FF13 Sucks... here's why.

[Runa216]

Wright said:

Final Fantasy XIII is a game. That's it. Not good, nor bad. That's up to subjective debate.

Given how little interaction you actually had in both gameplay and story, I hardly think it qualifies as a game.  more like interactive visual experience...and a poor one at that.  

The OP has it almost perfect.  The gameplay has almost no interaction in it (pre-chose six 'battle formations' from a list of 24, actually attempting to control your character will kill anyone not an expert in the game), not to mention you only 'control' ONE of the three characters, and if they die, it's game over.  The story is 'good', but it is poorly told.  over 90% of the story is told through in-game encyclopedia, rather than woven into the narrative like a GOOD game story.  

it's just....bad.  functional, sure (with great production values), but the story and gameplay were both utter failures.  

I'm playing through FFX right now, and the story is almost as linear, but like OP said, it's actually fine because there's plenty of side quests, minigames, and exploration.  Plus the gameplay required actual thought, foreplanning, and offered you complete control of up to SEVEN characters.  

At least with XII (which allowed the game to play itself), you had a LOT of control over the precise scenarios and reactions of all six of your characters.  That, and it had a LOT of exploration, side quests, etc.  I do admit the main line story is pretty simple, and much of the actual 'story'  is in side quests and hidden content.