Basically, what games do you think don't live up to their potential as best they could, were let down in some way by budget/time/scope/etc, or sequels that failed to capture the same highs as their predecessor (and explain why, please).
For me there are three series that define this feeling for me: Mass Effect, Jak & Daxter, and Kingdom Hearts, and all roughly for the same reason: squandering the potential and charm of their first installments.
Mass Effect starts as this epic space opera with a rich, lived in universe and ends as a generic space shooter with some decent dialogue when it feels like it. I keep seeing Mass Effect 2 cited as this brilliant sequel that elevated the series but all I got was a collection of sidequests (admittedly with the best party in RPGs) that had little relevance to the main plot brewing.
Jak & Daxter was the swan song of 3D platformers at the time and stands tall as one of the best platformers of the era where they were at their peak. Jak 2 is loathsome and nosedived the series into a shitty edgefest that would make Shadow the Hedgehog blush. It completely threw away the magipunk setting of the first game for a grim and gritty city that was a pain in the ass to navigate with vehicles (that you steal, of course, because this game is all about chasing trends) that controlled like shopping carts.
Kingdom Hearts 1 is legit one of my favourite games of all time and I only first played it with the first HD collection. Everything about that game comes together to form a lovely little cocktail of Disney magic, Final Fantasy crossed with Super Mario 64 gameplay, and an elegantly simple plot that was easy to follow and understand. Every game since then, meanwhile, threw all that away as the series gave way to the worsts of shonen anime, and I only followed for as long as I did mostly because KH1 was as good as it was.
For me there are three series that define this feeling for me: Mass Effect, Jak & Daxter, and Kingdom Hearts, and all roughly for the same reason: squandering the potential and charm of their first installments.
Mass Effect starts as this epic space opera with a rich, lived in universe and ends as a generic space shooter with some decent dialogue when it feels like it. I keep seeing Mass Effect 2 cited as this brilliant sequel that elevated the series but all I got was a collection of sidequests (admittedly with the best party in RPGs) that had little relevance to the main plot brewing.
Jak & Daxter was the swan song of 3D platformers at the time and stands tall as one of the best platformers of the era where they were at their peak. Jak 2 is loathsome and nosedived the series into a shitty edgefest that would make Shadow the Hedgehog blush. It completely threw away the magipunk setting of the first game for a grim and gritty city that was a pain in the ass to navigate with vehicles (that you steal, of course, because this game is all about chasing trends) that controlled like shopping carts.
Kingdom Hearts 1 is legit one of my favourite games of all time and I only first played it with the first HD collection. Everything about that game comes together to form a lovely little cocktail of Disney magic, Final Fantasy crossed with Super Mario 64 gameplay, and an elegantly simple plot that was easy to follow and understand. Every game since then, meanwhile, threw all that away as the series gave way to the worsts of shonen anime, and I only followed for as long as I did mostly because KH1 was as good as it was.