Any long-running video game franchise is going to run into the issue from time to time where one game is just nothing like the others. Sometimes that revolutionizes the entire series, making for some well-loved changes. Sometimes it means that they can use that opportunity for lore building. Sometimes that means that the game is a flop and the franchise will never touch it again.
No matter what spawned from the outlier in a franchise, those outliers are key to getting players who might have otherwise avoided, hated, or cared less about a series into the franchise and introducing them to a product that they can actually enjoy.
10 Assassin's Creed Odyssey Proved A Franchise Doesn't Have To Stick To The Same Old Thing
One major complaint about Assassin's Creed Odyssey is that it is set so far back and with so much divergence from the rest of the Assassin's Creed titles that it really did not feel like it should have been included. It had a massive Open World styled gameplay with the option to choose between two different yet identical protagonists. The fact it was very RPG heavy and really shoved the franchise further away from their stealth roots drove some fans insane.
However, if there is one thing that this game was good at, it was selling. Players that had otherwise not enjoyed the Assassin's Creed franchise were sucked into the beautiful world and great gameplay mechanics. In fact, despite that it was considered a failure due to selling 8% fewer copies during its first week than its predecessor Origins, it has set sales records in the time since and therefore proves that a franchise doesn't have to stick to the same thing in order to get new players in on the action.
9 Fallout: New Vegas Had A Solid Endgame
Fallout: New Vegas has a lot going for it. There is a critical story with tons of side quests to do, and if those side quests aren't done by the end of the game, they just do not get done. This cut-and-dry style appeals heavily to some players and not as much to others.
The biggest thing is that some long-standing fans do not like this title solely due to the connections it has with Bethesda. That alone makes it a good enough reason to send it to someone without that bias in order to have an unbiased opinion on the overall gameplay instead of external factors. It even was one of the games that spawned similar mechanics in other games but did tell future developers to give players a chance to go back post-game and trim up any loose ends.
8 Final Fantasy IX Is More Light-Hearted & Cute
If there is something that every fan of the Final Fantasy series will agree on, it's that Final Fantasy IX is an outlier. Unlike every other game in the series, this one had a much lighter tone, cuter style, and appealed more to a younger crowd.
That being said, it is such a tone divergence from the rest of the series that it is perfect for players who weren't fond of the gritty edginess of the rest of the games. While there is still some danger, there's a lot of light-hearted humor and less of that dire urgency and sadness that plagues other installments.
7 Gwent: The Witcher Card Game Takes A Popular Minigame & Makes It Something Special
There is a little minigame in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt where the player gets to play a story-driven card game. This game was based on one from the Andrzej Sapkowski Witcher novels and became so popular that it spawned its own standalone game Gwent: The Witcher Card Game.
So if there is a player who didn't like The Witcher games or only had Witcher 3 in order to sit there playing Gwent all day, now there is a spinoff just for them. It even gets its own unique stories and plays into a new way of doing things which makes it all the better.
6 Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Dayz Is A Midquel With A Different Viewpoint
Kingdom Hearts is one of those series that considers every game they produce to be part of the same canonical universe, so it makes it hard to find a game within it that doesn't feel like the rest of them. This makes it exceptionally hard if someone isn't a fan of the franchise but still wants to be included.
Thankfully, 358/2 Dayz diverges just enough to be interesting to those who want to play but don't like the rest of the series. Instead of following Sora, it follows fan-favorite Roxas and forces itself to try to be new and unique while not damaging its own story. It's not exactly a game that a new player can just start with, but if a player wasn't fond of the first two main series components, this might be the game for them.
5 Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Is The First Open World
Not everyone grew up with the iconic elf and needing to explain that the protagonist is Link and not Zelda within the Legend of Zelda games. It's not even a stretch to say that the whole storyline can easily get lost on players as it has been going through changes for decades, making it intimidating for new players to try and jump in on.
Breath of the Wild however is the first one in the series that is an Open World, which appeals to a modern audience alone. It makes for a great introduction to the series. Otherwise, it's a great game that has a different feel from many others in the franchise, making it perfect for players who weren't fans of the series before now.
4 Lego Star Wars Is A Great Time Even If Fans Like Neither Franchise
Lego Star Wars was amazing as far as either franchise goes and was a brilliant merging of the two vastly different franchises.
It fixes pacing issues, has funny effects due to everything being made from blocks, and can be engaging for people who aren't the biggest Star Wars fans.
3 Thief (2014) Was A Great Departure From Its Predecessor
Thief was a 2014 reboot of the Thief: Gold series and takes place in a new town with a new Garrett who drives old fans wild but appeals to new fans. This is simply because the game developers paid attention when making this one and updated numerous factors such as controls, style, and overall tone to match a more modern audience.
That makes it a fantastic game for players who weren't entirely sold on the older games to get into it, while also being a good introduction for players that would have otherwise not gotten into it at all.
2 Pokémon Ultra Sun And Ultra Moon Feels Close But Not Quite The Same
Pokémon might be the highest-grossing franchise up there with Mario, but that doesn't mean that everyone is always into one of the games. This is especially true of their main series versions, where the same concepts get reused time and time again.
Pokémon Sun and Moon, and especially their Ultra counterparts, took a major step to the side and threw the entire universe on its head. Fans that had otherwise hated the main series games were likely very fond of these ones due to the more light-hearted nature of it as well as the entire Ultra Beast twisting near the end.
1 Resident Evil 7 Switched To A First-Person Perspective
If anything bothered old fans but brought in a whole swath of players that hadn't enjoyed the series thus far, it would be Resident Evil 7. It is the first in the series to take a first-person point of view, something most other games in the same genre had always been doing.
It embraced more techniques from other successes in the genre and pulled in fans of those who otherwise weren't going to be comfortable with the gameplay. While that was annoying to some older fans, it allowed for players who didn't like the old third-person style a chance to get into the series.