Demons souls through Dark Souls 3 I bought, tried, and quickly ended up on my shelf.

Knew they were amazing games, but I just couldn't figure it out. Always played with a shield, was slow and methodical, and just didn't get anywhere.

Then I read a post about someone who was having trouble so summoned another player. The summon showed up "Naked with a katana and charged in like a Jedi".

So I said screw it, and tried a light no shield build. Didnt care how far I got, I just started grinding the early enemies and leveling up. Then it all just sort of clicked.

Got my girlfriend into the games, and we've played through them all together, just now finishing on bloodborne.

Same. It took me months to give it another shot and after that I couldn't stop

Not gonna try that again until I'm retired. I don't need my play to feel like work.

Same. I still suck. I haven't finished a single one of them games. It took me months of playing on and off to get past Vordt in DS3. But once I beat him and reached the undead settlement, that was it. I was hooked. I also just rarely finish RPGs in general lol. The art direction and general ambiance, the combat hitboxes, the music, the learning curve, the variety of builds... Fromsoft just knows something about games that most other companies don't.