It's often said that three is the magic number, and that's definitely the case when it comes to these excellent video game trilogies. Between them, they've helped to shape the gaming landscape around them, while also providing players with hundreds of hours of entertainment. Some of them are starting to show their age, but, for the most part, they all still hold up incredibly well today.
It's important to note that not all of them are trilogies by design, with some likely to receive fourth entries somewhere further down the road. Others have already welcomed their successors, but, as is so often the case with sequels, reboots, and remakes, the original trilogies still offer a far superior experience. When it comes to the best video game trilogies, these tantalizing trifectas just cannot be beaten.
10 Xenosaga
Xenosaga often gets lost among the hordes of fantastic JRPGs that have made their way west over the years, which is a real shame. Broken up into three excellent episodes, the series features an incredible fantasy storyline, great writing, and a beautifully composed soundtrack that perfectly captures the tone and vibe of the game. That, and some ridiculously long cut-scenes.
Sadly, a combination of middling sales, huge competition, and over-ambition on the developer's part led to the series being cut short; with only three installments being released rather than the six that had originally been planned. Even so, these three episodes fit together perfectly and also paved the way for future Xeno titles like Xenoblade Chronicles.
9 Max Payne
Many consider Rockstar Games to be the best video game developer of all time. Not only has the team created multiple hit franchises over the years, but it's difficult to recall them ever putting out a bad game. The Max Payne titles are among some of their very best and feature fantastic characters, an excellent storyline, and some of the most enjoyable gunplay mechanics in gaming history.
Unlike the Red Dead trilogy, all three Max Payne games are top tier and connect together perfectly to create a narrative that's full of tragedy and pain. The titular character's quest for vengeance is incredibly compelling and his insightful narration is able to evoke a wide range of emotions in players. Those who like Rockstar's other titles will likely love what the Max Payne trilogy has to offer.
8 Dark Souls
Anybody old enough to remember what video games were like in the late eighties and early nineties will know that things got quite a bit easier for gamers around the turn of the century. That all changed, however, when FromSoftware released Dark Souls in 2011; a game that basically gave players no choice but to "git gud" or give up.
Though the immense difficulty wasn't for everybody, many found the game's lack of handholding to be incredibly refreshing. The game's initial success led not only to two direct sequels, but also to the creation of an entire subgenre of Souls-like games springing up almost overnight. In terms of impact, it's difficult to think of a post-2000 title having much more.
7 BioShock
It's not at all uncommon for video games to tackle serious issues through their narratives, but rarely has a series been able to do so quite as effectively as BioShock. The dystopian cities of Rapture and Columbia each offer their own takes on objectivism and politics, while also serving as the perfect settings for the games' excellent action scenes.
Andrew Ryan is a wonderful antagonist and his interactions with Jack are always a treat. Sadly, just as BioShock Infinite lacks the depth of its predecessors, so too does the relationship between Booker and Zachary Comstock. Regardless though, when taken as a trilogy rather than as individual titles, the BioShock games are up there with some of the very best and definitely worth playing.
6 Tomb Raider
The first few Tomb Raider games were revolutionary for their era, both in terms of their use of a female protagonist and their excellent gameplay. Unfortunately, however, subsequent titles were unable to build upon the fantastic foundations laid by their predecessors and the series slowly but surely ran out of steam. That was until the 2013 reboot came along to breathe new life into the ailing franchise.
Together with the Uncharted series, Tomb Raider and its two sequels are amongst the very best action-adventure games of the 21st century and right a lot of the wrongs found throughout earlier Tomb Raider games. Lara now feels like the strong, independent woman she was always supposed to be, while the awful tank controls that blighted many of her pre-2013 outings are now nowhere to be found.
5 Metroid Prime
Though many fans still prefer some of Samus' earlier 2D outings, it's hard to argue that the three Metroid Prime titles aren't still excellent games. Nintendo took a big risk trusting the newly founded Retro Studios with one of their biggest and most beloved IPs, but the developer didn't let them down; delivering a gameplay experience that perfectly captured the vibe of earlier Metroid games.
The games looked fantastic for the time of their release and did an excellent job recreating the dark and ominous vibes that made other titles in the series so enjoyable. There was plenty of innovation too, although at no point did it ever feel as though the titles strayed too far from the classic Metroid formula. How exactly the trilogy hasn't been brought to the Switch yet is anybody's guess, but at least series fans have Metroid Dread to look forward to.
4 Shenmue
Even at the time of its release, Shenmue was a fairly divisive title. Its slow pacing and focus on mundane events and activities could at times make it very difficult to play, while its English dub and localization were at times pretty laughable. It more than made up for this, however, with its cutting-edge graphics, fantastic story, and incredibly detailed open world.
Shenmue 2 brought with it more innovation, ambition, and depth, while also providing a few much-needed quality of life updates. Fans would then have to wait almost two decades for a third title, which, although not in the least bit as groundbreaking as its predecessors, still did an excellent job of recapturing the vibe of the original games.
3 The Witcher
CD Projekt Red's The Witcher series has always been popular, but it wasn't until the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that it really blew up. In many ways, this worked out quite well for new fans of the series, as it meant that they had two excellent titles to go back to once they'd finally had enough of the series' third entry.
Given how much content is crammed into the game though - not to mention the two fantastic DLC packs - it's unlikely that players will be finishing Wild Hunt all that quickly. Geralt's final outing is undoubtedly the pick of the bunch too, but thanks to mods, texture packs, and enhanced editions, fun can still be had with the first two Witcher games despite them releasing more than a decade ago.
2 Mass Effect
Plenty of series' have had a story that unfolds over multiple entries, but few, if any have made it work quite as well as the Mass Effect trilogy. Many of the decisions that players make have a knock-on effect in later games and the ability to carry progress over between the three games links the overarching narrative together almost seamlessly.
Commander Shepard's adventures are as engaging as they are exciting, while the ability to choose their gender was incredibly progressive for the time of the first game's release. Likewise, the games' extensive romance options were also well ahead of the curve and provide some of the trilogy's most memorable and heartfelt moments.
1 Donkey Kong Country
Despite being more than a quarter of a century old, the original trilogy of Donkey Kong Country games remain three of the best 2D platformers ever made. It's a little crazy to think that they were all released over the span of just two years and more so to realize that in the two and a half decades since the last one, a better Donkey Kong Country game still hasn't been made.
That's not necessarily a bad thing though, as the pre-rendered graphics and well-designed stages of the original trilogy still hold up fairly well today, while the platforming is as tight as it ever was. Whether controlling Donkey, Diddy, Dixie, or Kiddy, the games never feel unfair, with every mistake falling squarely on the shoulders of the player rather than poor programming.