I couldn't finish SS Wii. I did finish SSHD. SS was a victim of the Wii design philosophy, sadly. I think it's a good game, but easily the weakest of the 3D Zeldas.

Best: Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

The move to an over-the-shoulder camera and the introduction of the "touch" mechanic where you have to hold a button to reach out and pick up an item or draw back a curtain were both huge steps forward.

Worst: RE6

Not scary at all and riddled with all the worst cliches of that era from excessive quicktime events to being overly scripted.

I think FF16 is both the best and also the worst departure. The best because it brings a tone and visceral story and backdrop along with hard ass characters in a series that really needed to find some grit and get away from the anime affair (the best they could do before this was a half asked punk boy band) but the worst cause it trades everything else for it, the game mascarades as an RPG, it wears the shell of an open world game and comes across more as an MMO without the multiplayer but at least there is the story and tone and vibes which are on point, which are so good it carries the game above average, heck if even up to being good on story, vibes, themes, characters and spectacle alone and the good thing about the side content being so atrociously bad is you don't want to engage with any of it so the game feels more cohesive since you're forced down the strict main path at any rate. Just would have been cool if they had focused recourses on that path and not added in fetch quests mid story beats to pad and slow down the game.

Also another best and worst. MGS5, it's best cause it's the best action stealth game ever created by far and none will come close to it anytime soon and by coincidence the best 80's action, Rambo simulator and one of the few that is actually good. The worst cause it fails at being an MGS game story wise, it's clearly an unfinished game and it actually hurts MGS lore. Kojima clearly wanted to come full circle and have you, as big boss, fight Solid Snake at the end of the game and make a perfect loop but Konami didn't want him to close it out forever so we got this, unfinished half assed, brilliantly crafted utter mess, wonderfully designed masterpiece of a game.

Beat/worst is all relative, not sure I can say. But I can say franchises that I liked and those I didn’t (harder, as I mostly ignore those I didn’t care for).

My favourite franchise departures are easily Super Mario Bros 3, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Galaxy, Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Dragon Quest 9, and Breath of the Wild.

• Super Mario Bros 3 added maps and really felt like an adventure. I suppose the series was only a few years at this point, but over a decade if you include the Jumpman era.
• DKC updated the franchise to SMB3 style and added CGI rendered graphics that gave the series a real cinematic flair.
• Super Mario Galaxy’s gravity effects and more interesting level design was the first time I loved 3D Mario.
• Xenoblade Chronicles (which I consider the 5th game in this spiritual franchise) really opened up the locations after Xenosaga’s more corridor focused experience - and this was very fresh after Xenosaga Episode 2 and 3 particularly.
• Xenoblade Chronicles X was the first properly open world game that I enjoyed (not including some sandbox titles, like Minecraft and simulation/strategy game type things) and seemed like the proper direction for Xeno-games. I did not enjoy the XC2 regression.
• Dragon Quest 9 added in multiplayer and a massive post-game which dwarfed the main game (it might be that 80%+ of the game is in the post), making DQ9 one of my most played and loved games of all time. Though, are any of the DQ games really a departure when every game is a departure?
• Breath of the Wild brought all of what I liked from XCX’s open world design (minus the RPG elements), and added in polish and sandbox elements that really made it what I’ve always wanted in a Zelda game, and more. The first Zelda game I’ve loved since Link to the Past.

The ones I wasn’t too keen on that stick out include Final Fantasy 12, Mario 64 (but more so Sunshine), Ocarina of Time (but more so win Celda/Wind Waker - so I agree with Curl on the Celda stuff), and Metroid Prime, Dragon Quest 6, again with 7, and again with 8 - but all these games have loads of fans. Not too much to say on them, they just weren’t my bag.

Best. Ninja Gaiden 2004. Series had a nice run in the late 80s to early 90s from arcade to home console to handhelds. 2004 reboot was a great way to not only bring the series 3D to give it a new identity. It plays well even to this day and retained it's challenging nature of the older titles.

Worst. Yiaba Ninja Gaiden Z. What is this shit? While it does have a cool aesthetic. The gameplay is awful. AWFUL. Bad writing.  Annoying enemies. Not balanced well. Oh yeah sewer levels. For all the faults Ninja Gaiden 3 was. At least Razors Edge salvaged what they could and made a solid fun game out of it. Yaiba?  It's a car wreck where a puddle of flesh could not be identified as part of the NG family.

One good one: the Castlevania series starting with Symphony of the Night. For the first decade of its existence, Castlevania was a series of slower-paced action-platformers, but from 1997 to 2008, the series was dominated by a series of "Metroidvania" entries. Yet the average Metroidvania was so good that most people never really minded.