What's a entertainment franchise (movies, games, etc) that has been milked but still puts out good products?
What's a entertainment franchise (movies, games, etc) that has been milked but still puts out good products?
Andor was amazing. I love star wars, there was a lot of iffy stuff, Mando was pretty good, but damn did Andor knock it out of the park.
I agree with you. Except for Boba Fett. They made a bounty Hunter into an anti-mafia protagonist. This dude was out to kill Luke Skywalker and all of a sudden he’s a good guy because he spent some time in the desert with the people who also wanted to kill Luke Skywalker.
Andor is kind of depressing, in that it showed what a truly quality Star Wars series could look like, that you can actually make adult/decent Star Wars content, and it made everything else Disney has put out look stupid (apart from Rogue One… huh, weird coincidence). Luthen’s monologue stands out as one of the best pieces of Star Wars content from the entire franchise, just brilliant and well delivered. Meanwhile, we’ve been getting trash, just absolute drivel from the rest of their offerings that shows how little Disney respects its audience. Mando had some moments early on, but that last season was rough and every other SW series they’ve put out has just made me hate every moment of it. Just so much bad writing, it’s insulting.
When Mando deviated too much from the space spaghetti Western, quality really went down the drain.
I loved Andor's WW2 spy thriller take on Star Wars. More serious, adult and no space wizards.
Gonna disagree with you about the quality of Mando; it's just an incredibly different type of show. I feel the exact opposite of you: I thought the first season was meh until the end, and the show has continued to get better from there (with some individual episodes that were crap).
For the record, Andor is by far my favorite piece of contemporary Star Wars media. It's not even close.
What I'm saying is, not every show or movie has to be well received by every fan.
Hell, I even enjoyed Obi-Wan for what it was. A sad waste of potential? Totally. But some of the things it set out to do were done well (specifically, showing Obi-Wan's state of mind during that time period)
I don't expect Mando to press the same emotional buttons as Andor, and I don't expect Andor to make me go "whoaaaaa awesome lightsaber duel!" the way Ahsoka did. Let them be different. We don't have to tear down anything that doesn't fit our image of the perfect star wars show
Totally agree! I When people mention Andor I immediately think of the monologues rather than any of the action sequences. I think that tells how good the writing was.
What do I sacrifice?
EVERYTHING!
The scene with the tractor beam was pretty great though.
I really wished we got more stuff like Andor, Rogue One, and Knights of The Old Republic II that explore more of the universe outside of “here’s a bunch of themed planets with wacky CGI aliens”.
Andor and Rogue One are really good at showing what it’s like to actually be a Rebel and live in a universe being dictated by an empire, while KOTOR 2 was a really cool look at the metanarrative of the Jedi, the Sith, and the Force as a whole.
Exactly, it was hard and gritty. I thought they did an amazing job, the movies make it feel so binary, we're good they're bad. Andor shows the grey, the actual living under the empire, what it actually means. I deseprately hope they see the numbers and see that we want more "grown up" star wars.
I have a friend who worked on the Mandalorian as a make-up artist. I was so jealous when I found out. I believe she did the Xi'an character, if I remember correctly.
Does lego count?
Lego is the OG "reinvented itself and found new fans" IP.
Does Final Fantasy count?
Lol I mean it's literally just having a new addition to it and while many will say it's being killed, the amount of content they have added so far in Rebirth has been insane. I have friends who will probably hate it, but it's absolutely beautiful to me and a surprise at every step.
The funny thing about this one is there's a big chunk of the series faithful that want it milked more, just in a more nostalgic way.
This is completely my opinion but I feel like Stellaris has milked the fuck out of those DLCs, but they're also good lol
Considering they are putting out a monthly subscription for access to all DLC? Yeah this thought is very valid.
They did the same to HoI4
The soulsborne games. There are a lot of bad souls-likes and also a few good ones. But the Fromsoft games themselves are impeccable. They could keep making the same thing over and over and I'd eat it up like a diabetic in an insulin factory.
Makita. They put out a fucking tool for everything and when you're looking at them you're kinda like "that's a bit stupid I can just put a bit extra effort in and do it with the tools I have" but then you see that tool that perfectly simplifies something you do and you're like "ok I need this it make my life so easy" and it does.
I suppose if you really like tools, Makita counts as an entertainment franchise.
The Anno series. They released 7 games since 1998, Anno 1800 as the most recent one had 3 season passes, and it's considered by many to be the best or at least 2nd best in the series.
Despite what a subset of its fans say - Star Trek is still putting out decent content, on average. We get 10 episode seasons now and the majority of it is fun adventures and when it tries to do social commentary it never takes as hard line as it used to. But at least in the shorter seasons there's less chance of a Threshold or a Subrosa. Maybe its just me but I could watch Lower Decks on rotation
Yeah that sunset is small.
Strange New Worlds has been pretty damn good and a return to form. Though you could say Season 2 went a little too hard with all the genre swapping per episode. I hope they tone it down and do a bit more of the anomaly of the week kind of thing in season 3
- Marvel but it's waning
- Grand Theft Auto
- South Park
- Cheers / Frasier saga
I used to be a marvel nerd but now they suck and only a handful of projects after end game was good.
Marvel has put out anything good in the past 5 years?
Guardians 3 was good.
Mostly because they weren't trying to shoehorn future movie plot setups into it.
On that note, the Holiday Special was also pretty good.
Shang-Chi wasn't a bad movie... Not one I'm likely to rewatch much, but a good popcorn movie...
Other than that, no Marvel has started falling into producer interference mode, where every movie must explicitly set up the next, even if they don't have a full plan for what's next.
They've lost sight of the key to their success; telling a tight, self-contained story made by people who love the characters.
I still enjoy Pokemon. They deserve the criticism they get but I grew up with it and I enjoy monster battling games.
Yeah I've enjoyed all the Pokemon games in the last decade (I also dropped over 100 hours in Palworld).
If you listen to the internet, however, we're apparently what's wrong with Pokemon, because we're not allowed to enjoy it unless it's perfect and lives up to to everyone else's very specific expectations, but the sales figures don't lie, there are certainly more than dozens of us!
You can enjoy it, but you’re insane if you don’t see a marked drop in quality from installation to installation in terms of map design, content, sound design and more. How many times are they going to reuse Mega Evolution with a new coat of paint instead of just keeping it already working?
Why do they prevent you from transferring Pokemon into newer generations? It’s not because they don’t have the space for the information. They’re saving money by not having to spend dev hours remodeling all the older Pokemon to fit the new art style or graphic threshold.
All in all, given the profits, they could put a lot more effort into making the experience more fun.
Here’s a decent breakdown of the issues between generations: (Warning: The presentation leaves something to be desired but the crux of the argument is sound.)
One Piece. The worldbuilding has yet to crash down on itself after 25 years.
Genshin Impact. Yes, it's gacha, but there's mountains of content you can play without spending a dime, and they continously expand both content and quality-of-life factors.
Resident Evil
(i'm talking about the games primarily, the shows/movies are hit or miss)
Mario. Also Zelda
It's been milked endlessly but definitely not disrespected a la Sonic. You know when you pick up one of these you're in for a good time. It's the kind of reputation Nintendo knows it relies on.
Walkabout Mini Golf has been going strong and still cranking out new courses regularly.
For me, it's Dragon Ball. Across 3 mangas, 4 shows, and like 25 movies, the latest content is still enjoyable. Dragon Ball Super, both the anime and manga, are just super fun successors to the originals. It's the only comic book I actually read when a new issue comes out.
Super Mario. It's been milked for what it's worth and more, but whenever there's a new Mario game you just know it's going to be good.
The last Teenage mutant ninja turtles movie was fire ... and there's a non zero chance there's already been another one released while I typed this.
World of Warcraft, I guess. Last expac was quite great even though Shadowlands - to some degree BFA - was trash