Resident Evil 4 is right there with Breath of the Wild as being a good game on its own, but doing irreparable damage to the franchise's future just to hit that mainstream love

But to avoid just listing genre-shifting games, and speaking of Dark Souls, I think Dark Souls 2 is a good example. Once people got over how drastically different the game was, it eventually started to get appreciated by its strengths. But even people who enjoy it and those that prefer it would agree it wasn't designed as a good follow-up

And one that's close to me personally is Saints Row. A lot of people feel like the 3rd and 4th games crapped on the entire legacy set up by the first two. But I don't think anyone would say they are badly designed games. And are in fact extremely fun. But aren't very good "Boys in the Hood" gang life simulators the way the first two were