10 Risky Sequels That Saved Dying Video Game Franchises

10. Resident Evil 7

While I don't think Resident Evil 6 was as bad as people say it was, it was a disaster for the franchise. The game was a huge resource sink from Capcom, who had over 600 developers working on the sequel at its peak, indicative of just how unwieldy and bloated the series had become by that point. It still sold well, but after a critical kicking and an overwhelming backlash from fans, the publisher was forced to scale back and rethink its plans for Resi as a whole.

Resident Evil was put on ice until the start of the next gaming generation, with Capcom keeping their mouth shut as to how they were going to carry the franchise forward. All fans had to chew on in the meantime was uninspired-to-ok spin-offs, with hope for a return to form increasingly extinguished with each new release.

But, then, Resident Evil 7 turned the entire ship around. A concerted effort to reinvent the series just like the fourth game, the sequel simultaneously broke new ground and went back to basics, with a new setting, perspective, tone and set of characters all complimenting its re-embracement of classic survival-horror tropes.

Such a drastic change didn't please every fan, of course, but it raised Resi back from the dead and, alongside the remake of the second game, reclaimed its place as a giant of the industry.