Fallout 3. The criticism is absolutely fair*, but it was the first RPG I ever played and I'm still very fond of it.

* I never got the 'metros are hard to navigate' criticism, I never had that issues. Most of them are pretty linear.

E.T.

Yes really. I played it all the time as a kid and didn't think it was any more difficult or abstract than the rest of the 2600's catalogue. Granted, we kept the manual, which made a huge difference in understanding and enjoying its bizarre logic, but still. I had no idea it was so hated until at least a decade later.

Super Mario Sunshine. I thought it was just hard as a kid. Come to learn it’s fucking broken.

Sonic Adventure 1. I love the hub worlds and how the stories of the different characters intertwine in the shared areas. And I love the variety of characters and being able to freely choose which one to advance (unlike Sonic Adventure 2...)

Yoshi's Story. Yeah it's short, and level unlocking is weird as all outdoors, but people really hating on it for being too easy? Bro, it's a YOSHI game. That's a quarter of the appeal! It's a game you can get younger kids involved in, or you can play after a hard day when you want to turn your brain off partially.

Plus almost everything in that game is adorable. And 64 bit sprite art is goated

I rented Superman 64 as a kid, never knowing it was a universally hated game. We had fun with the weird multiplayer mode where you fly around in weird pod things. I remember flying through the rings too. The whole game makes zero sense in hindsight.

Indigo Prophecy

Played it when it originally released in the US and I loved it as a pre-teen who had no fucking idea what was happening in the story.

Came to find out no one had any clue what was happening in the story regardless and people thought the game was a mess.

Destiny 2.

Started playing the first game day one but stopped for several years. Picked up 2 when I found out it was ftp right after beyond light came out and bought all the dlcs available until after lightfall. I was at work and a customer asked what games I play. Said D2 and someone else said "why would you do that to yourself?" I thought hard about that for awhile and realized all I do is grind and don't really have that much fun with it. It was more like a second job. And lightfall was a garbage dlc. That was also a major contributer to me quitting.

A lot of people didn't like Assassins Creed Odyssey, but I loved it. Only AC I've played since 2.

I have a lot of childhood nostalgia for Donkey Kong 64. If you were a kid who could only get a new game every few months or so, this giant behemoth of a game will last a long time.

But it undeniably is a bloated clusterfuck, the internet is not wrong in hindsight.

Next thing that comes to mind for me is the GBA port of Tales of Phantasia. Symphonia was a huge part of my adolescent years, and as soon as I heard this was getting a GBA remake I was all over it. Loved it, and didn't hear until much later that GBA is apparently considered the worst version of the game. If PSP ever gets translated, I'd love to see what I missed out on...

Final Fantasy 8. I loved it but apparently I was in the minority.

Every game that ever gets released when you check gaming forums within the first month of a game's release lol /s

Im joking. I get the sentiment that a finished product should be fully complete and inspected by a QA team before release. But still, the fuckin extreme hatred ill see for the game and its studio, regardless of the company's history, is soooooo fuckin wild. And almost everytime when I get to the point of buying the game, ill check the steam reviews and it'll be mostly positive after like one patch release.

Too human. I loved it so much I don't know why people hate it

Dead Space 3. Sure, it has some issues, but I didn't realize how much others actively disliked it until I tried talking to people about it.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

People only ever talk about Final Fantasy Tactics and dismiss any of the other games. However, going by the original release, Tactics Advance is by far my favorite. It's my favorite GBA game and at least in my Top 25 JRPGs, despite having played almost nothing else for the past 20 years. I like many of the things the game gets criticized for.

How old were you when you played Sonic Unleashed? I thoroughly played and enjoyed Sonic Adventure 2 for the Gamecube when I was in middle school, but revisiting it as an adult, it was so hard to envision how I ever enjoyed the way that game controls. However, even though my muscle memory was totally gone, since all the levels I knew from SA2 were remixed, Sonic Generations was good even as an adult.

I really enjoyed Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Thief 3. I had never played a Thief game before and thought it was great. Apparently, fans of the first two games were disappointed with it at first. I think the criticism didn't last long, though. Everyone now seems to agree that it was good.

Dying Light 2. It was definitely different than the first game, but I enjoyed many of the changes. My buddies and I spent a lot of time just running around killing Volatiles, and having a blast while doing so. But apparently a lot of the changes were deeply unpopular with fans of the first game.

I spent a lot of time playing Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts alone and online with friends. A lot of people I've talked to view it negatively and are surprised when I say it was one of my favorite 360 titles. It's one of the main reasons I want to try out Xbox 360 emulation.

Mine was final fantasy 12. I played that game so hard, really enjoyed it and if was released in the time of trophies I would have platinumed it. Even did the grinding for Gilgamesh to spawn for a sword or something. But I was hated at the time.

Now everyone is saying it was one of the best and I was proved right all along.

Sure the story was star wars and the main character wasn't, but the combat system was really fun, way better than 13.

This is an oldie, but Lords of the Realm II. I loved the first two, but had trouble with the third and ended up giving up, assuming it was a me problem.

Nope, the community pretty much unanimously hates it. It's not a terrible game per se, it's just very different from the first two, throwing out everything most people liked about the predecessors and not exactly succeeding at the new mechanics.

I've decided to build my own take on the best parts of all three, we'll see if I ever finish it.