Rare, but they went back to being mediocre again.

All right I can agree with you on Killzone 1, but not all SMT games were like that, only the really old ones.Even then, they weren't bad games, just not for everyone I supppose. Then PS2 ones, like Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga were 3d and you'd navigate the world like P3. Heck, in Nocturne you can fight Dante, that alone is pretty cool.

this can be applied to any modern studio really, otherwise they wouldn't be in the industry anymore...

GameFreak made some games before Pokémon, and they did magazines before that...

Level 5. Sure, Dark Cloud was a decent debut for them but I don't think it was great. But they showed promise and man did they deliver with Dragon Quest VIII, Dark Cloud 2, Dragon Quest IX, Inazuma 11, Ni No Kuni, and now Yokai Watch.

This coming from the guy that platinumed goddamn Killzone 2. And that takes dedication.

EDIT: Thought you were talking about the whole Killzone series, but I see you were just talking about the original. I haven't played that one so I can't say anything about that.

Almost all of them.

But here are some that I like.
Rareware.
Silicon & Synapse.
Nintendo.
Service Games America (and then they went down again)

I think Mojang AB is the only one that knocked it out of the park on try 1.

Really? Mediocre?

They started as a venture by Sega to get sports games on the Dreamcast. And under Sega, they made NFL2k which outsold madden on only the Dreamcast install base.

Reality Pump. Two Worlds was a game with good idea that was just...bad. Really bad. Two Worlds II isn't winning any awards but it's pretty good with some legitimately great aspects like the magic system.

I'm talking about when Take Two bought them so YES they were mediorce at first.

But they started when they we first fuonded by Sega, and then they were not mediocre :P