Resident Evil 4, Persona 5, Tears of the Kingdom, and Ys 8.

RE4: Level design and puzzles were garbage compared to the old games, and it just didn't have the haunting/lonely/chilling sensation that I associated with the series. It's a fantastic and innovative game with awesome controls and enjoyable story, but it killed a unique genre that I held dear.

Persona 5: Loved the first 3rd, got bored by the final 3rd and ended up disliking the characters. Persona 3 was a game that kept me thinking about it for a while. P5 disappeared as soon as I beat it.

Tears of the Kingdom: It was the first and only Zelda game that I dropped willingly. This one is pretty difficult to describe. I didn't play BotW, so I was positively overwhelmed by the sheer scale and freedom in TotK which was filled with awesome moments, but it's just that at some point everything suddenly felt "pointless" and I just stopped enjoying it. I dropped it with the intention to soon return... and before I knew it it's been years and I lost the cartridge...

A few things I disliked: Durability (you're constantly changing gear, and worrying about losing cool equipment), combat is inconsistent and hurt by the slowmo mechanic and "flurry rush". Getting awestruck by "The Depths" only to soon realize it was an oversized and more annoying Chalice Dungeon (See Bloodborne), ugly and unpleasant to explore. Samey floating Islands. Some uninspired dungeons. Creating vehicles becomes a chore until you get the ability to save your creations.

Ys 8: Often considered "the best Ys" and secretly "one of the greatest action RPG's of all time". It's a huge disappointment. Butchered by poor production values that don't do the setting, characters, and scope justice. Bad and convoluted ending to an otherwise exciting/mysterious story. The easy combat gets spammy and samey af, flash move/guard is an awful system. Played 3 Falcom games so far (Ys 8, Origin, and Trails in the Sky remake) and it's easily the worst of them.

Final Fantasy 7. Not a bad game but I like all of the SNES games better, particularly Final Fantasy 6, which I think is far better. I'm not as familiar with the later games in the series yet (I'm in the process of playing all of them).

I'd also nominate Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Again, not bad, but I liked the first game better for sure. The magic had worn off a bit by the sequel which just felt like more of the same and not as good as the first.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Still very close to the top of the pile for the Sonic series, but I think it suffers from the last few stages being a bit too difficult just for the sake of being difficult, and the special stages haven't aged at all well. I think 3 & Knuckles and Mania are both better.

God of War 2018. It won Game of the Year. It sold gang busters of copies.

But I prefer the old style more with GoW3 being my favorite PS first party of all time. The gameplay was just more fun in my opinion, it felt more eppic.

Same, FFX is pretty mid and far from the best weve seen in that franchise - even by the time it came out - and yet somehow its very popular.

I love me some BOTW myself and I rank it pretty high, but I still put other entries like OoT above it.

God of War 3 was peak for me, until God of War 2018 came out and that one became peak with good reason. 

Tales of Symphonia is fantastic. And yet Vesperia and Berseria are better.

Yeah, kind of a negative thread I guess lol.

Ninja Gaiden 1/Black. The game is still excellent, don't get me wrong. I just think some aspects of it's design are trapped in an era. Every game back then was to find a thing to unlock the door. Just busy work. I feel that brings it down a little, and some of the platforming is just ass. I feel Ninja Gaiden II/IIB is the better game. More so, IIB as it removes a horrible boss from II. It's just to the point action.

Crash 2. I thought Crash 1 was the best in the trilogy and Crash 3 the second best. The second game seemed unbalanced (difficulty spikes left and right), and it felt a little less imaginative than the other two.

Same for DKC trilogy. The second game is always considered the best, but the first one is better by far, imo. Although I do think the second one is better than the third.

RE4 sucked, imo. That whole series died after CV. What we got after is a new IP set in the RE world.

Bayonetta 2. Had much more fun with the first game.

It varies a bit by source, which is considered the peak of certain series. But here are some that are certainly often in the conversation, but I don’t understand:

Doom Eternal

Probably the most egregius along with the next one. I love the Doom series. Every single mainline game besides Eternal (and Dark Ages as I haven’t played it yet) is among my favorite FPS games ever. So when they came up with this ridiculously pretentious gameplay loop of constant running out of ammo, quick swapping through your arsenal all the time, jumping around like an idiot and glory killing for health, while keeping track of all the weak spot of enemies, I got so pissed and annoyed at the game. They ruined everything that was fun about the series to me.

Bioshock Infinite

Usually considered weaker than the original, but I have seen a fair bit of folks ranking it first. I do not understand why, they turned one of the most unique, moody and slow FPS games into a completely unoriginal shooting gallery of bulletsponge enemies. The plot was also dumb and the game treated you like an idiot at multiple points.

GTA V

Can you imagine a more generic GTA game? San Andreas did the everything but the kitchen sink approach and pretty much nailed it. IV went more grounded and stripped a lot of the fluff away for a more focused experience, it worked too. GTA V tries a weird compromise that doesn’t feel committed to anything and just kind of half-asses its content. The map is not very clever, there are barely any interiors, missions are overly linear with zero sandbox gameplay. The story and two out of three protagonists absolutely suck. The game is so generic, you would think ChatGPT made it.

Gears of War 3

To me a step down from 1+2 and weaker than 4 and 5. I don’t like the art direction and level design. The gameplay is still strong and the story decent, so I can still enjoy, but it is far from a high point. I often see it ranked as the best Gears, or maybe just below 2. To me it is 1>5>4>2>3, haven’t played Judgment.

Halo 3

Similar to Gears 3, the campaign to me is just a lot less interesting than 1, 2 and Reach. Even 4 has some higher highs, though also lower lows. 3 is just okay, yet it often ranks at the top, however I have also often seen CE and 2 get top spot.

Crash 2

Okay, this is still a really really good game, but I agree with JackHandy that it feels less imaginative than 1 and 3 (and 4 imo). Still it probably ranks over the original version of 1, just because of that games absurd saving system.

Super Mario World

Similar to Crash 2 - awesome game, just a little disappointing after SMB3, which was much more creative. But I guess that is also kind of the consensus.

The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past

Next SNES game to shit on, haha. Probably it doesn’t receive as many gold medals as BotW and OoT do, but it often ranks up there, but it certainly doesn’t get nearly the amount of shit these other games get. ALttP probably won’t crack my too ten of Zelda games. It feels too much like the most basic Zelda experience. Design-wise it lands somewhere in the middle of the streamlined premium crafted linear Zelda experiences like OoT, Link’s Awakening and Twilight Princess and the fun open world design of Zelda 1, BotW and ALBW. It ends up not really excelling at either. I also find the map too big and a bit frustrating to navigate. Somehow ALBW managed to make the World a lot more fun to me. I could also highlight Wind Waker as a popular Zelda that is kind of meh to me, but I rarely see it too any lists though, so it gets a pass.

Arkham Asylum 

This is a great game, but now I saw some taking down City, and I definitely see Asylum topping as many lists as City does. No question about it, I am team City, that game has so much more charm to me and I find the small open world to be quite good. In Asylum I am non-stop in detective mode, and the game is already a little more dark.

Sonic Adventure 1+2

Hardly considered series peaks, but as far as 3D sonic goes, they often are. I think Generations (both Sonic and Shadow games) is much much better. Adventure 1 in particular feels almost broken to me, the controls are not good and the level design often confusing. Adventure 2 nails the Sonic gameplay and starts with arguably the best opening stage in video game history. But the Knuckles and Tails stages are absolutely insufferable.

Burnout Paradise

Maybe not the highest acclaimed anymore, but have seen it in the past. I hate the open world design. 2, 3 and 4 are all miles better than this.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

While not a (very) bad game in my opinion, it got rid of everything that makes the classic Donkey Kong Country trilogy so great. It forces you to play as DK only, turning the other characters into mere gadgets. No Kremlings. They spread dozens of collectibles in each level and they're almost useless in the end. Exploration in the overworld map is almost non-existent compared to DKC3. And yet, some people label it as "the best 2D platform ever made"...

To me it's just an average platformer. I would never choose it over other games like Rayman Origins or Legends and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.