Asklemmy

Slay the Spire.

Gave up because I couldn't beat jaw worm or act 1 boss. Then I had an absolutely OP deadbranch +corruption deck. Been hooked ever since.

Witcher 3, is was so bored for the first 30 mins I turned it off. Came back a year later, now got around 300 hours in the game.

Bloodborne

Didn't even got to the first boss my first "try" (actually a lot of tries) and shelved it as "I'm not gud enough"

After a colleague nagged me about it again I gave it another try (with a guide this time) and it clicked! 10/10 game of the decade

Mass Effect

Skyrim, thought it was boring at first but started again after a friend got it 1 month after me, im currently on what feels like my hundreth playthrough and it still is my all time favorit

Hollow Knight for me fits this scenario to a t. I got it as part of a humble bundle, but couldn't get into it for at least a year as the initial part felt really depressing, and didn't at all grab me.

But once I managed to tough it through to greenpath, and started to get some power ups, it finally sunk it's claws into me. I proceeded to nearly 100% the game.

Prey (2017), Monster Hunter, Stalker, Dark Souls. All great games that only show their true self after some time investment. Not too ridiculous time investment apart from Monster Hunter which gets really fun literally only after a few tens of hours, maybe even a hundred. I wish I was kidding.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Binding of Isaac, I couldn't handle all the poop and mild horror, but eventually something clicked and now I have 1500 hours combined in both games.

I got Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Wii when it first came out and just couldn't get it. I mean, I understood what I was supposed to be doing, but I could barely pass any of the songs. I figured I just didn't have any rhythm and put it on the shelf.

Fast-forward to 2020 when I was rearranging some stuff and came across Rhythm Heaven Fever again. I hooked my Wii back up for shits and giggles and started playing and was doing great. Either I had magically gained a sense of rhythm or (most likely) the TV I had been playing on when I first got the game had some sort of latency issue.

Now I've gone through all the Rhythm Heaven games, but Fever is still my hands-down favorite. I put a copy on my Steam Deck and sometimes I just load it up and play through some songs when I have a few minutes to kill.

Witcher 3 Crusader Kings II

Happened twice, both to my #1 games. Tried Chrono Trigger as a kid and didn't like it, then came back and played it as a young adult and was like... damn... this is an actual treasure.

In 2015 I tried FFXI due to the XIV crossover event, and I could not get past the eccentric and clunky UI and the pacing of the combat. I tried again a couple of years later and committed to finishing all the stories. It became my new #1 and I think genuinely one of the best games ever made, in terms of revealing and pushing the artistic potential of online games, and games in general. Actual masterpiece and a massive innovation, and unlike Chrono Trigger I think the lessons are going to be a lot harder to learn and replicate.

Dragon Age

I started with Dragon Age inquisition and I dropped it within the first half an hour. Years later, I started with DAO and now it’s my favourite serie; I replay dao way too much btw

My Summer Car

Cyberpunk. Hated all the stuff with Johnny in the beginning. Came back later and actually played through the entire game.

Sekiro. Tried getting into it twice, but couldn't - I always got mentally stuck at Lady Butterfly.

Third time, someone told me that I shouldn't fight her until later, and HOT DAMN is this a good game. I'm still working on the final fight of the normal route, but can't wait to go back and do the other endings!

fallout 3. first time i ever played a game like it. stopped playing because the subways scared me and i was out of ammo

Eve online.

Red​ dead redemption 2

Doom Eternal

I played on easy mode, over the course of months slogged my way through over half the game getting wrecked and HATING it. And then one day...

Everything clicked. I got into the Fun Zone or Flow State or whatever it's called. And I have been obsessed ever since. I play at least a few minutes almost every night for years now. I can now comfortably beat it in the hardest difficulty, including the DLC. And it never stops being so much fun and satisfying!

Hollow Knight.

The first few hours on felt dull. Lots of reviews were praising it and I just didn't get why. Dirtmouth and the Forgotten Crossroads weren't really exhilarating, so I stopped after ~5h.

A couple months later I created a new game slot. My POV shifted by following Cornifer's passion for exploring for exploring's sake, instead of grinding the Geo economy. The soundtrack really enhances the experience and environment of each section. I'm now ~120h in and still unsure if I'm halfway there!

Hades. I'm not really sure why it didn't grab me the first time...

Ark

Path of Exile for me. I went in blind towards the end of Synthesis league (Q2 2019) and played completely SSF with a homebrew zoo witch. Managed to eventually fight and kill shaper but it was so draining I didn't even want to look at the game again... Til the end of the year when I hopped into the end of Blight league and I've sunk almost 2k hours since

World of Warcraft.

I bought it because a classmate told me about it and we planned to play together, but he had a level 60 character and didn't want to start a new one to level with me. So I played alone for the first 25 levels or so, and quit out of boredom. Then I told my brother about the game and we started again together. That lasted until about halfway through Legion (at least 10 years, with a few breaks ofc), when we both stopped playing. I've been trying to get back into it a few times since then, but it never really clicked again.