Horizon: Forbidden West – Is Franchising ruining good stories?

This is a reoccurring theme on this blog now; I’m poor as shit. Both financially poor and time poor. Thus I’ve had to become much more selective about which video games I spend my time and my money on. Especially now they are starting at £70 as a minimum.

Which is why I take much more of a wait and see approach to major AAA titles. Like Horizon: Forbidden West for example. The first game in the franchise was one I loved, telling a super unique story full of mystery, compelling characters and settings. While the gameplay was something of a turnoff for some people, the question behind the nature of the world drove many people to see it through to the end, myself included.

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The Inevitable sequels to games that never needed them

Franchising is both a miraculous gift and huge crutch when it comes to media. Without it, we wouldn’t have the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the continuation of Star Wars. Which is great, but not everything was born to be a franchise, sometimes a single movie/video game is all you need. One that sets out to tell a story and spread its message, then it’s done all tied up in a neat little bow as this self contained gem.

Then that story becomes popular, makes a lot of money and people start asking when the story is going to continue. Missing the entire point that the story was only so good because it existed in its own little bubble.