I’ll start by saying I had a bit of trouble wording the title but I’ll try to elaborate on it. I find it can be a bit daunting at times figuring out what a decent entry point is in a series of video games without searching online first. Sometimes there will be ten games released across three different generation of consoles with reboots, prequels, and remasters and you can feel a bit left out of the loop if you start with the most recent release.
I’m wondering where people would recommend starting in other popular series like Nier, Final Fantasy, Armored Core, Ace Combat, Assassins Creed, Metal Gear, Metroid, Resident Evil, and so on.
It might make for a fun bit of Friday discussion and encourage some people to try out some new games.
Here’s my example:
With the Fallout series I’d say you could easily start with any game because you have a new protagonist each time and a lot of the lore is reintroduced. The exception being Fallout 2 because it feels a bit more like a direct sequel to the original.
I would probably recommend Fallout New Vegas as a starting point because it’s the fan favorite, has a few quality of life upgrades over Fallout 3, Fallout 4 adds a lot of extra mechanics to the game so going backwards in the series if you wanted more Fallout could feel a tad awkward and take some readjusting if you are accustomed to them, and the classic Fallout games can be a bit of a challenge if you aren’t used to old school RPGs.
The Witcher. The first 2 games are real bad.
Favourite Series - Recommended Entry Point
- Final Fantasy - VI
- Atelier - Sophie
- Dead or Alive - 5 Last Round
- Senran Kagura - Burst Renewal
- Romancing Saga - 2 Revenge of the Seven
Final Fantasy - VI
I actually think IV, but then skip to VI and go from there.
I’ve heard you can pick and choose where to start with any sport franchise.
I started Wizardry 8 as my first one and it instantly became one of my favourites. Even though the story is somewhat continuation of 6 and 7, not knowing these is not a problem at all. It’s still interesting and well explained even for novice players. Much later I’ve tried both 6 and 7 and even though I felt I could like them and I even liked the hand made graphics, it was the user interface of the early 90s that was just too much for me.
Counter Strike
Yeah I was gonna hop in here and say Fallout. New Vegas has all the themes of the classic series with the easier to play gameplay of the 3D era. That said though, I really don’t think you can start wherever with that series - IF you want a clear picture of what it’s about. I started with Fallout 3, and that definitely muddies the series themes a bit. Fallout 4 comes around and the realistic themes of humanity’s repetitive follies are all but thrown out the window to focus on the scifi, retrofuturism, and apocalyptic aspects of the series. Fallout 1, 2, and NV are the continued story of society rebuilding and making the same mistakes we always make as a species. Only the first one is a post apocalyptic game, 2 and NV are post-post apocalyptic with large communities and states starting to form.
No hate on the fun there is to be had exploring bombed out ruins, I still love Fallout 3 and I put in a good bit of time with Fallout 4. But while the West Coast tells the story of society rebuilding, with people making adobe houses reasonably soon after the bombs fell and eventually manufacturing concrete, the East Coast is full of convoluted reasons for why society hasn’t rebuilt yet in 200 years and everyone still lives in scrap metal shacks. Not that Fallout games are all realism, but I think the Bethesda games sacrifice the realism of how humanity functions to add more scifi components - and that’s just not what Fallout’s all about.
I should probably say an actual game series I think you can pick up at any game though, and I’ll have to go with Metal Gear Solid. Fantastic story that’s convoluted and told out of order. It doesn’t matter where you start, you’re always going to have fun! I recommend MGS1 for anybody with a day job, and MGS5 for anyone who wants to sink some hours into a sandbox.
You’ll miss out on some spider-lore, but it’s possible to jump into Spider Solitaire for the Windows XP home computor system without having played its predecessor, Spider Solitaire for the Windows 98 home computor system
thank you
Xcom 2: War of the Chosen
This is, I believe, the last entry in the series. DLC is confusing, but I feel like WotC fundamentally changed things in ways I enjoyed. It added a captain system similar to Shadow of Mordor and has half the main characters from ST:TNG doing the voice acting. I started this series at the very beginning (90’s? Early 2000’s?) and can recommend only the first and second games. However, consider their age and thus I probably enjoy those old ones out of nostalgia.
Zelda does a good job of this. You don’t usually “miss out” on the lore, because they tend to explain a bit as things go on. Sure, you’d miss the easter eggs placed in the game for fans of older titles, but you also wouldn’t know any different. For example, in Breath of the Wild, a dilapidated farm is present in the main field, and this is a reference to the farm in Ocarina of Time where you find Epona, your horse. If you didn’t play that earlier game, it would just seem like scenery to you. But you wouldn’t actually miss out on anything. So the makers of the Zelda titles do a good job striking a balance between providing nods to earlier titles while also being welcoming to new players.
All you’d get with starting with an earlier Arma than 3 is losing quality of life features and gaining eurojank
Oh come on! First Arma (Operation Flashpoint) had photorealistic graphics and played like a dream… That’s how I remembered it until I tried it 20 years later. Boy oh boy…
Forza Horizon lol
Also Far Cry. No story connection between the games although there is one minor recurring character.
I’ve played Far Cry 2 through most of 6. If you don’t recognize particular references, there’s nothing that makes them substantial otherwise in the sea of creative, humorous descriptions of everyone/everything else.
I would say it’s similar with assassin’s creed, keeping it in the family of “ubisoft series gamers love to shit on”. The references are in the same style as other database entries, so you’re not missing anything if you’re unfamiliar. I’ve played 4 through Odyssey.
I’m trying to think of other series and keep landing on the same reasoning, actually. Yeah, I love having more basis for the lore in other series, but I don’t feel I’m missing much without every reference. I mean, Ace Combat was my personality for a few months when 7 came out, prompting me to replay 4 and 5 and buy Zero and 6. As others have said, the main thing is if you do choose to go backwards, things get clunky for both general game and specific series development reasons. Assin 4 was my most recent AC (tried 3, beat Unity>Ody, then beat 4) and man, parkour is tough. I gave up on 3 because it was so awkward and I was too old to learn at the elder age of like 23.
I gotta say though, Forza Horizon 1 remains my favorite. There’s certainly some nostalgia tied to it because it set me up for impossible expectations in the car community (especially now in the post-covid takeover bullshit). It had a more concise campaign and had some story attached to it. I’m up to 4 and it just drops me in like “this is just what you do now” and every race unlocks 4 more races with no end in sight.
Very few game sequels are that tied in to it’s predecessor narratively that this is an issue. I would say the vast majority of games are designed to be picked up from anywhere in the series.
Even Mass Effect, where you play as the same character throughout a multi game story arc, still has each game giving the player an on ramp, and each game having it’s own miniature arc to play through.
Mass Effect is one that while every game is independent enough, I’d still say it’s best experienced as the trilogy. You will miss out on stuff in later games
Spoiler for a game old enough to vote
Wrex apparently dies on Virmire if you don’t. My partner started at 2, that was her experience. She played me1 shortly after and yeah, was upset she’d missed out even though he’s not a companion in 2 or 3 outside of Citadel DLC.
Wrex is a solid character, Krogan story just wouldn’t be the same without him. If I recall he’s a part of the reason Mordin changes his view on the Genophage. If you betray the Krogan and pretend to cure it (which I’ve never done, nor will, there’s a limit to how I’ll play renegade), Wrex will see through the deceit, his brother won’t.
There’s also a small misc quest with a certain recurring character in 3 that has an ending idk I’ve ever seen before that requires you to have done certain things in ME1 and not got that person killed in ME2.
For Metroid, start with 2, then Super is a big step up in terms of feel and gameplay. The first one doesn’t explain anything at all, and compared to modern standards feels quite clunky and tedious (you have to find multiple secret passages to finish the game normally, for example.) It’s worth playing if you’re in the mood for NES-era retro gaming, but it can be frustrating trying to figure it out on your own.
For lore, Fusion is next, followed by Dread. I didn’t like Fusion, felt too hand-holdy for me, I would skip it but many seem to like it. Dread is worth playing on its own though. It’s a much faster pace, more action-oriented gameplay. Fusion added a horror element to the game, but for the most part it’s more for vibe than gameplay reasons. Dread took that scary vibe and moved it into the gameplay.
The Prime series I think is a separate canon story. They can definitely be played independently. They follow a storyline and are direct sequels to each other, but gameplay-wise they don’t require playing other games before. You don’t unlock any important knowledge relevant to one game from playing the previous one.
I wouldn’t recommend starting with Daggerfall over, say, Skyrim or Oblivion, for example.
Real heads start with Arena
I think the better question might be what series should you start from game 1, brcause thats a much tougher question. Just about all the long running ones you can hop in wherever and be fine. Where you wanna start with Mario? Don’t matter. Whats the play for Final Fantasy? Probably whatever the recommenders first one was. Megaman? X, 0, or basic its nbd.
Yakuza is one I’d say you either start from the beginning (Technically Kiwami, but 0 is fine) or start at Like a Dragon (7, as it has a new protagonist)
