Shaunodon on 10 November 2019
King of Fighters XIII was my favourite fighting game from last-gen, but with KOF XIV they decided to ditch the classic 2D sprites and went with cheaper PS2-looking 3D graphics. I did eventually buy it but several years after release.
Can't say this is a definitive example of what you're looking for. I did hate that they wanted to change the art style, but I might've still bought it at release if it didn't just look plain garbage anyway.
I didn't like the change of art style in Xenoblade 2 either, but I still bought and played it at release. So for me at least, I guess it'd take a pretty extreme scenario to totally put me off a game.
