Some years back I lost my job(only to get it back not long after but that's another tale) so I decided I was going to start the Witcher series in preparation for 3. Can't remember if 3 was out or was coming out.
I absolutely could not get into Witcher 1, I found it god awful and didn't make it past an hour of it.
I've been a big proponent of skipping W1 unless you ABSOLUTELY have to play every game in a series in order to feel like you're not missing anything. The Story is probably the best part, but everything else is mediocre or worse and honestly, finding a good summary is far preferable to actually trying to slog through it.
W2 redeemed the first game somewhat and sets up the beginning of 3. I also liked the branching paths the game took after chapter 1 so there's incentive to replay chapter 2 and 3 from the other path(there's actually a decent number of plot points split between them. For example, the Dragon is just a boss in path but gets a bit more story presence in the other.
Though W3 effectively doesn't care about W1 at all and most of your decisions from W2 end up not mattering much.
As for my list.....
Sunless Sea-I want to reach some kind of conclusion...and damn I think I picked a bad one by grabbing the goal of writing a masterpiece, which is really hard and complex and I kinda want to pick a different character or something to get a new one. It's been a few years since I played it.
Hyper Light Drifter-FInished 2 of the 3 first bosses, couldn't beat the cat samurai boss, haven't gone back to it recently. Keep thinking I either need to really learn his attacks OR go off and find all the missing bits so I can fully upgrade first(I found a lot of them but still have a few upgrades to go yet).
Octopath Traveler-Finished everyone's chapter 1's, got somewhat into the chapter 2's and then stopped. Being a long game is another reason It's hard to jump back in because I know I've got at least another 20 or so hours to go to finish it.
Demons Souls-Never got very far. That damn bridge in 1-2 stopped me(never got to the tower knight), plus my controller kept swapping my weapons without me wanting to for reasons I don't understand. Stopped playing and keep saying I'm going to someday. I could wait to play the remake but I'd need to get a PS5 first and it's not worth it JUST to play the remake yet(and of course, have to wait till the supply outpaces the damn scalpers, which will likely take a while because apparently stores don't bat an eye when someone orders 100 PS5's at once). I've beaten Dark Souls 1-3, BB and Sekiro but DeS is the one I keep pushing off because I want to play "the good ones" first, so maybe that's a sign I wasn't really digging it to begin with. I realize a lot of people really like Demons Souls, but I didn't get far enough for it to click for me like the other FROM games did.
Horizon Zero Dawn-Need to finish the Frozen Wilds DLC. Got up there after finishing the main game, beat the first new robot with a lot of effort, got to the village and stopped. And haven't gone back to it since. I've heard the DLC is good, I think I was ready to move on by that point, combined with the difficulty spike, made me put it aside.
I occasionally have the urge to replay Final Fantasy III/IV/V/VI/VII and IX. Then I remember the grindy and the 40+ hours and go....maybe later. And maybe try playing VIII, finally, but everytime I hear people talk about the damn Junction/GF/Triple Triad system my eyes glaze over and I decide "eh, maybe not".
Someday I'm gonna replay the Balders Gate Enhanced Edition(I played the original like 20 years ago) so I can play BG2. I thought it was gonna be this year so I can play BG3 but since BG3 might not end up being so hot....I can wait.
I keep telling myself someday I will actually finish Dragon Age: Origins. Like further then the Mage Tower, which is as far as I got. I will use a damn guide, learn how to build a good viable team and go through the damn thing so I can judge if the praise it gets is warranted. And also so I stop getting those "What's wrong with you look?" from friends when I keep telling them I've tried to get through the game a couple times now and never been able to push myself past like the halfway point...maybe, because for whatever reason it doesn't really click with me or I hit a difficulty spike that kills the vibe.