Sometimes, wrapping a trilogy leaves developers without a clear path forward – and sometimes, their follow-ups are weird outliers that are quickly forgotten once the series either fades away or finds its footing again. A certain 10-year anniversary this week sent us down a rabbit hole of these games, and once we’re done talking about them, we’ll get deeper into Wo Long, explore Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania, talk about Capcom Spotlight, and hear about the games you’d improve by adding pro-wrestling moves.
Question of the Week: What’s your favorite “forgotten” game in a long-running franchise?
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Qotw: My favorite forgotten game is from the Dead Rising series. After the lukewarm reception to Dead Rising 2s new protagonist, Capcom made a new version Called “Dead Rising 2: Off the Record” where you played through a new version of the story with Frank West as the main character. It was the same setting with a new area, a lot of new combo weapons, and photography added and I think it’s closer to what a lot of people wanted out of a sequel. This game seems mostly forgotten now since Dead Rising 3 pretended that Off the Record never happened.
QOTW, video response
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR7d2PPv/
QotW: for me it’s Assassin’s Creed 3. Yeah the Revolutionary war one. And it kind of deserves to be forgotten sandwiched Between Ezio’s trilogy and the truly excellent Black Flag. However, for me nothing will beat playing the soundtrack from Last of the Mohicans and hunting red coats through the snow covered woods and beating them over the head with that crazy blue axe from the movie. Loved that. also as a history nerd, it’s always fun to interact with parodies of historical figures.
QOTW: Your mention of Lost Planet brought to mind my favorite entry in the franchise: its Japan exclusive spin-off E.X. Troopers. While the game maintained the general sci-fi winterscape of Lost Planet, it added a candy-colored manga/anime aesthetic that was the exact antithesis of any other game in the series. The gameplay was fairly typical of Lost Planet, but the bright visuals, bumping soundtrack, variety of unlockable characters and weapons, and challenging multiplayer modes kept me engaged despite not understanding any Japanese. It is one of the few Platinum trophies that I have ever obtained and was my favorite game of 2012. The game got an unofficial English translation not too long ago, so consider giving it a look.