Dark Souls is terrible. Not for being hard, but being slow, boring, tedious, repetitive, and uninteresting. The combat system has redeeming qualities, but the overall game design is exasperating and monotonous.
The Metal Gear Solid games have HILARIOUSLY terrible writing, and I genuinely love it. It's difficult for me to understand the subset of pseudo-intellectuals who praise its deep narrative. I'd say it's 15% legitimate drama and character with 70% being something I'd expect to see in a blatant parody and the remaining 15% are psychological and scientific fallacies. I actually enjoy the stories, though, for how much they genuinely make me laugh, and I'm not talking the "ohohoho, I'm so far above you, pleb. I derive pleasure from how stupid you are" I mean the "HAH! That's genuinely fucking genius! ...they're serious? Well, I still think it's funny."
Classic Final Fantasy's turn-based combat is, from what I can tell, objectively shallower than most other combat systems. It allows for less and requires less of the player. My best guess as to why people still continue to praise it is nostalgia, but I honestly don't know. All I know is, it's way past its expiration date, and it's time to let go.
Pokemon got stale at Black and White. That gen is by far my least favorite. Also, what's with the praise for the game's recognition of pokemon being used as slaves? Wasn't that theme brought up in gen1? Seriously, that same line is used to criticize the Rockets, almost verbatim. The theme just came at the proper time for the audience in B/W, so everyone glomp'd on the hype train, minds drunk with mutual self-assurance.