Animal Crossing New Horizons. I have been a huge fan since I bought the Gamecube version back in 2002. But when I first played the new game, the drastic shift away from its roots really ticked me off. My three favorite things to do in Animal Crossing games is to collect furniture sets, complete the museum and get the golden tools. So when they took away the ability for me to collect furniture in the traditional way, and they made the golden tools breakable, two-thirds of what I love about the game was gone. I was so frustrated and depressed, that I literally didn't play for almost a year. Other people in the house did, but I refused. Then one day, I decided to heck with it. I'll just play and enjoy whatever there is to enjoy and deal with the loss. Now, I actually like the game.

I still miss a proper store, though. And I don't craft a thing outside of tools lol. Just doesn't feel like Animal Crossing to me.

Banjo-Kazooie (N64) - I really didnt like it when I first played it when I first bought it - dropped it and re-started about two years later and instantly fell in love with it. I suppose when I first played it, I was going through...a lot - bear in mind, I was like early 10s age. Thankfully I got over what I was going through at the time. I first played the game back in 1998, second playthrough was in 2004 (when i actually beat the game for the first time) and did a third playthrough back in 2017.

Super Mario Sunshine (GCN) - I really disliked the game at first especially since Mario lost the ability to punch. I was also a huge fan of SM64 so the changes didnt sit too well with me at first. Forward at least 5 years later and I did a second run and actually beat the game. I did it again shortly afterwards - enjoyed it the 2nd time and 3rd time. The first time I played it was back in 2002, second time was back in 2008 and shortly after that again in 2010.

Final Fantasy VIII (PS1 and PC) - I really hated the game mainly because of the junction system making magic useless to use (and focus on stats) and the enemy level scaling. I eventually got hold of the Steam/PC version several years later and understood jRPGs and party build ups since. I ended up making a OP party (2 high level characters and a low lv character - also got to use some of my favorite spells but near end game I was using limit breaks all the time) so I actually started enjoying the game finally. I first played the game on PS1 back in 2006 but played the Steam/PC version back in 2016.

FFXV. While I still think its one of the weaker entries in the franchise at first I hated it with a passion, mostly because of the combat and "modern" setting. I still think both of those elements suck, however as the game progressed I didnt care for them as much, mostly because the character interactions between the main cast were great and that took my attention away. As flawed as this game might be, its one of the very few FF games were I dont hate a single playable character. So it grew on me thanks mostly to that. Its a shame the rest of the game is not as well developed.

Lowkey Mario 3D World. I dont like 3D Mario games, Galaxy I and II being the notable exceptions, I think 3D Mario si boring compared to 2D Mario, but you know, Mario3DW grew on me and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Not much else to say about that.

Control

Started on PS4 via PS Now, finished on the Switch (the 60fps helped)

RDR, burned out on it quickly. Picked it up again half a year later and absolutely loved it to the end.

Horizon Zero Dawn: That long 'tutorial' area nearly killed the game for me. I rather forced myself to continue after reading it gets better after 10 hours. And yes it got so much better after you can leave the first area. It became one of my favorite games that gen.
They didn't learn though, Horizon FW has a horrible start as well, then gets amazingly good. At least this time I was prepared for a rough start.

And more recently Pistol Whip. I bounced off hard from the 'story' mode. Didn't feel any rhythm at all, just shoot whatever pops up while someone keeps talking. I tried again a couple days later, now with my surround system properly working with the ps5 (first time HDMI ARC stripped PCM 7.1 output down to 2.0, and 90% of the sound just came from the center speaker) I ignored the story levels and just set up arcade to my liking, dual wield, infinite ammo, one shot kills, play on hard. Sound up loud, subwoofer working, and started warming up to the music selection. Still not touching story mode levels, but will buy some better music packs when/if available.

Not sure what it is with game openings. Movies are much better at grabbing you from the start. So many games are pretty hard to get into, mainly because they can't resist talking your ears off before you finally get to play.

You can add God of War to the list. Gave up on it a couple times, but it does get good later on.
Zelda Skyward Sword is also a game I gave up on a couple times. Enjoyed the later levels (Sand Sea was awesome) but never finished as the repetitive bosses with wonly motion controls killed it off for good. If it would let you skip the cut scenes and just let you try again I would have continued.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. When I first played it, I was feeling the game too simple and boring. One day two years later I was thinking which new game to buy, because I have finished all I had, and I saw M+R in my digital library. I don't know why, but I opened it, played for 3-4 hours and become so addicted that I finished it two days later. M+R for me was impressive, and opened me to the RTS games.
Now I'm enjoying games like XCOM, Into the Breach and 13 Sentinels (this last one has also an incredible story) a lot!

Dead Space.

At first I found it very boring, and the zero gravity sections were awful. After some time, I tried it again, and it became one of my favorite franchises.

I subbed to PS+Extra of late and Prey is on the game list. I knew it was an immersive sim with the Prey name slapped on but have been unsure about playing it.

You make it sound worth my time. I've just finished Borderlands 3 so might download it.

Dark Souls 3. I've been playing it non stop recently which is very strange. I played it for the first time a year or two ago and got frustrated after failing to beat a certain boss.

I came back to it recently and I'm actually enjoying it? I chose a different class this time and tried warrior/mage build instead of just a plain warrior from my first playthrough. I took my time and explored a bit more and found some useful weapons and spells. I learned about the game mechanics a bit more. And I even managed to beat that boss that was giving me trouble before.

And on top of that I have a strange desire to play more Souls games. I even went and bought Elden Ring and Dark Souls remastered.

Europa Universalis IV.

First time I tried it I had no idea WTF was going on, didn't like it and just gave up. Took nearly a full year for me to try again, but I started playing Crusader Kings II, got pretty into that and since EU is basically its sister series decided to give it another shot (already had it in my Steam library including some DLC from when I bought it a year before on sale, so why not?). Having played CK2 and gotten used to how that game works I was able to adjust much easier to EU4 and figure things out. Now EU4 is probably my most played game of all time (>3k hours on Steam), so I definitely enjoyed it a fair bit when I gave it another try.