I was the same with the Dark Souls games. I just had no interest in them because they just looked way too punishing.

Then I discovered the lore. I'm a huge lore nerd. I mean I absolutely love Warhammer 40k and I've never played it and don't know how to play it. I don't have any of the minitures but man the lore for that is awesome. It was the same for the Dark Souls games. I just stumbled across a video by that VatiiVidya guy and I was hooked. Now I wanted to play and just pick up everything and read the tiny bits of lore attached to every item in the games and then piece together this universe.

Dark Souls 3 being my favourite. That story once you discover what's REALLY happening is amazing. The lore for DS3 really turns the whole playing experience on its head. Suddenly you go from thinking you're the good guy trying to save this fucked up world to realizing that "wait, am I the baddie?" Like you have to return these guys to their thrones but you begin to understand WHY they don't want to sit on their thrones and in the end you honestly don't blame any of them for abandoning their task.