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[DunDunDunpachi]

Would you jump straight into Dishonored 2 while ignoring the first one? Could you start the Uncharted or Gears of War or God of War or Yakuza series (to name a few) somewhere in the middle instead of playing the first entry? Do you feel the unction to play every game in order before moving on to the newest title in a franchise? Are you compelled to continue playing a franchise as long as you continue enjoying each subsequent entry?

I used to play games like this, but now I am skewing toward only picking up one or maybe two favorites out of a full franchise. I will still try to try out several games to see which one is the best fit, but I've abandoned the overarching goal of staying up to date on a series (with a very short list of must-play exceptions).

A personal example would be Nioh. I played and enjoyed the demo/beta for the first game but held off on purchasing it. Then I held off from buying the "complete" edition until the price dropped. Then Nioh 2 got announced and I think I'll skip the first and sink all my time into the second. Another personal example would be the Legend of Zelda series: I've tried all of them but I've only beaten two or three of the games (bounced off the rest).

 

[Husky]

I gotta play from the beginning, just gotta. Everything's played in order.

 

[GymWolf]

Pick and choose, i did that for monster hunter world after a brief horrible experience with mh on psp...
Also yakuza 6 before 2,3,4 and 5 (but after 0 and 1)

 

[Reon]

I guess I don't see a point in playing only the newest entries in a narrative-driven franchise when the older ones are there too and are generally much cheaper and in fully complete packages. I could see skipping entries for a multiplayer game, or for an instance where the older games are just complete pieces of shit. But for something like Gears of Wars, Yakuza, Uncharted... The older ones play great, are fun, significantly cheaper than their newer entries and provide narrative and emotional connection to the characters that you'd otherwise miss out on.

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

It depends if the first iterations were praised or not.

I never played the first Uncharted and I love that franchise. Some franchises like MGS need to be played from the beginning to fully comprehend the overarching narrative.

 

[Zelent]

I have a bad habit of having to start at the beginning, with a couple exceptions:

1. Franchises where game releases are too far apart (ie... games dating back to the NES/Genesis era)
2. Pokemon

 

[struggler_guts]

I used to have to play in order, but life is too busy now I only have time to play the games I reaally want to. So sorry Legend of Zelda 2, I'm gonnah hop on Breath of the Wild.

 

[jshackles]

The franchise rules I live by:
If the game / series has a huge connected story element (Uncharted, Legend of Heroes, Mass Effect, etc) then I'd play them in order.

If the game / series doesn't have connected story arcs (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mario Party, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, etc) then I'd play them in whatever order I like - probably the latest iteration.

 

[Pejo]

I always start at the beginning. It took me a bit to get into the Ys series because of this, since I really hated the bump combat of 1&2. I also have never gotten into the Witcher series because the first one is just an unplayable mess for me. Several friends have recommended I just start with 3, but I can't do it.

 

[EightBit Man]

Preferably, yes. Though there are many examples of series I jumped into through later entries, Thief for example. Sometimes I figured out that a game belonged to a franchise I loved; in that way, Secret of Mana is another example, not having played Final Fantasy Adventure on Game Boy. And sometimes, due to having not aged well to my taste, I outright skip entries of franchises I jumped into. For instance, I jumped into the Elder Scrolls series with Morrowind, and even though Daggerfall was a revolutionary title and critically acclaimed, I just cannot see the appeal of playing the game today.

 

[Celcius]

I prefer to start at the beginning but I jumped into MGS4 without playing any others and really enjoyed it.

 

[Danjin44]

I gotta play from the beginning, just gotta. Everything's played in order.

Same, unless it’s similar to Tales and Final Fantasy which each game its own contain story.

 

[xpresstuning]

That depends on a variety of factors. First and foremost, it depends on how good the game is concerning its worth as a time investment, and that in itself is a bucket of variables (if the genre is appealing to me, if the quality is acceptable, if the game is accessible on the platforms i own). It's entirely possible that the first entry is the best in the series and subsequent entries have degraded in quality, in this case the first one would definitely be worth playing.

I've slowly been playing Dark Souls: Remastered, and it's an incredibly good video game. I haven't completed it yet, but i can say with no doubt that the level design - which apparently is what the fanbase praise as being the best in the entire series - is brilliant. I do not recommend skipping this and jumping straight to Dark Souls 3. I would have started with Demon's Souls, but i have no access to the platform it's on. Regardless, an entry may have elements that are of a quality unsurpassed or not reproduced in future sequels.

Secondly, it depends how connected the entries are in a series, whether or not i'd miss out on potentially understanding the full experience. For example, i consider the Metal Gear Solid a franchise worth playing from the very original on the Playstation, because they're all very connected and they're great video games. Obviously if the fact that the original is technically outdated is not an issue, otherwise it may not be worth it. It wasn't for me because it's a simple game to get into and adapt for. Yakuza, as an example mentioned above, is another good pick of a series worth playing from the beginning especially now because it's incredibly easy - Yakuza 0 is produced to be the first you play, then you have access to Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2.

 

[sublimit]

It depends on how much i'm interested in the franchise. If i'm really interested then i usually want to start from the beginning. However for example with both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest i started much later (with VII and VIII respectively) because they were the first that were published in Europe and then went on to play the older titles.
It also depends how much the story is related to the previous game(s).

 

[deriks]

As a gamer since the early 90's, I saw basically every famous franchise ever and I have to say that depends to your interest in the lore and the level of the lore that the games offer

"This lore is enough" games
Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie
The first Metroid until Metroid Fusion/Prime (at least for now)
Any Doom - can pick one main game and that's fine
The first Perfect Dark
The first Gears of War and maybe the second and third
Turok 1 and 2

But whole franchises that are needed for people into studying games
All Donkey Kong games
Castlevania main games
Mario main games
Yakuza games
Sonic main games
Zelda main games
Halo main games

Of course there's a lot of other games, but you get the point

 

[Katsura]

To those who have to play the entire franchise from the beginning - good luck getting into Fifa or NBA

I have no problem skipping earlier entries except for games like MGS

 

[synchronicity]

I generally like to play in release order, but it depends on the type of series really. I won't make or follow any rules other than my own whims and enjoyment when it comes to gaming.

 

[Fbh]

Only when it's a story heavy franchise and all entries are directly linked to eachother. Otherwise I do some research and ask around to find out which are best entries and then pick from those.

 

[HE1NZ]

I always have to play from the beginning which is a reason why I'm afraid to start a lot of great franchises.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

When I was younger, I didn't have the knowledge that certain franchises were much older. Metal Gear predates Metal Gear Solid though most people usually refer to the latter. XCOM (or X-COM) is another example, where I got into the franchise with the 2012 reboot Enemy Unknown but have also found myself enjoying older entries like UFO Defense, Terror from the Deep, and Enforcer.

I generally have no problem starting a franchise from the beginning as long as it doesn't predate the SNES which kind of makes sense as I started playing games in the '90s. I couldn't finish Metroid or Metroid II. I felt they didn't age as well as Super Metroid or Metroid Fusion.

 

[ROMhack]

Good topic. For me it depends on the game and how necessary it is to know the back story before hand.

Oftentimes it's not necessary so I've no issue starting with any game in the series. I did this with The Evil Within 2 last year and had a great time despite not playing the first.

A bad example is Metal Gear Solid. I remember playing MGS IV as I borrowed it from a friend shortly after buying a PS3 and had to spend hours reading through the plot online. Obviously it relies on knowing Snake's story up until that point, especially as it throws an info dump at you for what's been built up over the first three games.

Similarly, some people in that ungodly thread about Uncharted IV have mentioned it relies on having an interest in Drake up to that point. I agree, so again it's not a great standalone game. However Uncharted 2 is fine to play without having played the first one (which I personally did, again as one of the first PS3 games I played).

So yeah, totally depends on the game and whether it continues, and therefore relies heavily on, understanding the plot.

 

[Barnabot]

I've finished Yakuza 6 first. Then now I'm going to finish Yakuza 0.
I give zero fucks for people thinking that I have to play the games in sequence just to think I'd able to understand the whole story. Zero fucks for having the story being "spoiled" that way.

When you enjoy the game franchise then you enjoy the game franchise .

 

[petran79]

I had skipped N64, PS1, GBA and first 2 nds castlevanias and went straight to Ecclesia and found it one of the best games I played

 

[Belmonte]

Usually I like to start from the beginning.

The most obvious reason is lore. I like to see the tip of the hat to previous games sinceI feel I'm losing something when I don't get the references. Sometimes it is only an inconsequential joke, but sometimes it is a very important detail which can change the player's perspective. Either way, I like to understand everything.

Besides lore, I find interesting to experiment the franchise evolving (or devolving) with each game. It can be surpring for people who doesn't do this how many games were better in previous iterations.

There is a catch though: My two last Zeldas were Zelda 1 and 2. I'm very happy that I play the first one in a world post Breath of the Wild! If I had play it in the NES days I would be a little frustrated by how linear other Zeldas are in comparison. Don't get me wrong, I love Zelda, it is easily one of my favorite franchises ever and I think there are many Zeldas superior to the first one. But I would miss dearly the freedom of the amazing first game.

 

[Phase]

Really depends how old the game is. If I'm like 5 behind when joining the series I'll see which are more lauded and play those first, then go from there.

I am going to play the new Atelier Ryza. Am I really gonna go 15 games back and start from the beginning? Hell no, unless those thighs pull me in deep.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

I feel like in the past, I used to be able to jump into a game series on it's latest sequel. These days though, I try my best to experience franchises from their first game and onwards. There's a first gaminess to first games that makes them stand out to their follow ups, and I think it's worth experiencing that first gaminess before proceeding to the sequels. However. I do make exceptions from time to time, and sometimes will go back to the old way and play the latest sequel, like I did with Kingdom Hearts 3 for example.

 

[daninthemix]

I don't have to begin with the first one. And when I play one, I use how much I enjoyed that to determine whether I play another game in the series.

Also please don't say "franchise" - it makes me think of Subway.