[Dark Age Iron Savior]

I think the issues mentioned above mainly have to do with the portrayal of females (and related subjects of violence/sexuality/identity in general) in the game, not the more conventional elements of game design. It may or may not be apparent to you as you play through it. There's a lot of interesting character/story stuff that has nothing to do with the problematic elements (mainly side-stuff), but the issues still exist in a speed-bump like fashion once you are aware of them.

It's a bit like the stuff we've gotten into lately about Kojima games (or Other M), only whereas Kojima mainly seems to be really bad at writing/understanding women in any capacity, and I personally still think that Metroid dude was mostly oblivious to what a mess he had made, some feel there's a certain disquieting sense that the malevolence in Deadly Premonition is willful and conscious.

Adilegian also complained about the action sequences, of course (combat and chase). Pretty much nobody really likes them. They supposedly weren't part of the original design and most any novel or compelling aspect of them is devalued or even ruined by some other part.