Is the "this is a good game, just not a good *insert series name here* game" a valid complaint?

[TheGoodHoms]

In my experience, I've seen this argument most commonly used as a defense by people who enjoy a particular game in a series that other fans do not like. A few common examples I see of this are Final Fantasy XIII, DMC: Devil May Cry, and Castlevaina: Lords of Shadow.

But in any case I'd call it a easy escape argument when people who try to defend these games because they've run out of other things to say about the game either because A: They aren't very good at explaining why they like the game or B: They're dealing with a class-A jerkoff who thinks their opinion is the only one that matters and everyone else needs to think exactly the same way as they do and won't acknowledge any other viewpoint as valid regardless of how well it is presented to them.