10 Great Video Games That Should've Started Franchises

7. Death's Door

The isometric action-adventure title follows a soul-reaping crow who works for a bureaucratic afterlife agency. When a soul is stolen, the Reaper sets out to reclaim it. 

Though Death's Door draws heavily from The Legend of Zelda, it never feels derivative. Acid Nerve's wonderful game boasts rewarding combat, innovative puzzles, and precise gameplay. The enemies are tough as nails but they telegraph their attacks, so battles always seem fair. Death's Door has an amazing ability of being simultaneously silly and poetic, utilising goofy humour one moment before reflecting on the collective demise of all living things the next.

But much like the lives The Reaper extinguishes, the end of Death's Door comes too soon. The game only offers three dungeons, which is a shame, since there is so much that could be expanded upon. 

Sequels could explore different aspects of the afterlife, including mythologies from different cultures. A prequel centred around how The Reaper's agency came to be would be interesting. The final boss is so intriguingly cryptic, you could make a whole game revolving around him. 

Even though The Reaper only has a few abilities, the developers provided a huge variety in combat and puzzles. As a result, it'd be fascinating to see our avian hero have more powers and more elaborate puzzles to deal with. 

But since there's no word of a sequel, we may never know.