I have had qualms with a few games I played. They’re usually great games but there’s a very clear hinderance that is holding them from being true classics and masterpieces that I wouldn’t hesitate for a second recommending.

Some of mine are (Spoilers might follow that I tried to hide but better keep off items with a game you’re avoiding any spoilers for) :

1. Returnal should have had a true rogue-like formula. With all biomes and all bosses, >!no waking up in the beginning of the 4th biome when you die after getting it it, and no skipping bosses you already dealt with!<. I feel the devs missed on a big opportunity there, the game is great and the mechanics are top-notch, and it is clear that they tried to remedy this with the tower of sisyphus dlc, and they saw the potential in this formula, but the tower had one repeating boss and if the base game was like this it’d have been a classic rogue-like, as popular as Hades (yes, Returnal is that good).
2. Deathloop should have omitted the indicators completely, just wake up on the island with the mystery of what happened and go explore and find the clues by yourself. No objectives, no handholding, no indications to which area you should go at which times. I know you can turn off quest markers,>! but this doesn’t remove the fact that the sequence of assassinations is played out in a LITTERAL cutscene spoiling the whole game!< and other irritating things like this.
3. Elden Ring is a classic by now, but for me personally, Malenia killed the game, or killed replayability to be more precise. I have so much fun repeating these games with different builds, but Malenia is the ONLY boss in the whole series that has a move which is an instant kill and demands special abilities to dodge from up-close. The damage on that attack should be reduced or modified to allow a possible dodge (not this crazy “unlock and turn 3 times around yourself and pray for the gods of Miyazaki not to be obliterated”). The ability for her to heal while the player is blocking should be removed too. To resume, I played DS3 and Sekiro, BB and even Lies of P many times, but couldn’t manage to finish the 2nd playthrough of ER.
4. Inscryption too should have had a more complete rogue-like mode. The Kaycee mod is great and all, >!but if the dev had added the other 3 bosses from the original game with their own areas, and building a deck with different elements from the deck types available, !