Wizardry 8. The Swan song of classic cRPGs - and Sir-Tech had to sell adspace in the game just to get the game finished (they had to cut some sidequests and one dungeon along the way) and out and folded directly afterwards.

Also, Super Metroid. After all, the only reason why the N64 doesn't have any Metroid game is that nobody had the confidence to follow up on that game, it was just way too much of a tough act to follow.

Donkey Kong County 2, and Mario Party 4. Every thing after those seems to miss the mark.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl. After Subspace Emisary, any other single player mode they have come up with feels like shit.

Also, Kingdom Hearts. The first one. I feel like everything went downhill from there. Not only it has my favourite combat in the series, but unlike the future titles... it's worth for more than its combat. You had platforming sections, puzzles... also your allies seemed to keep up with you pretty much all the time. They were able to take care of enemies themselves and even do significant damage to bosses.

All of that was lost in the future titles. Cutscene, walk, battle, walk, battle, cutscene, miniboss, cutscene, walk, battle, walk, boss. And that's it. And allies are completely powerless. By the end of the game, they won't even be able to keep up with you because you can fly, dash and roll mid air and they can't. They seem like a joke...

I enjoyed 4 almost as much as 3, and I played 5 more than I should have. But I always come back to 3.

Somehow, whatever you said about SC applied to Tekken until not so long ago, everyone thought the game peaked but they successfully managed to revitalize the series with T7. So there is still hope for SC.

As for SC6, the rock/paper/scissor is not meh, it's terrible, it kills the pace of the fights way too often and for what? the game didn't need this, it always stood out with as a flashy fighting game despite the lack of super moves (which 2D fighters employ too much of it to make up for the lack of flash). What pushed me further from the game though is how much they changed Mitsurugi. I either didn't take enough time to play the game or he is really a different character now.

From what I understand, SC6 had a small budget and continued support had to be green-lit if the base game does well on its own, season 2 added a lot of new moves apparently and new mechanics if I remember correctly. I haven't tried it out yet which is quite sad considering how much I used to love SC. 2B from Nier was a nice touch, Gerlat is not! Hopefully the game receives further support and we'll see it morph into a bigger game like Tekken.

For what's worth, the OP is too good for its own good because you've given a perfect example of a game that was perfect from the get go

None for me.

Surprise, surprise, it's impossible to be at the top of the game always, and not all sequels will be better than their predecessors. And that's just fine.

Of course, that sort of thinking might sometimes get into the minds of developers, considering how toxic gamers can be, and derail the development - in the broader sense of the word - of some franchises.

I second this 100%

Another example for me its Chrono Trigger. It was (still is) the perfect RPG back then that Cross felt like a huge let down.

Metal gear solid

Suikoden 3 was awesome. One of my favorite RPGs ever. It had some excellent characters and I'll never forget the ending. Some of what it did made it unique and special among RPGs that mostly follow the same formula. I have to respect that. Unfortunately, other parts were ahead of their time and were failed by technology. Suikoden 3 is a game that would benefit greatly from being remade.

As far as games that kind of painted themselves into a corner, I'd say the first Disgaea. Not only were the characters simply awesome but the mechanics were exactly what they needed to be. Subsequent games tried to add all kinds of stuff and it just never clicked for me. It didn't need to be more complicated than it already was.

I partially agree, DW2 was ok, enough to get me interested but DW3 really improved upon everything making me a fan and I was very happy with 4 and 5 and picked up the Samurai Warriors games too. However, I was really let down by DW6 and that led to me mostly leaving the Warriors games alone (though I did really enjoy Warriors Orochi 2 on the PSP and sunk many hours into it).

But then recently, I found DW6 was on PS Now (which I was already subscribed to) and gave it a go. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, even though it killed most of my interest in these games. I'm sure it's still worse than other entries but I think I've probably become more relaxed about certain things and now I can get some enjoyment out of it at last.

Not sure if I'll try some of the other ones though.