Final Fantasy 8. The story was garbage, but the mechanics were probably my favorite of the 3d Final Fantasies. Admittedly, it was a bit obtuse to figure out the non-grindy way to get magic, but most FFs have had their obtuse moments. I never got why there was so much flak to it when it was almost a return to the series more complex mechanics that had been largely dropped over 6/7.
Destiny. A very flawed presentation in its launch form for the story, but it seemed to get a lot of extra expectations put on it over any other AAA shooter. It had solid gameplay behind it, and the story wasn't that hard to sequence together yourself if you wanted too. The universe lore being buried in lorebooks (admittedly, that should've been ingame) and item descriptions was odd, but a technique thats also been used in fairly acclaimed games too.
Destiny. A very flawed presentation in its launch form for the story, but it seemed to get a lot of extra expectations put on it over any other AAA shooter. It had solid gameplay behind it, and the story wasn't that hard to sequence together yourself if you wanted too. The universe lore being buried in lorebooks (admittedly, that should've been ingame) and item descriptions was odd, but a technique thats also been used in fairly acclaimed games too.