8 Video Game Franchises That Made Their Mark With Sequels

4. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

The Megami Tensei series has a deep, rich history that extends to the late eighties when the first game, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, released on the MSX and Famicom systems. It's come a long way since then, becoming one of the most recognised roleplaying franchises in Japan. In 1996, Revelations: Persona, a spinoff, came out for the Sony PlayStation and slowly become a sleeper hit. Persona 3, the fourth game in the sub series, was released to strong critical praise the PlayStation 2 before being followed up by an add-on disc, Persona 3 FES. In 2008, Persona 4 launched for the PlayStation 2, nearly two years after console's successor became available in Japan. If this were any other franchise on any other console, it's hard to say if this would be profitable, let alone a massive hit. With Persona 4 however, it became clear that the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series had accumulated enough diehard fans that they could launch any platform and still be successful. Persona 4 was followed by a portable upgrade, Persona 4 Golden, now considered by many to be one of the greatest RPGs ever made, and the best game to ever grace the PlayStation Vita. Since then, the Persona series has expanded rapidly with spinoffs (that is to say, they are spinoffs of a spinoff) including two Arcsys fighting games, a rhythm game from the developers of Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA, and an Etrian Odyssey ripoff for the Nintendo 3DS. For a series that started out as a sleeper hit on the PlayStation, it's definitely come along way, arguably making its mark in the industry with Persona 3, the most easily accessible game up to that point. Wherever you think it might have broken out to the mainstream, it's hard to argue that outgrowing its parent franchise isn't an incredible feat for just four or five sequels.