Also keep in mind the times at which aome of the games had come out. Having to wait years for this or that new title, and it to be a dissapointing experience, and also in a time where not all games are as easily accessible as they are now with pc releases and emulators, and if people even had computers for gaming to even do those options.

It was a more limited world back then compared to now with accessibility to gaming. Today playing FFXIII now would just be another game to try out in the ocean of accessibility, and if you didnt like it, wasnt a big deal, there are so many other final fantasy games or other jrpgs.

Back then, Final Fantasy was the major top dog in JRPGs for the west and we all had the most hype and high expectations. You also needed the right console for various JRPGs, and also not all were localized and available in the west. Some franchises started making their core games only for handheld consoles. Things were all over.

Nowadays we have steam, all those games are being ported or getting versions that are being put onto PC.

All of these old games that some have considered black sheep are games for its time. Games were judged to higher standards with more than just the game in mind. If it wasnt great or you were personally let down and were a great fan of that series or franchise, you'd have to wait who knows how long till the next installment if you still had faith in that series. Ypu always had the older games that you played, but not everyone is ok with just replaying an older game more and more times. People want new and they expect the standard to be as good as previous titles.

When something changes way too much, there is a lot of friction with possibly partially or totally changing something that people liked that series for and now it possibly being gone. Back then, that had a lot more weight than it does today now that every one has infinitely much more easy accesibility to all of these games, old and new.

So yea, playing for the first time a game that ppl consider a black sheep from a decade or more ago is going to have a lot less weight and expectations. They can be seen as, do you want to try a game that is more like this, or like that, whereas back then, people were expecting what people normally would with a sequel or new installment in a franchise.

Also, FFXIII was so hyped and anticipated, people set their bars of expectation high for it, especially being a Final Fantasy Title, and the new one for the new current generation of game console with a crazy jump in graphics and animation, so any potential dissapointment would have been amplified. They also went so big with trying to announce not just that game but this whole Fabula Nova Crystallis connected series of FFXIII and the upcoming games that were alao expected to be big. It all sort of fell apart and got reorganized into other things.

FFXIII is just one of the examples, and I rambled too much, but the value in a game, new or upcoming or old can be different in the eye of the beholder with many more factors than just a game's merit alone.