Franchises that actually ended when they should have?

So since it seems there is no room for Hideo at Konami anymore, and Konami seems to want to continue making Metal Gear, Mortal Kombat X is releasing soon and Final Fantasy XV is a thing, I've been wondering if any franchise (meaning more than one entry) actually just sort of stopped at a point where it should have storywise and not because of declining sales or other factors.

Also, what are some franchises that should have stopped?

Personally, I have a hard time thinking of one that stopped and felt like it did not need more. Maybe Jak & Daxter? Bioshock Infinite feels like a good place to stop with BioShock, but then I was against the idea of a Bioshock 2. Zone of the Enders 2 wrapped everything up well, but I'd still like a third one.

As for ones that really should have ended, MGS didn't need more after 4, I feel, but perhaps TPP will do something interesting, at least gameplay wise. Also, those two franchises that abbreviate to GoW should have stopped after 3.

Um... Advance Wars? The Mother series. Nintendo has done well in this regard, despite its reputation for pumping out Mario games. (Fun trivia - Mario pales in comparison to Final Fantasy, which is the all time biggest franchise by number of games that include the name in the title.)

There's always people who will get mad if more games are not made, and other people who eventually get upset that more games get made and their original love has been 'diluted' or something. I can see arguments for both. I wouldn't mind more Metal Gear Solid games at this point, especially if they grow on the formula of the upcoming MGS5, but I can also see why others would be over it. Same for something like Mass Effect. More games could be great, but more games could also turn the franchise into something like Police Academy.

I think we can all agree that Final Fantasy is the ultimate irony in naming conventions, though.

God of War 3 - I actually really liked Ascension but it wasn't necessary and understand peoples complaints about it existing in the first place. I still think they should select a new mythology and God of War and start a new trilogy with that.

Gears of War 3 - Perfect, stop right there

Bioshock: Infinite - That game wraps pretty much everything up. Leave it there and don't touch it, don't ruin something that's perfect.

The Walking Dead (Telltale) - Haven't touched season 2, but that certainly seemed to come and go. They should've just stopped after season 1 OR at the very least just did a whole new story with new characters. I'm still bummed that they just brought Clementine back and continued that story.

Franchises that should have stopped but kept going.

God of War

Gears of War

Halo

Metal Gear Solid (I would say after 4, but it needs to absoultly be done after 5)

I don't understand the people who think a franchise such as Final Fantasy should end becuase none of the core FF games are connected with each other and are it's own thing.

@cozmicaztaway: @oscar__explosion: I definitely think that MGSV covers an area of the story that was always very hazy in the MGS-verse. Previously the area of the saga covered by Peace Walker and MGSV was understood as "Big Boss going around the world doing mercenary stuff for a few decades." Like, what exactly? How did he go from Big Boss MGS3, to Big Boss MG1? I think that's important to go into detail about. However I agree that anything other than a remake of MG1/2 is going overboard. Like the people who want a game featuring The Boss as the protagonist--that's too much and unnecessary.

Anyways, I don't think that there are many series where the majority of people have decided that it ended when it was supposed to. People usually either think that it went on too long, or came up short. I would maybe say TimeSplitters ended when it was supposed to. But That series was mainly about the multiplayer and arcade modes, not the story. They could have done more with it if TimeSplitters 4 ever saw the light of day.

The FFXIII series went on too long, despite the subsequent gameplay improvements. XIII-2 was fun, but the story got weird and felt plastered-on to the end of XIII.

Killzone definitely has gone on to long. I thought maybe Shadow Fall would make up for KZ3, but not very apparently.

Maybe some would say that Halo has gone on to long? But I'm hesitant to say that when a series also has a serious base for multiplayer. Would people buy a numbered Halo game that had no substantial single player story?

@howardee: I was kinda thinking that might be in the "Should perhaps have continued" bit, but I never played it so I don't know.

Yeah, I was just thinking about long-running franchises I guess. But like Brad seems to say a lot, at this point what even is a Final Fantasy game anymore? At least story-wise it's not a "ok, you know what, we don't need more of this" kind of deal like the other games you mentioned, I think.

@viking_funeral: I feel like Zelda is in sort of a weird place yet not. Since there's no "real" overarching story between games it sort of gets away with it. In other Nintendo news, maybe someone knows how Golden Sun sort of ended? The first 2 games were sort of a prequel to the third if I understand correctly, but is it sort of wrapped up now?

Oh, and also.. err, maybe we don't really need an Uncharted 4, although if it ends up being the last one and finishing the series I guess that's fine.

I feel like almost no series "goes out on top", and ends when it should. I wrote a blog about this years ago. Just about any successful game series gets milked by its publisher until the fans and/or the devs lose interest and it starts tanking in the sales department. So I feel like this only ever works out when the game is a cult hit that was never successful enough for a publisher to push for many sequels, or the dev is weirdly focused on treating their franchises right and doesn't pump out sequels constantly.

The Max Payne franchise actually would've been just right if Max Payne 3 had never come out, because Max Payne 2 actually ended on an incredibly perfect note. I mean, it was bold in its own way of 2K to give the greenlight to whatever guy came up with the fucking weird idea to move the story out of the U.S. and basically make Man on Fire with Max Payne as Denzel Washington, when they could've just made another super safe sequel set in NYC, but Max Payne 3 was just an unnecessary sequel.

I think the Killer7 franchise is exactly as long as it needs to be.

I think the Portal franchise is exactly as long as it needs to be. Everybody clamouring for the next Portal/Half-Life to connect the two storylines is an idiot; they inhabit the same universe and Portal 2 threw in some cheeky nods here and there, but the tones of the two series wouldn't mesh at all and I don't think the gameplay would combine well. Also it's hard to imagine how anything in Portal would have anything to do with the shit happening in the Half-Life storyline, especially when GlaDOS is only really interested in ruling her own little kingdom and the portal gun only works on surfaces coated in a paint made up of crushed up moon rocks, not just any white surface like the first game implied.

Or I guess sometimes devs intentionally sabotage the continuation of the series because they resent the fans even asking for a sequel (Hotline Miami 2) or the devs get all meta and make a game that's about what it's like having to tell the same story over and over (MGS2, Bioshock Infinite), but in the second case the publisher usually doesn't care and just keeps making the series anyway.

No, they definitely wouldn't. Despite the fantastic multiplayer, most people go in for the campaign. I myself would not purchase Halo if it was solely a multiplayer experience. PLus, the universe has so much potential and there are a billion things that haven't been explored yet. Maybe Master Chiefs story should come to an end at one point, and we can but the franchise itself shouldn't end IMO, since another corner of that universe can still be explored.

The Covenant, other Spartans like Fred or Kelly, the Forerunners, the Precursors, etc.

But you might end up with the problem of explaining too much if you do the Forerunners or Precursors or whatever. I think they did that in the novels and eventually you'll end up in some sort of weird Star Wars EU flustercluck where nobody knows anything about anything and half of it might be terrible. But yeah, maybe let Master Chief freaking finally rest?

It's almost impossible to say because any franchise can be brought back. So provided they never make another of these games, they're pretty much the perfect examples.

Red Dead Redemption - You're allowed port this to next gen and PC and that's it Rockstar.

The Last of Us - This game was great. Trying to make another could just sully the franchise if it wasn't as good.

Bully - See Red Dead Redemption.

Regarding Halo - I don't know anyone who would buy a Halo game if there was no campaign in it. Those games have some of the best FPS campaigns.

Well, true, but it still won't detract from the main storyline which I absolutely love. I mean, even if starwars is a clusterfuck, which I wouldn't know since I'm not a star wars fan, thousands of people still adore the original storyline, and I don't think Halo will be any different.

Though the day the John-117's story ends is the day I throw in the towel for Halo. I don't mean that as a bad way, but he is the core reason as to why I love the franchise so much.

I'm on the boat of they shouldn't touch The Last of Us. Just leave it as a one off entity. No sequels or movies adaptations. Just leave it alone and don't try and expand on it. I don't it to be tarnished.

While I think a Red Dead sequel would be fantastic, it would have to be a completely different story, characters, etc.

TLoU- I couldn't agree more.

Bully-See TLoU

I have a firm belief that trying to make any series longer than maybe 3 entries is a bad idea, and that having any sort of expanded universe stuff is an even worse idea. Sequels almost always explain too much, fill out too much of the backstory and leave nothing to the imagination.

So with that in mind, I think I'd mostly say one off games have ended exactly where they should. Most series that go on any longer than one entry, usually go too far. I guess I might actually say Max Payne is the only series that has ended where it should, since all 3 games are pretty great, and I think it's done all it should do at this point.

@somberowl said:

Isn't it like 99% confirmed from sources that a sequel to The Last of Us is in the works at Naughty Dog? I remember Patrick talking like that was almost a fact.

I feel like a sequel to The Last of Us will face the same problems as The Walking Dead Season 2, in that it's almost a betrayal of all the emotions you felt in the first one to turn around and make a sequel, especially when most of the cast that matters is dead or has had their character arc completely finished to the point that they have no business being in a sequel.

Original Spyro.

Socom.

3D Mortal Kombat games.

Brain training DS games.

@bisonhero: I'm holding onto that 1% of hope that they don't do it, but yeah I fully expect them to make a sequel. But until it's up on stage at E3 or something I'm going to list it as being the perfect example of ending a franchise at the right time.

As I said in my other post, any franchise can be brought back. None of them are ever really finished. Army of Two could be relaunched tomorrow.

Oh no please don't make me question if any franchise of games actually has ended at the correct time. (Not considering games which did not get a sequel such as ICO).

Mother has already been mentioned. I guess I'll add the Shadow Hearts franchise. I'm not sure precisely how well those games hold up overall because it's been a while since I've played them, but I remember the formula starting to wear thin by the third game. The last game wasn't bad by any means, but if they didn't have anything radically different up their sleeves to breathe new life into the series, it's probably best it ended when it did.

Games "series" that should have ended after 1 game, but didn't:

• God of War
• The Walking Dead
• Final Fantasy X
• Bioshock

Not that I don't think the sequels are good games (or even better than the original), but the way they wrapped up the world and story after the first game makes the sequels redundant...

Mass Effect.

Baldur's Gate ended perfectly.