It's one of the greatest games of all time. Why to you dislike it to begin with? The difficulty, storytelling or gameplay etc.?

I never disliked it, but I was only just starting to get into Soulslikes at the time I played it and it didn't blow me away or anything like that at the time. I definitely thought it was overrated (and still do, but to a much lesser extent; I don't agree with the widespread sentiment that Bloodborne is FromSoft's best work). The genre grew on me over time (massive understatement) and Bloodborne did too.

Another example of a game that I liked more as time went by is Dark Souls II, which was the first Soulslike I ever played. I purchased it in a Steam sale in 2014, played it once or twice, didn't get it AT ALL, and abandoned it thinking it was trash. I didn't play it again until 2019 (after playing The Surge); everything finally clicked into place and I started to really enjoy it.

I preordered the game and played it at launch back in 2004. Didn't feel revolutionary. Felt kind of similar to the first game in many ways, perhaps with less enemy variety and gravity gun as a fun gimmick. I guess the physics puzzles felt new at the time though. Like I said, I've always liked the game, but I've learned to appreciate it more after it.

A Link to the Past, one of the most beloved Zelda titles, was also my most hated one.

I grew up with Zelda II, which I absolutely love (I love RPGs and until Breath of the Wild that was certainly the closest to an RPG in the series) and cherished the duels I had with the different Ironknuckles, Stalfos, Daira and even (to a degree) Fokka. and then in LttP the knights (which I assumed were the same as the Ironknuckles) were such pushovers that it made me hate the entire game for a while.

RDR comes to mind, gave up on it first, much better after I returned to it and completed the game.

Same with HZD. Didn't like it much the first 10 hours, let it rest and came back to it after finishing BotW. Then it became one of my favorite games. The first 10 hours still suck though. Total opposite of BotW's 'tutorial area'. 


Now if we're talking over long periods of time:

ICO has only grown more on me over the years. Simply because nothing else has been able to replicate or improve on that journey. While replaying the game many years later still brought tears to my eyes at the end credits.

Grim Fandango as well. After replaying it on PS4 with the director's commentary I have only gained more appreciation for that work of art.

And J&D Precursor legacy. I thought it was a fairly standard 3D platformer when I first played it on PS2. But later I realized it was the best of its series as well as one of the last great platformers I enjoyed from start to finish without interruptions when I replayed it on PS4. The sequels both gained as well, I gave up on the 2nd one on PS2, skipped the 3rd. However the Precursor legacy is still the best.

Funny enough, I had few issues with Zero Dawn's opening. Forbidden West's first two hours or so were grating. The grapple isn't intuitive. I rate both games pretty equally, because Forbidden West gets much better after the intital 10% or so of the story. 

The first two Syphon Filter games, for sure. At the time, I went into them thinking they were going to be Metal Gear ripoffs, but man... was I wrong. Now those games are in my top three PS1 franchises.

With HFW I was prepared to stick through the opening, and luckily it was much shorter before you get unleashed on the world. It has its initial technical issues as well though, migraine inducing foliage flickering at release and weird graphical bugs.

Give that girl a razor lol


Both have amazing worlds to explore after the opening, so the slow start is forgiven. 

I hated on Hitman Absolution at first because I wanted Blood Money 2 and Absolution was completely different, but it's a 8/10 game for me now.

When Batman Arkham Origins was released I was tired of that gameplay but later it became my favorite Arkham game.

A strange one but I absolutely hated Super Mario 64 as a child, and rated Banjo and DK64 more. Maybe because SM64 was anyone's real first crack at a 3D game, and I just never really got past the ship water level. I've replayed it though since, on the DS and All Stars, and I've come to appreciate how revolutionary it was, and it had some great level designs.

Ocarina is another one, where I just got stuck for months (maybe years) in Kakariko village and didn't figure out that I needed to give the letter to the guard.

For both games, I think I was still a bit too young to appreciate them for what they were!

Notable mentions
- The Half Life games: again too young to appreciate for it really was
- Mario 3D World: I just got annoyed at Nintendo during those years for seemingly making less expansive games and felt like a slap in the face after the incredible Galaxy games but I now appreciate there was lot more depth to them