One of the downsides of gaming sequels is that the heroes lose their abilities. To facilitate their growth, they must start from scratch. This means losing all the strength they gained in the previous entry. Few things are more frustrating than losing that progress.
Certain games bother to explain why. They concoct some narrative reason for the heroes' powers drying up. This can even serve as the catalyst for their next journey. It's still inconvenient, but it's somewhat less insulting than taking away one's abilities without a word.
8 Guacamelee! 2
Humility ultimately bests this wrestler. In the first Guacamelee!, humble villager Juan attains tremendous strength from a mystical luchador mask. He then learns a plethora of devastating wrestling moves from the land's ancient statues. This lets him rescue his love and defeat the malicious Calaca.
Guacamelee! 2 sees Juan settle down with his love and give up the mask. Not only is he missing his immense power, but he lacks any physical prowess whatsoever. The other villagers even comment on him being out of shape. In short, several years of complacency has sapped his strength.
7 God Of War 2 & 3
This Spartan demigod has to work his way up to divinity. The original God of War sees Kratos embark on a grueling quest to find Pandora's Box, as the power within will help him slay the treacherous Ares. Along the way, he receives a slew of weapon upgrades and abilities from the other gods.
God of War 2 has these maxed out at the start due to Kratos's own godhood. Unfortunately, Zeus tricks him into draining his power into a magical sword. This renders him mortal, meaning he must spend the rest of the game regaining his strength and learning new moves. Thankfully, once he catches up with Zeus, Kratos is more than a match for the Olympian king.
God of War 3 delays their pivotal showdown by having Kratos fall from Mount Olympus into the River Styx. The souls of the dead swarm him and steal his strength. As a result, the frustrated warrior must work his way up once again, both figuratively and literally.
6 Kingdom Hearts 3 & Chain Of Memories
For the Keyblade's chosen one, Sora sure needs a lot of training. Upon receiving the mythical weapon in the first Kingdom Hearts, the kid gradually grows more adept with melee combos and spells. By the end, he--along with Disney allies Donald and Goofy--becomes a mighty champion of light. While searching for their friends in Chain of Memories, however, the party fecklessly enters the mysterious Castle Oblivion. This causes them to forget all of their abilities, and they must restore them by exploring the memories of the previous game. What a cheap trick.
To be fair, the series doesn't pull said trick again until Kingdom Hearts 3. Here, Sora is still recovering from his ordeal in Dream Drop Distance, where he almost became a vessel for the malignant Master Xehanort. The ensuing adventure is about regaining both his inner strength and fighting prowess. Only then can he save the worlds from Xehanort's catastrophic scheme.
5 Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2
The Prince of Darkness is more like a pauper. Playing as Dracula in the Castlevania reboot trilogy should have been godlike. Not only does he develop into a mighty warrior of light in the first Lords of Shadow, but he later becomes the greatest vampire threat the world has ever known. Maybe he should have stocked up on blood.
Lords of Shadow 2 essentially sends Dracula into hibernation to prepare for Lucifer's return. He slumbers in his coffin until the modern day, and centuries without sustenance take their toll. Upon walking the Earth once again, he is frail and feeble. The fallen hero must quickly reinvigorate both his dark and light powers for his eventual rematch with the fallen angel.
4 The Legend Of Spyro: The Eternal Night
The reboot of the Spyro series positions the purple dragon as a prophesied savior, destined to free the lands from the Dark Master. It starts in A New Beginning when he rescues the dragon elders and learns elemental breath attacks from each of them. This paves the way for a dimension-bending climax where he prevents the villain's return and defeat's his lieutenant: Cynder.
After such a bombastic battle, Spyro is exhausted. As such, The Eternal Night opens with him recovering at the dragon temple. He must undertake another adventure to rediscover his breath attacks The irony is that this journey is to rescue Cynder, the very dragon he lost them fighting in the first place.
3 Infamous 2
Like with Spyro, this loss stems from the previous game's ending. Infamous 2 begins with electric superhero Cole MacGrath desperately defending his home city from the "Beast," the colossal creature that his future self warned about. Ultimately, his efforts are in vain. The monster levels the place and leaves Cole on the verge of death.
After such an ordeal, he needs to recharge (pun intended). So, he completes various tasks around a new city to build his health back up and gain new Conduit powers. This ensures that Cole doesn't fail a second time when the Beast comes knocking.
2 The Shantae Series
The Shantae series offers two explanations for the heroine's downgrades. The first comes down to pure laziness; Shantae falls out of practice with her belly-dancing transformations and other moves. This happens in Risky's Revenge, Half-Genie Hero, and Seven Sirens. The other reason for her power-down is more drastic.
In Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, that reason lies in her losing her genie form at the end of the previous entry. Though not as frequent, this is far more damaging to her core being. After all, what's the half-genie hero without the genie? Regardless, the result is the same: she must relearn her forms and fill her meters.
1 The Metroid Series
As good a space marine as Samus is, much of her strength lies in her equipment. She sports a gaggle of guns, bombs, and suits throughout the Metroid series. An explosion ruins that equipment in Metroid Prime. This isn't her fault, as it's totally beyond her control. However, the following entry sees the Ing steal Samus's items, once again leaving her with nothing. It's not the only time she suffers external interference.
Enemy sabotage seems to be the most common excuse for her losing her abilities. In Metroid Fusion, aliens infect her suit and turn it against her. In Metroid Dread, a Chozo warrior trounces her in battle--an encounter which saps her strength for the umpteenth time. At this point, one wonders if the problem is Samus herself. Maybe she should take better care of her stuff.