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Ranking of Franchises - Personal Favorites

by slag

If you are like me, chances are a good portion of games you like belong to the same franchises. After all if you like one, it stands to reason you'd like more in the same vein. This is a rough ordering of my tastes from best to worst. I must have meaningfully played at least 2 games in the series for inclusion

  • God Tier-My Absolute Favorite Franchises I'll buy anything it releases at launch pretty much
  • Tier 1 - favorite franchises that I'm a bit more rational about, always have a great time with these
  • Tier 2 - Franchises I love, but I don't need to get these right at launch
  • Tier 3 - Franchises I enjoy a lot or ones that that I haven't played enough of to determine whether they belong to tier 2+
  • Tier 4 - Solid franchises, I enjoy these and will squeeze them when I have the time
  • Tier 5 - Franchises I have to be in the right mood to play
  • Tier 6 - These franchises are ok, not necessarily my thing
  • Tier 7- I don't know why I continue to buy these
  • Deponia Tier - I hate these games

Change Log:

  • July 4th 2017- After completing Breath of the Wild, I think Zelda deserves to be No.1 again. Been a very long time since a game made me feel that way. Metroid also shoots up to number 9, jumping two tiers now that I have played Super Metroid. I really should have played the series more before now.
  • November 30th 2020 - Added Yakuza (Tier 2) and Valkyria Chronicles (Tier 3) as I have now played at least 2 games in each. Promoted Castlevania to Tier 4

Showing 1-10 of 92 items

The Legend of Zelda

1. The Legend of Zelda

God Tier- Zelda to me has always represented the most fun exploration in games. In my mind Zelda and Dark Souls and Metroid all scratch similar itches.

Final Fantasy

2. Final Fantasy

God tier- I really wrestled with this one. All of my top 3 has been my favorite at times. Final Fantasy has had at times , since I seem to keep buying systems just to play it. It has the right mix of innovation, gameplay and story for me. Every Final Fantasy is different and that makes it special.

Super Mario Bros.

3. Super Mario Bros.

God Tier- The series that made me a gamer and my original favorite. This series is what defines great gameplay to me

Warcraft

4. Warcraft

Tier 1- I never played WoW believe it or not. RTS Warcraft to me epitomizes the a fascinating tactical feeling of combat. I consider DOTA part of the Warcraft franchise, and that's my favoriet multiplayer game of all time

Mortal Kombat

5. Mortal Kombat

Tier 1- The perfect mix of lore, fighting game action and crazy spectacle. Franchises like Mortal Kombat are why I personally buy into the value of auteurs.

Dragon Quest

6. Dragon Quest

Tier 1- Despite its' age and when I first played DQ, this has only recently moved so high in my eyes. Dragon Quest may be beholden to traditional, but it has incredibly rich production values a ton of heart and believe it or not some of the best stories in games. Very under rated series in the West.

Quest for Glory

7. Quest for Glory

Tier 1- Sadly defunct, but this series was one of the first that really effectively imo combined action and PC adventure game story telling. Hopefully Hero-U will revive this sort of game

Final Fantasy Tactics

8. Final Fantasy Tactics

Tier 1 - This would be God tier if it weren't the direction the series went after the first. I didn't appreciate the kiddie tone the Advance games had. To me this the best in class when it comes to SRPG combat and introduced my love of the genre.

Metroid

9. Metroid

Tier 1- After playing Super Metroid I can safely say it belongs at least this high, probably higher. Metroid is basically everything I love about Mario and Zelda combined together. The attention to detail is incredible. Old rank Tier 3- I really need to dive deeper into this one. I really missed out on this at the time. Probably going to move up tiers quickly once I really dig into it.

Persona

10. Persona

Tier 1- A recent promotion based on Tokyo Mirage Sessions (which I consider basically part of this series in a way). No series in my opinion has handled relationships anything like Persona. And man this series has tons of style.

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