Mass Effect. I know that it was in part intentional, to introduce you to the controls and story, but the first hours are a borefest.

Street Fighter II, but I figured out how to better use certain characters. I prefer E Honda and Chun-Li.

Just going to highlight a more recent game.

Armored Core VI. At first it feels like a bad version of souls games with mechs. It feels needlessly difficult, with not many options. There isn't a level up mechanic, so you can't outlevel the bosses. But if you keep playing and face off against the many bosses over and over, the game just gets more fun. As your ability to maneuver the mechs and aim/shoot at the same time increases, the game feels like an intense cinematic masterpiece with you in full control of how it happens.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was this for me. The slow movement, the dice roll combat system the devs didn't bother to properly explain which resulted in me dieing repeatedly, the sometimes vague directions which sometimes had me searching in the completely wrong location for a specific npc, and the unmovable npc's that prevented me from just walking through a damn corridor. All these things just made me drop the game initially.

About a month later I came back to the game. And started a new character with a different class. Chose the bonus in character creation that made me move a little faster. Got a better understanding of the combat system and how the agility Stat worked. And had a grand adventure. The Main Quest in this game is probably one of the most memorable experiences I've had in gaming. And the setting feels very unique among rpg's. and there's is more freedom to do what you want.

With that said I can definitely understand why this game would be a turn off to many people. Some of the gameplay elements feel really outdated. And if there's any game that could use a modern Remake it's this one.

But even so this game feels like a one of a kind experience.

Death Stranding. I preordered the game. Then i started reading the early reviews of the game, and most of them were saying it was a FeDex sim, which totally drove me off. So basically i was thinking it was a bad game without even trying it. I had it sitting on my shelf for more than half a year. But then I decided it was a woth it a try, and the moment the song "dont be so serious" starts to play (early 10-15 mins on the game) I knew the mistake i made by not playing it earlier.

Metal Gear Solid 2. I was put off by the main character replacement, like everyone else. Once I made it past this idea, and start to actually play the game by its mechanics and story, wow, just wow, what a ride it was.

Blasphemous. Long story short. Was too hard at the beginning and didnt like too much that the character has a cone head (yeah, i know its very shallow this point of view). But when i caught the rhythm of the game, and after the last update, wounds of even tide, few games so simple (in terms of graphics) made me come back so many times for a replay.

Moonscars. Talking about difficulty, Blasphemous is a game for kids. This was the real deal. I didnt know you can remove the blood moon, so I played the game on hard from beginning to end. So before i started to play it for real, I stopped many times because i was expending more time dying than actually playing.

Metal Gear Solid 5. The new mechanics. They put me off for more than 4 years. When i decided it was time to remove this from my unfinished list I really pushed myself to play it, but then suddenly i didnt need to try so hard to keep playing. The game is a masterpiece (imo).

Those are the ones i can recall top of my mind. I played them for 15 mins, then I said meh, stopped. Then later on, I couldnt stop playing them second time I tried them.

EDIT: Added moonscars and elaborated a little bit on the reasons why.

You know ... I never thought of it other than the other way around because I usually aim to play games I know I will probably enjoy so I never outright got one those moments where I was feeling off or downright disinterested about what I was experiencing at first.

Parasite Eve. I found it slow, boring, and a Resident Evil wannabe, then about a year or two later I realized how wrong I was and beat it. Fantastic game

Banjo Kazooie and Super Mario Sunshine.


Both games ended up becoming some of my most favorite games after I did second playthrough of each (and third one as well) many years after I first played both.

Okami. The beginning is extremely slow and exposition heavy, but once you get through the first hour or so, it really picks up and turns into a heartfelt story with some wonderful characters and a really unique main gameplay mechanic.

Gears of war I hated the cover mechanics but later started loving it!