What franchise(s) would you soft-reboot?

[TheMediator]

By soft reboot, I mean something like Mass Effect: Andromeda, where it isn't a full reboot but the previous games are somewhat disregarded in order to focus on a new story arc free of previous lore/characters while maintaining the style and flavor of the universe?

For instance, I think Halo could definitely use a soft-reboot after the Reclaimer trilogy/'saga' is finished. The lore is getting completely convoluted and massive, and expecting people to play 5-6 games plus read books and watch TV shows is a bit too much. The franchise has also leaned on the Covenant as bad-guys for almost 15 years - that's too much.

[unholytestament]

Resident Evil

Leave all that silliness behind.

[TheMediator]

Resident Evil

Leave all that silliness behind.

Absolutely. Resident Evil is another example where the lore got too convoluted. I'd argue that the spin-offs Revelations and Revelations 2 handled it somewhat okay, but even with those successes, the franchise could use more of a reboot, even as much as I enjoy seeing Leon and Chris running around. Decoupling future games from the Umbrella/Wesker/Illuminati nonsense could go a long way to improving the franchise.

[Mechazod]

Ever since Street Fighter X Tekken (and the previews for Mega Man Universe) came out, I have been wanting a new prequel sub-series (maybe 1 or 2 games at most) starring "Bad Box-Art MegaMan" set before the events of the original NES series as a 3D 2.5D game with comic book style cut scenes or visual style and if they wanted to, they could really cheese the hell out of it.

< WARNING: TERRIBLE FANFIC INCOMING >
My terribad fan fiction setup for it would be set with a younger Dr. Light and Wily, still both partners in science, with them having a junior assistant/lab partner in the form of "Rockford Manning". During their experiments with artificial intelligence, a super computer in control of the worlds cyber networks gains sentience and goes rogue, creating a computer virus that takes over all other robots in the world and tries to overthrow humanity. Light & Wily's only hope to stop this is in the form of some basic mechanical weapons systems they had been developing for combat robots. Rockford steps forward to battle the hordes of insidious robots and the doctors modify the power armor so that a human can wield it, and thus Rockford becomes MEGA MAN!

Other characters/ideas that would be introduced would be Roll (who in this incarnation is the daughter of Light) and an early version of Protoman who looks up to the "OG" Mega Man as a sidekick. The game could set up the events of the first game by having Protoman get corrupted by the computer virus and running away and Wily getting the idea to tinker with the code for the virus as a means that he will use to one day take control of the Robot Masters in the later games (and maybe even a very early precursor to the Maverick Virus). Rockford and Roll can be killed off in the final epic battle and in honor of them Light names his two newest androids just being finished after them.
< TERRIBLE FANFIC END >

On a side note I was always disappointed by the decision to make the Battle Network games into a separate universe when they were originally conceived. The setup of the games seems like the perfect basis for a prequel type series set before robotics has really reached a point where intelligent robots are feasible, but the artificial intelligence for them is getting close. Hell Lan could have even been a young Dr. Light. At least they seem to kind of imply a setup of the series being an "alternate timeline" as that version of Wily hints at.