I still love that the in game reason for Yakuza being turn based is that Ichi (the person you play as) loves Dragon Quest and sees battles and even life as a Dragon Quest game. He's kind of crazy but it's also what I love about him

Jak 2 also deserve a place in this list, it completely changed both gameplay and tone going from a colorful and happy collectathon platformer to a dark and gritty gta like openworld

God Of War 2018 was a complete change, a very welcome one. Although I miss the old style, maybe for a spin off, I think that would work.

Spec Ops: the Line was an incredible experience. Truly, a game like no other.

I already want an awesome sequel to this video

God of war 4?

Spec ops the line is a legendary game. Criminally underrated. We need more games like it so that we have something else to play other than crappy COD games.

Using your Top 10 Games that Revolutionized Genres video from the other day, I would say that Grand Theft Auto III was a huge departure for the franchise. Not only did it change the genre landscape, but it also took the series from the top-down 2D perspective to the 3D sandbox with a bigger emphasis on story used in every GTA game since (with the exception of portable spin-offs like Chinatown Wars).

First game that always comes to mind when this topic is discussed is Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within. It went from a hero story / arabian fairytale to a gritty, blood-filled villain story full of rock music. In terms of their theme and atmosphere, the contrast between Warrior Within and Sands Of Time of pretty huge.

The leap from Blood Omen to Soul Reaver is pretty nuts, and I’d say Soul Reaver was hugely innovative in its genre in general. The series went from a top down crawler to a 3D action platformer with realm shifting puzzles that also propelled the story in some wild directions. Not to mention some of the best voice acting of its time that still very much holds up.

Oddworld Stranger's Wrath belongs on this list. I think it was a very interesting yet excellent change.

I really loved SpecOps The Line. One of the better stories and that ending was great.

I absolutely love how this channels goal has been gradually shifting from showcasing video games that we’ve all loved to actually archiving them and safeguarding these gems for the futures to come to study from and to be able to see things in perspective in terms of history and how these games were made. Thank you gameranx. I genuinely hope you turn into a library of gaming resource in the future future to come as we see this media is kind of not in its best shape anymore.

Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks could have been on here too. It's also one of my favorite MK games to date and really needs a sequel or a remake.

Special mentions: 1.) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night... for changing what used to be a linear side scrolling game, into a metroid style exploration game (thus the term, Metroidvania). The genre carried over to future entries of the series. 2.) Ultima VIII: Pagan... Changed a party based point and click strategic RPG, into a singular real time action RPG.

This video helped me realize how odd of a kid I was, I enjoyed Pacman 2, played it a lot as a kid, remember getting frustrated with not being able to control him exactly, but it became pretty intuitive and I got the hang of it when I was young. Would probably drive me nuts now

For me, a huge change was between Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2. Of course thanks to 2 we got Inquisition, which absolutely slaps, but the combat differences and even story writing between 2 and Origins are astronomical if you ask me.

Splinter Cell has to be here, went from my favourite franchise to a completely different genre.

I actually liked pac man 2 as a kid. It was such a weird, confusing, and clunky game but something about the art style, setting, and the way pac-man behaved kept me really interested; I was around 5 at the time and my mom would help me figure out what to do because in some parts of the game it was hard to find out what to do next. We didn’t use the internet back then either so we really had to experiment with EVERYTHING to figure out how to progress pac man at certain points, which nowadays would probably be annoying, but I look back very fondly on that time. Both as bonding time with my mom and also as a time where video games were so much more interesting since I was so young; kids have such a high tolerance for ‘bad’ games if they find some part of them interesting. I remember sometime pac man would fall and cry and that sound was awful, like grating harsh noise from a 16 bit synthesiser lmao. Sega Genesis was my first console and even tho the ps1 and n64 had already been out (this was like 1999-2000) i’m glad it was, because I got to experience a lot of classic games I might have missed otherwise. Definitely most fondly remember street fighter 2 tho, that was the first game I got deep into. It was so addicting T.T. Anyways, this is just sidetracked nostalgiaposting, but it was cool seeing Pac Man 2 on this list. It really brought back some fond memories! Makes me wanna go back and relive some games as I never touched the genesis again after getting a newer console.

Fallout 3 is and always will be one of my favorites. FO3 was my first large open world RPG style game that got me hooked looking for more like elder scrolls, witcher, dragon age, dragons dogma etc...

Red Faction: Guerilla deserved an enormous mention here Jumping from their original First Person Linear games to Third Person & Open World - doing this shift extremely well and without compromising on the incredible destruction Red Faction has been synonymous made a game I'm just not able to forget. That game, and Armageddon are still an absolute blast to go back to and play through again. And I forever wish we could just keep getting more of that series.

XCOM Chimera Squad wasn't a departure in the vein of The Bureau, but it had very interesting changes and additions like turn order, breach, named character archetypes and weapons with the squad management. Lore wise it fit, since it was set many years after the events of XCOM 2, with multiple alien races integrated into the character roster like a special forces group. The missions were also shorter and trickier due to the turn order mechanics and close quarters scenarios, and character choices could make or break certain story missions.

I was a big fan of Fallout 1 and 2. When 3 came out I was a bit "WTF" at first, but the first time I came over the hill and saw Bob's Big Boy, I was sold. I've probably played that game 5 or 6 times and I love it. While New Vegas was probably a better game, it just didn't have the same impact on me that 3 did. And 4 was a real letdown.

Im not sure how I stumbled into Spec Ops the Line when it released but its an amazing game. I was also fortunate enough to be reading The Heart of Darkness in college at the same time, then watched Apocalypse Now. There are nods to both throughout the game. So awesome.

I haven't play FF16 yet, but I tried the demo, I can say that it was the best demo I ever played and I am looking forward to playing this game during the Christmas holidays.

The Legacy of Kain series should have been part of this list. Soul Reaver onwards were quite a big departure from the original Blood Omen.

That Pacman game was SO FUN growing up. I loved that game!

I bought resident evil 4 for PC, when it came out. It had no mouse support so I had to learn how to aim with the keyboard and line up my shots where I thought the enemies would be and wait for them to get there before I could shoot. I've played through the entire game that way.😅

Spec ops the line getting some attention feels really good. A Masterpiece.

From what I remember of teasers in magazines back in the day The Bureau was an original game that was going to feature it's own alien threats, but the publisher was worried it wouldn't sell very well, so they shoehorned in the XCOM stuff to try to make it a prequel.

I have never noticed it before, but it grinds my gears when you pronounce it YAH-cuz-uh, and not yuh-KOOZ-ah.... it's probably just how many times you say it in a short time span. But still a good video for a bird. Keep up the great work. I'm a big fan!

Guess I'm a different kind of Fallout fan. I was 28 when Fallout 1 came out, and I absolutely loved it, I loved FO2 even more when it came out. I played both multiple times but replayed FO2 the most. When I heard about FO3 I was excited about the changes. I loved FO3 and still replay it occasionally, FO New Vegas is my favorite and has the most replays. I also enjoyed FO4 but didn't think it was great by any stretch. If it weren't for mods, I'd have little reason to replay it.

I will fucking riot if they do not do a remake of code veronica, which was one of the best in the series story wise IMO.

Saints row definitely took a completely different turn after the first one it was another GTA at one point if im not mistaken

I am a 90s gamer as well Falcon. I never had a computer growing up, but was big into the JRPGs as well. When you are a kid and can't afford a ton of games they were the ones with the best storylines and took a decent amount of time to play so you never felt like you always needed something new to play.

the pivot of the Yakuza games to a JRPG style just didnt compute for me at first

Specops the line has probably the best story i've ever seen in a videogame.

Far Cry 2. I mean, the shift from a linear (horror) shooter to an oper world sandbox game was rather drastic.

I love hearing the love and passion in the voices of KZfaqrs I follow, in the videos they make and it's not just "another Tuesday" but it's... genuine excitement and standing by their perspective, even If it is not popular or standard. You're honest here. (Also R.E. is not great controls, generally, and you're totally right. Leave it to the abstract dongles, of the Wii, and how, actually BETTER it COULD make things when "working correctly"

I'd be down for a full Gameranx video with Falcon using his Ron Burgundy voice 😂

I'm happy to see Spec Ops in this list. Actually any list to be honest. It's a massively underrated game.

Haha. Today I found out that CRPG stood for computer RPG. Because JRPG stood for Japanese RPG, I assumed CRPG was Chinese RPG.

Man, Falcon really hit my nostalgia bones with Pac-Man 2. "I'll rent this, and then as it turned out you rented a dud so this weekend sucks". Gamers of my age (40) certainly remember those days!

Interesting thing about the things that were lost in Re4 remake…they actually returned a lot of them in Ada’s Separate Ways, the laser traps, the insect mutant were the two major ones that came to mind

I'm surprised Assassin's Creed wasn't on the list. The RPG style games changed what Assassin's Creed would be forever.

God of war 2018?

Banger after banger!!! The quality videos keep on coming!

The fact you didn’t cover GTA 2 to GTA 3…

I loved the whole Fallout franchise from the beginning having played Wasteland way back when on my Apple II GS and followed it through Fallout 4. 76 is when it went off the rails for me and unless they return to single player action I won't go any further in the franchise. Of all of them I'll still reach for Fallout Tactics more often than the others for just entertainment value and the fact R Lee Ermy played the General in the game. Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4 are good for me but I do still enjoy the old stuff. Yes, I do like Pearlman's narration voice acting even though he's a sleezebag as a human being.

Like A Dragon was one of the biggest, most pleasant surprises in a series that I love. I want them to keep it turned base now

GTA V was brilliant, one of my favorite games of all time (the single player aspect, not GTA online), but it was definitely IV that drastically and permanently changed the series forever. It was the evolution the series needed, and Rockstar did it intentionally to make the series more realistic and immersive, with narrative substance

Another amazing Falcon video. My favorite will always be Max Payne 3. The shift in setting put a lot of fans off but I'm still hopeful for a reboot/Max Payne 4.

Silent hill book of memories is a good one. From survival horror to...dungeon crawler?! Lol

For us spaniards you have no idea how ridiculously fun Resident Evil 4 is. The way it portrays Spain, the way people talks, is hilarious.

The difference between Witcher 1 and Witcher 2 is staggering. It definitely deserves a place on a list like this!

Assassin Creed: Origins. While some people don't like the RPG Assassin Creed games. There is no denying this game changed the whole franchise.

the assassins creed games are worth at least a mention

Ni no Kuni II also went with a complete different approach to gameplay, the first one was based on catching familiars and having them battle (similar to pokemon), but the sequel completely removed that and changed to an action RPG battle system

Spec Ops: The Line is such a masterpiece in a way. Never seen a story like this played straight in that genre. Recommend to everyone I know.

Zelda "started" to get linear with Link to the Past. Breath of the Wild is much more like the original Legend of Zelda, because in the original, you're given no direction and you go off and explore. In fact, it's actually possible in the original Zelda to get the wood sword and go challenge Ganon with 3 hearts. You'll get your shit pushed in, but you can do it, just like you can in Breath of the Wild. The whole "hand-holdy" and "go here, then here" and exposition and plot heavy structure started in Link to the Past, and only got worse in its simplicity from there. After that, almost no Zelda game allowed for any amount of exploration, even blocking off directions with construction workers or a dog or something, until you go "do the thing", activate the flag, and remove them so you can do so the next thing.

Resident evil 4 ,is easily my favourite game of the year. I did not expect it to be, but the first playthrough was really great. Seperate ways, super cool. The vr mode , ohhhhh my god. Best vr experience i ever had

Spec Ops: The Line I feel was a massively underrated game, the story was incredible and game play decent too. The final reveal left me speechless and was fantastic! Some other good shouts for this are Metal Gear Solid 5 which went RPG open world and encouraged less stealth approach. God of War moving from a lineaar approach to RPG open world as well.

Ff16 was a good return to form for square but they’re exclusivity deal fucked this game up

I think Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain should be added to this list. Very few Metal Gear games forced the adaptive 360 degree stealth awareness and massive map design in its mechanics. The enemies became smarter on their approach to finding you.

On a semi related note I bought a physical copy of Rage yesterday and to surprise I found a pamphlet of the original PRAY 2 design. Man I still want that game..

Hey falcon, Have you tried the resident evil 4 vr version? And how did it feel for you? Did it work for you aswel?

Never even knew if fallout 1 and 2 but definitely loved oblivion. So fallout 3 was beloved by me, I replayed that game at least 4 separate times. While I do believe new Vegas is better, fallout 3 will alway have a place in my heart.

the c in crpg stands for classic not computer lol.

Falcon + Ron Burgandy Is the team up I didn’t know I needed in my life.

For me personally, it's Ghost Recon Future Soldier, the game just changed the whole franchise and fanbase, and in my opinion was very ambitious with its themes at the time. Wildlands was also a huge change but was still influenced by FS.

Why do you keep saying yakuza wrong? Its pronounced ya-kuzza not yakka-sa

Final Fantasy XVI is honestly one of the best FFs in my opinion. The story is touching, the music is god tier, and if you like action games the combat is veey satisfying.

I actually loved PacMan 2. It was a very interesting concept for control (and I loved shooting him with the slingshot until he got pissed and didn’t listen 😂)…. sooo much fun to figure things out in the game.

I feel SOOOO seen! I thought my siblings and I were the only humans on earth that remembered Pacman! We still say “LOOK LOOK” in the voice when trying to draw each others attention to something. Thank you for including such an obscure game in this great list.

i have such ridiculously mixed feelings about final fantasy 16 it has some awesome moments and fun characters but it also has some huge flaws from the barley there crafting system to the lack of turn based combat to everything feeling very limited and the relentlessly bleak story it was a big swing for them and i don't know it necessarily paid off

BG3 should be on this list because it honestly has very little to do with the first two Baldur's Gate games - both story and gameplay wise - and it is one of the few instances in which a franchise goes from real time to turn-based, normally it's the other way around

I know Crash Bandicoot has done several interesting spin-offs (CTR and Crash Bash) yet, I think the one that is the most unique to the actual franchise is Crash: Clash of the Titans and Crash: Mind Over Monster. You go from a platforming game to a beat-em up game about controlling bigger monsters. This feels completely different than any other Crash game.

This makes me think that a list of games that changed drastically between trailer and gameplay could be cool. (XCOM: The Bureau Declassified is such a great example of this - the trailer looked so much better than the game we got. Though I am also an apologist for it.)

Hot take apparently, I'm very disappointed by the combat in FF16. Yes, it looks cool and flashy, but it's shallow and far too easy.

FIRST!!!

I still love that the in game reason for Yakuza being turn based is that Ichi loves Dragon Quest and sees battles and even life as a Dragon Quest game. He's kind of crazy but it's also what I love about him

You need to play both versions of RE4 in VR. Those are the the best versions of each game, no contest.

"Final Fantasy XV is a buddy road trip comedy/noodle commercial." The game that's original concept was basically "modern Shakespeare tragedy"... yeah, thanks for reminding me of that, gameranx, like I don't have enough issues with this game.

I loved the bureau xcom declassified, and i played the original xcoms back in the 90s. Still have my terror from the deep floppy disks

I specifically remember when Spec Ops: The Line released I had not interest in it because I thought it was another generic shooter in the middle east and I was completely over those at the time. Had I known it was a morally questioning, psychological, heart of darkness mystery, I would have picked it up 100%. Bought it years but it would have been nice to experience it completely blind at the time.

Yes, i agree and i want to play and finish RE 6. I played it some on X360 but never finished it and forgot it but i want to play it now on my Series X if it's available. Good video Falcon. 👊

The problem with most games is that the boss's have no weight to them and when you shoot or attack they don't get individual wounds related to what you use or where you attack/slice them, so that takes a bit of realism away. Dev's need to create hundreds of different wounds that line up with the gameplay. You attack the boss but the wounds don't coincide properly. Just a thought for future game dev's.

When a sequal changes the button layout that you've been using for years since the first game is stupid.

Like a dragon was my first Yakuza game and i loved it so much I'm a huge fan now

To add to nuts and bolts they did attempt to try something new but the biggest thing that the game did was actively insult those who wanted a new Banjo game, saying "The goal is to collect as many useless items as possible" and "People don't want these type of games they only want to shoot things, so we must do something that broadens the demographic" these are things said by an actual character in the game.

I'm gonna be honest, until I saw this video today, I had thought that Final Fantasy 15 was the last one that came out. If you had asked me about 16 today before this video, I would have thought that "yeah, it's been a while since 15 came out, they're probably working on 16 right now, it might even come out in the next year or two."

I love botw/totk so much precisely because they're so different from the other games I tried the previous ones and they felt so restrictive so rigid while the new ones really let you decide how you're gonna go about pretty much the entirety of the game

2011 was a crazy year for gaming , Arkham city, mw3 , Skyrim

Hats off to you guys for uploading new videos everyday with such fresh and fantastic ideas. Always makes me wonder how you guys are able to come up with such ideas, that’s really praiseworthy. ❤

Nuts n Bolts was pretty fun in the building department, they let you build the craziest vehicles and it actually worked most of the time. On a "collect object x and return it under enemy fire" mission, i spent 15 minutes buulding a safe room on wheels and it worked

Spec Ops The Line is one of those games that’s memorable as hell the story the twist the gameplay this game is a true gem and masterpiece

Falcon with the epic burn on FF15 - "Its a 'buddies on a roadtrip' masquerading as a cup of noodles advert." Bravo 👏

I might be wrong, but I don't remember the original RE4 having tank controls. You had to stop to shoot, but tank controls are when you push left and right to turn your character and forwards and back to move them like in the first 5 titles and the original remake (owing largely to their fixed camera angles).

The dialogue during combat in Spec Ops The Line was pretty great. Characters yelled at one another in genuine distress while being fired upon and you could hear the urgency in the tone, as opposed to Ubisoft's casual, 'we're just getting a coffee at the shop while shooting pellets at pigeons' type dialogue.

Wow! RE5 and 6 just casually giving you additional content included.