Series
Where does it start?
Three orders exist for any series worth the name and they disagree. Release order is what everyone played and what each game assumes you played. In-world chronology is where the story sits, when there is one. Recommended is neither, and it is the one you probably want. Every list below says which one you are looking at instead of picking quietly.
These are about continuity, not difficulty. The ladders cover some of the same games and order them by what prepares you for what — the two disagree on purpose.
DOOM, the modern three
3 entriesHas a chronologyThe reboot and its two follow-ups. Health from finishing wounded enemies, so the whole design punishes retreating — and then a prequel that takes the double jump away.
Start with DOOMFinal Fantasy VII Remake
3 entriesNo chronologyA three-part retelling of a 1997 game that stops being a retelling somewhere in the first few hours, and knows you know the original.
Start with Final Fantasy VII Remake1 not in the catalogueFromSoftware, Demon’s Souls to Nightreign
8 entriesHas a chronologySixteen years of one studio arguing with itself about the same handful of ideas: a bonfire, a walk back to your corpse, and a boss who is not going to explain anything.
Start with Elden RingMetal Gear Solid
7 entriesHas a chronologyFour decades of one plot told out of sequence, in games that assume you played the previous one and are lying to you about at least one thing.
Start with Metal Gear Solid4 not in the catalogueMonster Hunter, the modern run
5 entriesNo chronologyHunt a large animal for thirty minutes, make a coat out of it, hunt a larger one. Two parallel lines — the World branch and the Rise branch — plus their expansions.
Start with Monster Hunter WildsNioh
3 entriesHas a chronologySengoku Japan as a loot game: the soulslike skeleton with stance switching, a gear churn, and difficulty that comes from systems rather than from level design.
Start with Nioh 2