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makingmusic476 on 03 October 2010
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It's disappointing XII hasn't sold more.  I've only play X, XII, XIII, and Crisis Core, but it's easily my favorite of the bunch.

On the whole I enjoyed XIII.  The graphics were great and the battle system was downright awesome, but it had quite a few issues:

  • Pacing: The earlier areas in the game were individually far too long.  Padding a level by placing one similar stretch of hallway/catwalk full of enemies after another is not how you make a robust and content-filled game.  It turns the game into a forced grindfest, and to then brag about this by claiming your game is full of tens of hours of content is absurd.  Exploring Gran Pulse was awesome, though.
  • Enemy variety:  Most of the enemies were awesome, but quite a few didn't work with the battle system at all.  Enemies like the heavy machinery and just about everything in Orphan's Cradle had way too much health/defense and way too low attack.  Such encounters turned an otherwise fast paced and exciting battle system into the epitome of tedium.
  • Narrative:  The plot was unnecessarily convoluted and confusing, and the game's incredibly long and elaborate cutscenes did little to explain what the hell was going on.  The datalogs were far more informative, presenting the current situation in a clear and easy to understand manner, yet you weren't even forced to read them.
  • Characterization:  The cast in this game were incredibly unrealistic and often downright absurd.  I could never get a good grasp on what was motivating these people.  They never seemed to have any realistic reasons for taking the actions they were taking (or saying what they were saying, making cutscenes downright cringeworthy at times).  It seemed all their decisions were grounded in emotion, emotions that more often than not didn't seem to fit the situation.  Like Lightning getting pissy all the time for little reason at all.  The characters in general acted rather unnatural.

However, the awesome battle system, the artstyle/presentation, and the entire Gran Pulse section more than made up for these problems.  On the whole I'd recommend the game to any fan of JRPGs.

I consider XII to be the superior game in almost all respects, though, save the battle system and artstyle.  I prefer XIII's more fantastical approach to its visuals.

And I agree with the general point A203D is making in regards to the two game's stories.