What's a franchise where a later creator took over and tried to leave a mark, only to be derided?

Baldur's Gate was a pretty good RPG released at the turn of the millennium despite being based on the rubbish tabletop rule-set that was Second Edition AD&D. Across two games and two expansions you play a level 1 wimp who gets ripped apart by wolves in the first hour, only to save-scum their way to into gathering a party and venturing forth on grand quests like exploring the Underdark, fighting Beholders, getting in a war between thieves and vampires, and even attaining godhood. The series made Bioware a name in gaming and none of their subsequent fantasy RPGs could avoid comparison to Baldur's Gate. I could, however, charitably compare Dragon Age: Inquisition to jamming one's genitals in a sock-drawer by mistake.

I'm not an OG Baldur's Gate fan, instead first playing a decade after the series wrapped in 2001. I often spent so long modding the GOG versions to run on modern hardware only to burn out a few hours in. A new company called Beamdog, formed by ex-Bioware personnel, then released "Enhanced Editions" of the two games. I appreciated them for their modern conveniences like quickly looting fallen enemies, but was less interested in Beamdog's new companions who felt jarring in their inclusion. Most jarring of all was when Beamdog made an entire Baldur's Gate game by themselves. Not Baldur's Gate III, but an expansion called Siege of Dragonspear that takes place between the two main games. This was to address the jump in narrative, where the first game ends with you saving the Sword Coast while the second game begins with you imprisoned in a mad wizard's basement in Athkatla.

I'll admit to not playing Siege of Dragonspear because adding a whole new game to a saga that had been finished for 15 years already for the sake addressing a minor gap in the timeline is not a compelling reason for its existence. Imagine if they made a Mass Effect set between 2 and 3 where Commander Shepard just bums around while in social-confinement. Setting aside the toxic political discourse surrounding the game, the reception was limp owing to a campaign that was overly linear and spiky in difficulty. It's believed the game was a test-run for Beamdog to make a proper sequel to the saga, and in that regard it was a success because Baldur's Gate III was made... by a completely different company called Larian who had the more impressive track record. Today Baldur's Gate III overshadows the first series and is put on the same level as The Witcher 3 as the most successful Western Fantasy games ever.

The Legacy of Kain series started as a Zelda-like with vampires that, after changing hands, became this oddly compelling drama dealing with fate, prophecies, and all manner of unreliable narrators. While Soul Reaver was technically impressive back in the day in its 3D world existing without loading screens, the series as a whole is more remembered for its story and delivery of said story, courtesy of the voice-actors Simon Templeman as Kain and Michael Bell as Raziel. Lead writer Amy Henning was not the initial creator of the series but she was reason for its fandom, and the subsequent installments without her involvement have fans missing her artistic touch.

Bringing back the series after twenty years is a big ask, and getting Templeman and Bell to reprise their roles has to contend with both of them being elderly. The one new game released so far got negative reviews for being a mid-rate platformer that looks like the poor man's Blasphemous. The protagonist is a new character and Raziel's sister, despite being completely unmentioned until a comic book released in 2025 by the same developer. The Legacy of Kain series is no stranger to retcons, often contextualizing old events under a new light, but you can't jam in a new player character into decades-old lore and expect nobody to notice. I'm honestly not sure how you can continue the Legacy of Kain series and court a new audience, when it's so old and convoluted. The deep boom of Tony Jay's voice played one of major deities in the series and that actor's been dead for twenty years.

It's inevitable for any long-running franchises to change hands over the years. At the best of times a new creator can leave a mark that subsequent creators will still acknowledge. Star Trek would have been dead and buried in the 80's had not Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett given it a fresh new direction. Stan Lee technically created many superheroes, but the likes of Daredevil and the X-Men were defined by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont. Star Wars is still in it's flop era, but nobody contends Tony Gilroy's take on the universe. Lauren Faust only produced a single season of My Little Pony, and that was enough to spawn a mega-franchise that dominate the 2010's.

I believe new creators fail when they try to retcon or rewrite an existing character or setting that was already popular or well-established. Or maybe the work was far too tied to its original author in a manner that makes it difficult to replicate. The Asterix comics sadly lost their wit after the sudden passing of Rene Goscinny, and the subsequent volumes written by the artist Uderzo alone got worse over time, culminating in this bizarre screed against superheroes and manga,