Mmhmm, that's what I'm trying to say.
Folks can say that nostalgia kind of clouds your perception of things, but I'm not entirely sure that I can fully agree with that. Nostalgia matters-- that's why brand name recognition is such a powerful tool. It was even a factor in why I bought FFXV in the first place, despite not being super interested in it to begin with, and hearing negative reviews on it. Because oh man, it's Final Fantasy! The series that was the highlight of my adolescence! The ones from the past were so good, that there's still a part of that kid I was that was so dearly hoping that it would resonate with me in the same way.
If you flip it around, sure. Games are already pretty pricy as they are! It's very rare for me to be enticed by something that costs more than MSRP. If there's a game that I know I would personally rate a 4, I'll wait for the price to drop to a point where I feel "yeah, I suppose I'll grab it". So yes, I'll pay twice as much for an 8 if it's at MSRP and the 4 is half that price (or lower).
It has to be pretty awesome (or be a package deal that comes with a lot of neat bonus stuff) to make me ever consider paying more than a game is worth.
The balance of personal subjective opinions and objective opinions is what we're trying to get to the core of in this thread, isn't it?
Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying anything particularly negative about the DR series. Subjectively, like I said, I rank it quite high! Objectively, though, it doesn't really do anything outstanding either-- it's just a very well done visual novel/mystery adventure game.
I think we're getting a little too caught up in the metaphors here, but I think the divide here, in my mind, between something that I would objectively rank a 10/"gourmet food" are games and series that contribute to defining a genre, and games that I would objectively rank a 5/"junk food" don't play a huge role in doing that-- and unfortunately, this is something where brand name recognition is a huge thing. It's kinda like... if you ask someone "hey, do you like RPGs?", a lot of people will think of the classic archetypes of the genre, so their mind will probably point toward long-standing series like Final Fantasy. Ask them about platformers, they'll probably think something like Mario. It's because those series have substantially contributed to what the genre is defined by-- and as such, it's kind of hard to not hold it as a standard to match other games up to in their respective genres. Meanwhile, I wouldn't take the phrase "junk food" negatively. A gigantic sundae with all your favorite toppings is totally delightful! But it's still junk food. Does that make sense?
Keeping that in mind, what is objective and what is subjective don't always match. I may not rank Pokemon or Dangan Ronpa super high on an objective scale, but subjectively, I like them a whole lot-- enough that I've picked pretty much all of their respective games out on release date (and in special edition form, regarding the latter!). I genuinely love those series! I just feel like it's okay to be able to critically look at games (or any media, for that matter) with both objective and subjective perspectives.
(for real let's talk about dangan ronpa i need more people to discuss it with)