Both God of War series; the Greek Era and Norse Era on all sides. Greek Era got over hated at the time among action game "enthusiasts" (snobs who only touched Japanese action games and not much else) and most game critics who claimed the Greek Era GoW is a "button masher". GoW may not be as complex as DMC, Bayonetta, or Ninja Gaiden, but these games do have depth, even though it's meant to ease players in at a casual level. The games are still challenging, and the enemies you fight aren't stupid. The overrated in Greek Era is downplayed, but you had a few fanboys that went overboard in thinking God of War style combat is the only thing that mattered, and other actions needed to be like them to the letter.
Norse GoW gets overrated from the professional critics side for thinking it's style of storytelling and over-the-shoulder gameplay everyone should follow suit, and that no other action game matters or is lesser for not being Norse GoW. While I am happy that people are taking inspirations to make their own action game, not every game is going to be exactly like Norse GoW, nor should all action game take everything from it. I like the games, but they have their own flaws certain clones are either avoiding or just trying something more interesting with the concept. While on the opposite end, those same action game "enthusiasts" who shitted on the Greek Era, now suddenly started loving those games, or be more vocally positive about them when GoW4 first launched, and shitting on Norse like it's the worse thing ever. Several individual YouTubers are guilty of this, and wouldn't shut up about it for a long while. If you hate the games that badly, then stop playing them or talking about them, and show the things you do enjoy. Oh, you can't because it's too difficult or you won't clicks with your bad takes? Fuck you.
I do admit I was on the hate train at the time, before GoW4 released, but stopped myself a few months before the game came out, and realized I would be exactly like the critics I despise for hating on games that are good or I enjoy. Plus, I could see Santa Monica did care for their overall product, even though I thought Kratos being playable again was a bad idea at the time. These are good games, and a nice entry for people who want to get into Stylish Action games. I was glad to be proven wrong. Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, God of War, Bayonetta, No More Heroes, etc. and many other action-brawler games can and are co-existing with each other just fine. We're in a world where DMC5, God of War 5, No More Heroes 3, and Bayonetta 3 exists. Something thought impossible and foolhardy at one point. Amongst that, we have many other new action games or ones that went through revamp such as Hi-Fi Rush, Evil West, Spark the Jester 3, and Oneechanbara Origin. With plenty of new action games on the horizon soon. It's the better to have variety of all types, and not just expect the same thing to be mandatory every single time from either perspective. The genre would end up getting stale, so mixing it up is always important.
