What are some games you loved with sequels you hated? Whether that be a significant drop in quality or major changes that you didn't like.

Here are the sequels that were a major step down for me:

Jak 2

I loved the first game, have 100%'d it 3 times, but despite multiple attempts could never get through more than 2-3 hours of the second. I don't like the city setting, the vehicles, the darker tone, the grimey graphics. The first game is a wonderful charming collectathon platformer and then they just completely changed it for the sequel. I have no idea what Jak 3 is like.

Dawn of War 2 / Cossacks 2

Combined these two because my problem with them is the same. The original entries were traditional RTS games with base building and economy and the sequels leaned heavily into being real time tactics games instead, despised the change.

Crash Nitro Kart

Hate is a strong term here, but the game is average at best. Less tracks than CTR but the main issue is that the driving feels terrible by comparison. CTR is one of my favourite games and the feel of chaining the boosts and jumping off ramps just isn't matched anywhere. CNK feels so poor to drive.

Saints Row (2022)

Haven't played this one enough to go into full detail because the horrific writing and the 'relatable' new cast of characters made me run for the hills shortly after starting the game. Loved SR3, SR4 was still good, this one was rough.

Not hate, but I've found Hollow Knight Silksong to be annoying, unfair and not well designed compared to original HK which is one of my favourite games ever

I will second Jak II. It's a solid enough game; it just doesn't feel like a true mechanical successor to The Prescursor Legacy, which is one of the all-time best PS2 games, in my opinion.

I know this will be sacrilegious to many, but Killzone 2 really left me cold, at least in terms of the single-player campaign. I'm actually a big Killzone 1 defender. Love the story, the multiple playable characters, the secondary fire modes on most weapons, etc. Killzone 2 ditched a lot of what made the first game special.

Love Chrono Trigger, but Chrono Cross sucks.

Dead Space 1 and 2 are goated, Dead Space 3 not so much

Metroid Other M
Zelda 2
Suikoden 4
FF8
Skyward Sword
DQ 9
Castlevania LOS 2

I dont particularly hate any of these, they just feel like a downgrade from what their franchises had going on at that point

Pikmin 2 is garbage, while 1, 3 and 4 are superb.

Prime 4, need to play more, but not tracking well at the moment.

Edit:

Oh, going a bit old school but Act Raiser 2...  awful, while the original was fantastic.

Legend of Zelda 1 to Legend of Zelda 2. I won't say I hated Zelda 2 but I was very let down. I am glad I stuck with the series because the next one hit it out of the park.

Crash Team Racing vs Nitro Kart
Devil May Cry 1 vs 2
Dino Crisis 2 vs 3

GTA San Andreas vs GTA4 (I don't exactly "hate" it but it was a major disappointment. Dropped it after a couple of hours).

Resident Evil 5 vs 6 (I don't "love" RE5, but I played online modes religiously, became super famous in Versus Team Survivors, topped the leaderboard of Lost in Nightmares, and had a ton of fun playing with online friends).

And FFX vs X-2

God of War 2018 to God of War Ragnarok, i loved the 2018 one, while Ragnarok felt like a chore a lot of times with a story that really landed flat for me

Oomphf that’s the spiciest take I think I’ve ever come across… calling Pikmin 2 garbage. All four Pikmin games are masterpieces, and Pikmin 2 is easily tied with Pikmin 4 as being the best.

Getting back on topic: TLOU:PtII. Maybe if I gave the game a second chance, it would click better, but I remember when playing it last year, I was extremely disappointed. Gameplay felt very same-y with the OG, and the story was filled with tons of moments that created a cheap sense of “catharsis” IMO.

Hard to come up with anything I really hate, but there's a long list of sequels that are worse.

For my very favorite games, Wing Commander 3(/4) was huge drop in gameplay from 1&2, I think Phantasy Star 2 is much overrated compared to the great original and - controversial opinion - I don't much like Monkey Island 2. Riven is the worst part of Myst series (but still not bad).

Perhaps biggest drop I can think of is Final Fantasy Legend, but that's unfair comparison because I played the first as fan translated Wonderswan version. Still, I though that was an awesome game and the second was just a generic JRPG, completely linear and by adding fourth class took away all interest in creating a team of four (first game has three character types; though actually in FFL2 you're better off using 2+2 of the better types).

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is technically sequel to Fate of Atlantis, but different genre so that doesn't really count either.

Leisure Suit Larry 2 is worst of the series.

I enjoyed Star Wars: Battlefront (the old ones) much better than second. And prefer Battlefield 1942 to BF2.

Lego Racers. I wouldn't quite say I loved the first, but it's good. The sequel was awful.

Tex Murphy series: original Mean Streets was cool game, Martian Memorandum is bad.

Clock Tower (SNes) > Clock Tower (PS1, really CT2) > Clock Tower II (Ghost Head)

Dragon Warrior/Quest III is much worse than first two and DQ5 was disappointment after 4.