplay, although 4 has some additions that are kind of nice.
Worst: BoFVI - I haven't played this, but give me a break, it's manifest.

Chrono -
Best: Chrono Trigger. Obviously, this game is so eminently playable. Even without the extra endings and everything, the OG "New Game +" gave this game insane replay value and it's just a delight to play throughout.
Worst: Chrono Cross - I don't have the hatred for CC that some have, but there are a couple thing holding it back, and they aren't the complaints a lot of CT fans have. One was the gameplay. Although not terrible, the overly complex level structure for the techniques weighs this game down and pales in comparison to the charming simplicity of CT. The second was just how much of this game is devoted to fluff mandatory side quest nonsense. The main plot is great, IMO. It's just a shame how little of the game is actually directed to it.
Not counted: Radical Dreamers - This might be the worst, but I don't know it and I'm not counting it.

Suikoden -
Best: Suikoden II - This game has it all. Solid, simple classic RPG gameplay mechanics with great Suikoden series gimmicks like combos, parties of 6 with multiple rows. A large, diverse cast with much to see from the various members in the form of investigations and other interactions and a core cast that is among the best of any RPG. The story is engaging and emotional throughout. Absolutely, the best.
Worst: Suikoden IV - This game is utter nonsense and a shame on the series. It wouldn't even count as a mediocre RPG if it were separate from the series. The characters are dull, lifeless and uninteresting. The plot is meaningless drivel. They couldn't even get the gameplay right when all they would have had to do is copy the mechanics from earlier games in the series.

Persona - Best????? I don't know! I vacillate between Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5 constantly! They each have their own charm, advantages, and disadvantages, and I adore each one. That said, if I must make a choice, it is Persona 5. While Persona 5 definitely has the drawback of being too easy, it seems to have perfected the format that was started in Persona 3. Now each Social Link is worked into the gameplay even more by adding skills in addition to the fusion bonuses. The story is fantastic, as it is with all 3 of them.
Worst: Revelations: Persona - This game isn't exactly bad..... except, you know, for the game part. I've never finished it and the reason is largely because the system is just an awful grind. To make new Personas you need persona cards. To get persona cards you have to have conversations with demons. The number of cards you need to make a single persona is often quite large. This necessitates having the same conversations over and over again. The experience is..... awful.

Final Fantasy- This is my original favorite series. I don't think much of the series or games released for it for over a decade, but the earlier games from the SNES to the beginning of the PS2 era remain among my favorite games and include my favorite of all time.
Best: Final Fantasy VII - I've changed my mind on my favorite entry in the series at various points, but I've always come back around to FFVII. It has staying power. While my love of FFIV is largely powered by pure nostalgia, this game really took the series to new heights at the beginning of the 32 bit era just as FFIV did in the SNES era. As much as people like to knock the blocky characters, the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds easily beat anything we would later see in the PS2 era and still beat a lot of the real time rendered visuals we see today. I always lament Square's abandoning this style with FFX and beyond. Just because they didn't "need" them anymore, doesn't mean they shouldn't use them. The story was great. Although kind of jumbled by the bad translation, it was still an amazing ride working through Sephiroth and Jenova's deception and Cloud's own distortions to get to the truth. Aeris death was one of the most moving emotional events I've experienced in a game. There were deaths in Final Fantasy games I'd played before, but this one was truly shocking to the point I couldn't believe it. Sephiroth is just the consummate bad ass villain. The whole game is so atmospheric, it's just a joy to traverse the world.

Worst: Final Fantasy II - Who put Saga in my Final Fantasy? No, this isn't the happy marriage of a Reese's peanut butter cup. I'm pissed. This gameplay/level up system doesn't even deserve to exist and it certainly has no place in my beloved series.
Okay. That almost seems like a cheap shot though, because Final Fantasy II was so early in the series I can maybe give it a pass.

Therefore, while FFII might be the absolute worst, when grading on a curve, my true worst is:
Final Fantasy XII - Okay, now you have no excuse Square. This is such a marked decline in character and storytelling from previous entries in the series that it's inexcusable. The characters are flat, one note, bland garbage and most of them don't seem to have any business being there or any real connection to the plot. In fact, why are we even following these characters at all? Any actual plot the game has seems to be going on offscreen away from the characters. But thanks for lifelessly telling us about it in text, I guess. So when you finally come to the end boss and he's blabbering on about gods and his motivation it's completely unearned. You don't know this guy. The game barely shows you trout about him and this is the first time he's breathed any word about wanting to fight gods or whatever. It's utter rubbish. It's like someone just wrote down a cliche plot idea on a storyboard and then instead of actually fleshing that out into a narrative, they just decided to have the character shout the cliche at the end and said "that's good enough." Seriously, F you for the lack of effort on this. Then there's the gameplay. I really hate the gambit system for various reasons, but I just don't have the energy, because the storytelling on this is such trash, it sucked the life out of me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lord Golbez

Worst: Suikoden IV - This game is utter nonsense and a shame on the series.

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Not listing FF since I think I’ve done enough talking about it on here (in short: all y’all XII haters need Jesus). So here’s five more

Dragon Quest
Worst: DQII - I still like it, but it’s not simple enough anymore to be a fun little diversion and not complex enough to be really compelling. Still cool world map exploration though

Best: DQVIII - I still think the reverence people have for this game is much (though now XI is taking its place in that regard), but I love it for its cast, plot, and world map. Antagonist is very memorable too.

Kingdom Hearts
Worst: re:coded - easy one. It’s the one KH game that really contributes nothing meaningful to the plot. It’s also very clunky to play. After how well Days played on the DS, you’d think they’d do a better job. The character progression thing was very neat though

Best: Chain of Memories - adore the card battle system, plot is tightly woven and incredibly gripping, with some of the strongest character moments in the series. And then there’s Riku’s storyline too *melts*

The Witcher
Worst: Witcher 2 - while not a bad game, it feels the most generic fantasy of the three, losing a lot of its local flavor. The branching paths feel more like they’re both necessary to understand the plot, rather than being legitimately different outcomes, plus the areas are very linear. Also, Geralt is incredibly dickish in this game for some reason.

Best: Witcher 3 - most faithful to the books with tons of cool Easter eggs, while still being very gripping on its own. While the main plot is nothing special, it’s the moments along the way, mostly character related, that makes the experience truly special. Also, sidequests so we’ll written and memorable that you forget they're sidequests? Yes, please.

Persona
Worst: Persona 1 - while my feelings about the game have mellowed out a bit and I’ve managed to beat both the regular story and the Snow Queen Quest, this is still by far the clunkiest megaten game I’ve ever played. If SMT1, a game from the SNES era, has aged better than you, you know you’ve got problems.

Best: Persona 3 - another game I’ve already talked about at length. Persona 3 is a masterclass in integrating themes to both story and gameplay. Still one of the most important works of fiction for me in my formative years.


Shin Megami Tensei
Worst: Devil Survivor - the SRPG battles are ok, though the difficulty curve is all over the place. Absolute worst cast of characters I’ve ever had to endure.

Best: Strange Journey - idk there’s just something incredibly haunting about diving balls deep into the Schwarzwelt with nothing but a demonica protecting you from the envioent. The cast is also super memorable, and I love how the gameplay is an homage to the series’ roots

How can witcher 2 be the worst it has that awesome intro with the castle siege.



Ok I dunno anything else about it

Thankfully you said "five of your favorite franchises", not "your five favorite franchises". That makes this a bit easier :p

(Although it won't be one of my 5 listed here, I'd like to note that I think The Witcher 1 is the worst of the series, not 2 ;) )

Legend of Heroes
Although the specific part that makes this my favorite franchise is the Trails sub-series, it's still part of the Legend of Heroes series as a whole, so eh.
Also note I'm not counting Zero/Ao no Kiseki here (Trails of Zero/Trails of Blue) because I'm only halfway through Zero and haven't played Ao, since they're not localized and i have to play with a translation sheet on my monitor for the dialogue. :p

Best: This one's actually really hard because both Trails of Cold Steel 2 and Trails in the Sky SC are damn amazing games. I'm giving this one to Sky SC because in the end it felt a little more satisfying.

Worst: A Tear of Vermillion (Legend of Heroes 4). Granted I haven't played Legend of Heroes 1 and 2, but out of the 3-4-5 trilogy (which as a whole doesn't come close to the Trails entries) this one was the weakest.
Alternatively, if I'm sticking to just Trails, the worst would be Trails in the Sky 3rd. Still a great game, but being a dungeon crawler that serves as kind of a bridge to the other Trails arcs, it's just not up there with the rest.

Kingdom Hearts

Best: Birth By Sleep. My favorite gameplay in the series and the plot is tragic in a good way.

Worst: Agreed with Fynn here, Coded/Re:coded. Almost nothing of value here.

Yakuza
Note: I'm not counting the original Yakuza 1 and 2 here, as I've only played the remakes, Kiwami and Kiwami 2.

Best: Yakuza 0. Although I prefer the gameplay in Kiwami 2, the story, characters and music in 0 put it ahead.

Worst: Yakuza 3. Still not a bad game, just the most outdated (again, not counting 1 and 2) and it deals with story angles I care less about.

Assassin's Creed
I know plenty of people dislike the "constant milking" of this series, but I enjoy each and every entry they put out, even if it's only been a year since the last, so.

Best: I was going to say Origins here because I'm not even that far into the story of Odyssey yet, but y'know what, it's Odyssey. It does everything Origins does and more. At this point it's pretty much an RPG with action combat, and I'm loving it.

Worst: Assassin's Creed. Yup, the very first one. I could just never get into it, it felt like the game was trying to find its feet the whole time. It found them in the sequel.

Ar Tonelico (and Ar nosurge)
This series has my favorite music in gaming, by the way. Go listen to some of the vocal tracks if you've never heard of it. #shamelessplug

Best: Ar Tonelico 2: Melody of Metafalica. Still one of my favorite games ever. The gameplay's fun, the story and characters are great, overall it's one hell of a game, even with NISA there to botch the localization. (had to put a jab at NISA in here)

Worst: Ar Tonelico 3 (aka Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel, aka The Girl's Song that Pulls the Trigger of World's Demise. I love these titles.) Still a damn good game, acting as a satisfying conclusion to an excellent trilogy. They just went completely overboard with the fanservice in this one and it drags the game down. Music's still amazing.

I'm going to ignore Final Fantasy as I'm sure everyone on this forum knows where I stand on the entries.

The Legend of Zelda

Best: Link to the Past - Easily the best of the top down entries and still my favorite entry overall, LttP is basically the foundation for the series as most of the series mythology debuted in this game such as the origin of the Triforce, Ganon's Origins, the Master Sword, several musical pieces, and the series love of a gimmick for each entry and the Zelda formula that was used for the 25 years in the console entries up until Breath of the Wild. It still has a great collection of dungeons and my favorite Hyrule to bum around in, especially with the Dark World variant.

Worst: Phantom Hourglass - I think the one thing all of the least liked Zelda titles tend to have in common are gimmicky control options. I love the DS, but mapping all of the controls to the touch screen was a terrible idea, especially since in order to remove the frustration factor they caused, Nintendo nerfed the rest of the game. Not helped by having several puzzles and items utilize some of the DS' less successful features and a terrible gimmick of having to return to the same dungeon multiple times to pad out the game, and you have one of the least satisfying slogs in the series. Linebeck is amusing, but he's no Midna and the sailing sections are also overloaded with time wasting nonsense. It's like developers only had enough ideas for half of a Zelda title and filled the rest up with padding. The main villain is also a one note forgettable mess as well. I love Wind Waker, but it's honestly the only good entry in it's timeline.

Metal Gear

Best: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater/Subsistence - Easily the Magnum Opus of the franchise for me, MGS3 took the best aspects of the previous entries and made one of the closest to flawless entries in the series. The toned down narrative after the mindsmurf of MGS2 was much appreciated and the shift to focus on one of the most important figures in the Metal Gear mythos was also a great idea.Stealth was opened up with new mechanics like the Camo and CQC options, the survival aspect with food was charming, the medical stuff... is probably one of the only really awkward elements of the gameplay. Still has some of the best boss battles in the series with many of them having multiple methods to take out giving players options to just duke it out or treat them like a puzzle boss if they want. Not to mention MGS3 has one of the best endings in the series period.

Worst: Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - I was debating between MGS4, the original MG1, or Portable OPS for this but ultimately came to MGS4 cause it's the one that left me feeling the most bitter. MG1 is just a game experimenting with a new concept and the growing pains that involves. Portable OPS lacks the insightful and thematic storytelling of Kojima but had enough good ideas for Kojima to take and put into Peace Walker, but MGS4 is just kind of a mess. The new mechanics range from pointless like the new throwing mechanics or rolling stuff to just poorly balanced like camo, the gun shop, and the new third person shooter mechanics which all undermine the series staple stealth mechanics. The plot brings us back kicking and screaming to some of the series more self-indulgent plot points and lots of moments in the game seem to exist purely for dramatic effect, like Kojima was trying to make a video game equivalent of an Oscar Bait title. It plays character assassination on several people within the series and resolves several plot points that didn't need to be resolved; largely killing off any imagination the series had with one of the most infamous and parodied hand waves in video games: Nanomachines. The gameplay is a mess, the plot is unsatisfying and overly-melodramatic in a series that already had a bad habit of crossing the line of good taste, and I feel it says something that Kojima chose to set the rest of the series into Big Boss' time cause he didn't want to build on this mess of a game.

Shin Megami Tensei

Best: Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne/Lucifer's Call - I love this game, Nocturne is a great entry that really pushes the player to learn its ends ins and outs, while having one of the more morally ambiguous stories in the franchise history. It has easily one of the coolest settings in the franchise in both visual and just concept, while also giving the world the best turn based battle system ever conceived, the Press Turn System. Of all the other MegaTen titles I've played, I still feel Nocturne has the best gameplay with more interesting boss battles and one of the most in-depth monster fusion mechanics in the series. The game set the tone for the MegaTen Renaissance on the PS2 which accumulated into the reboot of Persona.

Worst: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - This is a really weird example because outside of a few weird ideas here and there like the removal of the compendium and the introduction of the auction house to acquire demons; DS is for the most part a really fun game if you're only here for the combat mechanics. The Press Turn system translates really well into a Tactical RPG. What drags this game down is the muddled plot and the abysmal cast of characters trying to sell it to you. The game tries too hard to give the fans a Persona style cast, while giving us the open-ended morally ambiguous plot of a mainline MegaTen title and it just doesn't really work. The open ended nature of the plot hurts the characterization and the overly emotional cast of characters detracts from the plots philosophical musing. Most of the characters are just plain unlikable and the few really good characters remain in the background until the very end when you lock yourself into one of the alignment endings. This is one of the rare games where every time the option came up where I could remove a party member by either getting them killed or having them leave me in disgust, I took. That's what is annoying about the game. It's a fun game, if you ignore the story, but that's kind of difficult to do.

Mega Man

Best: Mega Man 2 - One of the most highly praised entries of the franchise, MM2 was a massive step up from the original MM1, and set a bar that all the sequels did their best to surpass. I still stand by MM2 having the best Robot Masters, Weapons, and soundtrack in the series. So many level design elements have been re-used or referenced by this game that even series like MMX and MMZ are still paying lip service to this masterpiece. It's still my all time favorite among the franchise.

Worst: Mega Man 6 - To be fair, MM6 is not a bad game, this isn't like the MMX series where MMX7 is just an abomination that ruins every aspect of the series, no MM6 is just a lazy game. The bosses feel phoned in, the plot is recycled but not in the fun and and tongue-in-cheek- way that MM9 and 10 do it, and even the level design is a bit too recycled as well. MMX had finally taken off and it was apparent that Capcom had kind of squeezed the last bit of blood out of this stone that was the original series. My biggest case in point about how recycled this game is comes from the fact that there are playthroughs that fans do where they play MM4-6 simultaneously because the level design/enemy placements are that similar. Thankfully, this phoned in sequel combined with MMX's success made the development team take the development of MM7 much more seriously, and that game is an underappreciated gem among the franchise.

Suikoden

Best: Suikoden II - Considered to the magnum opus of the franchise, SII was a huge step up from it's predecessor in every way. Better story, more gameplay options, a more unique castle system, and more creative ways to recruit allies. The game may lack the sheer creativity of other JRPG franchise of the PlayStation era but it always made up for it by doing it's elements well. It still has one of the most satisfying endings in the series and I love all the callbacks to the first entry. It also has one of the best Old Save File Bonuses in the series.

Worst: Suikoden Tactics - This game has a lot in common with Devil Survivor on this list, the most glaring problem this game has is being a pretty neat game burdened with some counter-intuitive design decisions and a bad plot. ST is a side story connected to SIV. It starts about six years before the events of Suikoden IV, and after a time skip, picks up a few years after the events of that game. In terms of gameplay, ST is a vast improvement over SIV, bringing back several elements from earlier games such as a huge variety of unique runes to customize characters, the ability to have animal mounts, and SIII's skill system for further customization. It merges this with a cool element system where using elemental skills will leave an elemental residue on the battle field which will boost a characters stats if they share that elemental affinity or reduce their stats if it's the opposite of their elemental affinity. This makes controlling the elemental field often more important than skills or character equips. The game allows several units to be played at once which gives purpose to the large recruitable cast, and like the Press Turn system, a lot of Suikoden's basic game mechanics like unite attacks and rune customization translates really well into a Tactical RPG. So where does this game go wrong? There are about two really bad gameplay decisions in this game:

1. Characters are divided into three types of units: Melee, Mage, and Unique. Unique are usually non-combat support units, with the exception of the ability to recruit the MC from SIV on your team if you have a SIV save bonus. He is only a Unique unit because he functions in the game as a combo Melee/Mage unit with his True Rune. The issue with the divide of the Melee and Mage units is that they are restricted to using runes of their type. In the main series, as long as the character has some affinity with an element rune, they can use it and be both a fighter and spell caster, but in ST, melee units are restricted to using weapon runes and can't use casting runes while Mage units are the only ones capable of using spell runes. This can be super annoying because it greatly reduces the customization options of the melee classes. This is especially bad with the 1h Sword user units of which SIV has a disproportionate amount compared to other entries in the series with the exception of the first game. Their weapon rune absolutely sucks and in the main series, you would often given them a spell rune to give them variety, but here, they're restricted to just their weapons rune or an elemental weapon rune, which makes them all painfully similar. Like the main series, you can't change their weapons and their stat growth is really similar, so you basically wind up with twenty characters who are interchangeable outside of the slim possibility they either have a Unite Attack or are one of the units with Mount abilities.

2: Unbalanced Perma-Death. I am not against the idea of perma-death for a unit in game. It can be frustrating for sure, but ST is just stupid with it, which is the main problem. Basically the issue here is that perma-death is unique to recruited members, storyline characters and a few special characters are completely immune from perma-death. So then why would you bother using any of the recruited characters when you generally have enough storyline characters to field in battle? Well you don't. So this largely hurts the whole "collect them all" aspect of the game, especially when you combine this problem with the above issue I mentioned and the fact most of the characters who can't be killed are some of the games best characters. There is a skill you can teach these units to reduce the likelihood they'll be permanently killed in battle, but in addition to not being a sure thing, it also forces you make 80% of the playable cast use up a skill slot that storyline characters don't have to worry about, adding to those characters an even greater edge in being used in battle over the other cast members. It's just so stupid.

The other major problem with ST is the story, which also suffers from being potentially awesome until the game screws it over by going in another direction. I'll say right now that most of the original story characters in ST are not as strong as the ones from other Suikoden games, returning cast members from SIV are actually better developed and get even more development in this game as long as they factor into the main story. Kyril is easily my least favorite protagonist in the mains series, which is hilarious when you realize that he's one of the few MC's that isn't a silent hero. Not helping is that Konami was too lazy to hire a second VA to play his adult form, and so he always sounds like a ten year old since his VA is played by a woman who often does great kid characters. The pre-SIV section of the game is pretty neat because it fills in a lot of backstory for SIV, making that game seem more interesting in comparison and largely involves the criminally underutilized pirate characters. If you loved Kika and her cronies in SIV, the early plot of ST is for you.

The main plot has two angles going for it, one story involves Kyril and his entourages goal to discover the truth behind the Rune Cannons used a lot in SIV. This was a plot detail that had a lot of foreshawdoing in the main game, but here the truth turns out to be kind of ridiculous. Basically the Rune Cannons are made from beings summoned from another dimension. Powered by a forsaken child indeed, but what makes them dangerous is that improper use of the parts can cause people to turn into mindless fish monsters, which adds a bit of fridge horror to SIV when you remember how common these monsters are. This all gets told to you in the first chapters after the time skip and pretty much doesn't go anywhere. The second plot involves the background of the Kooluk Empire, the main antagonists of SIV and their political drama. This is actually really interesting but the game refuses to dwell on it. You get bits and pieces of it, but instead spend most of the game chasing after an arms dealer who has all these Rune Cannons he's using to conquer the empire by turning all the important people into fish people. Like Suikoden IV itself, there is a great plot hidden in this game, but the game just doens't know how to handle it and largely does nothing with it. Like SIV, it feels like a great story was here and then 80% of it got edited out in order for the game to meet some deadline. The entire ending sequence is kind of anti-climatic and focuses on some of the worst aspects of the story as well.

TL/DR: Suikoden Tactics had the potential to be a smurfing great game, until some idiots on the development team smurfed it all up.