The video game industry has a wide variety of successful franchises across a wide range of genres. One of the most popular of these are genres is therole-playing gamecommunity. There have beencountless successful titlesthat have found themselves in this category with players falling in love with manyRPG franchises.
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Although these franchises have done well, unfortunately they haven’t been able to repeat this success with their sequels as any second or third title was rated lower on the site ofMetacritic. This isn’t to say that these franchises didn’t continue to perform well, but they officiallypeaked with their audience in the first game.
5Golden Sun
Debutingon the Game Boy Advance, this classic RPG title namedGolden Sunsent players on the typical adventure to stop evil from slowly spreading across the world. Although players may say this story sounds simple, those that played the original on the handheld console praised Golden Sun for how incredibly in-depth the story was.
The whimsical history of the world that this amazing story was set in continued in other titles both released for the Game Boy namedGolden Sun: The Lost Ageand its final title ofDark Dawnon the Nintendo DS. Both of these titles ultimatelydid well in both salesand rating on Metacritic for having equally an incredible story and gameplay mechanics. In the end it wasn’t enough to usurp their predecessor of its place as the best in the franchise.
4Dragon Age: Origins
In the origins of theDragon Agefranchise is a game that many players across a variety of platforms adored. One of the features players were most fond of is the chance to pick not only from several races but also backgrounds that altered the beginning story. This only improved upon the already impressive main quest and characters available.
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WhileDragon Agecontinued to be a successfulfranchise it stepped away from how in-depth the background selection mattered on the story of the game, this meant that many of its later sequels, although loved, did not beatDragon Age: Originsin its rating. Fans of the franchise of that the next titleDragon Age: Dreadwolfwill return to its roots with the backstory of the player’s customized character having more of an impact on the story.
3Xenoblade Chronicles
Xenoblade Chroniclesis praised for many things including its humorous dialogue and imaginative world. When this title released on the Nintendo Wii it receiveda successful cult followingof those that looked forward to additional releases. Thankfully, Nintendo did supply these sequels for those that enjoyed theXenobladefranchise with a total of six games supplied over the years and a definitive edition of the original.
However, even with all these games provided for its fans, the originalXenoblade Chroniclesremains the most loved from the series. While the franchise may have peaked with its first title this doesn’t mean the others did poorly as the most recent game calledXenoblade Chronicles 3that released on the Switch still earned itself an impressive 89 on Metacritic.
2Paper Mario
While the original Mario Bros may not rate the highest out of the main series of games, thisclassic of the N64is still crowned the bestPaper Marioto date. Since releasing in 2001, Paper Mario has had countless other sequels created for it, but all have been unable to touch its brilliance. This spin-off series was something that was deemed creative at the time of it being published, this may partly be the reason many of the otherPaper Marioshaven’t been able to surpass it.
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Once again the sequels have managed to still score highly on Metacritic with the most recentPaper Mario: The Origami Kingscoring a confident 80, this however doesn’t compete with the classics of the franchise though all titles have been praised for their adorable art style and introduction of an all-new roster of characters to enjoy.
1Diablo
Diablotranscends the key aspects of what makes a great role-playing game according to fans of the franchise. When itfirst released in 1996it amazed its players with not only its gameplay but also the world-building that had been developed to create an experience that went further than crawling through dungeons. Unlike other RPGs at the time of its release the combat and other gameplay was mentioned to be easily approachable for all those that were new to the genre making it a great beginner game.
While allowing the players to get as close to experiencing Hell as possibleDiablocontinues to be a great example ofwhat an action RPG should be. This in itself is quite funny as even Blizzard themselves have not been able to improve upon its gameplay even when expanding the genre to online play such asDiablo Immortals. However, there is promise of it being beaten byDiablo 4that many fans are looking forward to the release of.
