There have been franchises with poor releases that look like plain duds, but not an indication of the franchise decline. Then there are some which hammer in the fact that the franchise is going in a direction away from what made it big for fans.
Legend of Mana and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, as those two games signalled what the future of those two franchises would be, and it is not what fans wanted.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2, so far, looks like it is not the sort of game long term Xeno fans wanted. The game may turn out differently than it currently looks, but right now it looks really bad. If this is a sign of things to come, then that is the spiritual death of my favourite RPG franchise of all time (technically 3 franchises, but they're all related and by the same authors).
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
