Personally - and i do mean this wholeheartedly, I dont speak for the sake of shitting on the game - I do think the bad rep its got its very well deserved. Its one of those games popularly rejected by the fans that do make me feel the fans have it right a couple of times.

I think its one of the weakest entries in the franchise (next to FF2, who a lot of people apparently havent played) and I do think the stronger attributes in most FF games - meaning, story, characters and world building - fall flat in this one, and in a major way. Gameplay wise is unremarkable, I didnt particularly like the battle system, I think its the only FF game I can think as of a right now that if your controlled character dies, the game ends. Weird. I absolutely loathe the Paradigm system as a mean to character upgrading. And it being linear for the most part did harm the experience - for me at least. If some of the areas of the game had an exploration aspect to it, like Gran Pulse did, I think it would've helped a bit.
I dont think its a bad game - as a stand alone game - It has some enjoyable aspects to it, specially music and visuals, which are superb - but its hard for me to enjoy it as a FF game.

It is one of the better FF games in my opinion. I enjoyed the battle system very much. The story is very interesting, but sadly the game desn't explain every detail and you have to read some parts in the menu. Some story contents are only unlocked after voluntary side quests which some people may or may not ever finish. However, these extra parts are mainly for the bigger picture while the main plot is still comprehensive nevertheless.

I was writing wiki articles back then about each character and the overall story, I was pretty invested with this game back then. I always thought that the way the story gets told is pretty clever. The story intentionally groups up characters who have serious issues with one another and so there is always an underlying conflict in each chapter. Also, the fate of the main characters is probably the most depressing and pessimistic story arc a FF game ever told.

Also, the soundtrack is great!

It's true that the first half may feel like one big tutorial, however I felt that necessary, actually. That way you learned every aspect piece by piece without being littered with information. And I am a big fan of the series with years of experience and I still considered this as a good thing. At the end of the day, I always thought the critique was blown way out of proportion.

I mean I'll totally find the game and give it a play-through.

I'm just curious now whether the game is generally perceived better now than it was at release.

Great lore, fairly good battle system, poor pacing and some annoying characters. The first 10-20 are too easy, then it gets going, and finally it actually opens up. Too bad there's not too much interesting stuff to do in the world then.

It's a good game but it takes way for long for it to actually become good. It's not terrible at any point but it gets going way too slowly.

I remember the trailer. I have just watched it again. My god is it an ear sore. Whoever handled equalizing the audio levels should be fired, not even solo independent youtube content creators suck that hard at equalizing sounds. Not to mention, the song doesn't fit whatever "mood" the rest of the trailer was going for.

I got FF13 on launch day and played it a ton. I had a lot of fun with the game, but I haven't gone back to play it again since. I did play XIII-2 just a few years ago, and that was an awesome game as well.

In terms of aging: At the time 13 was released, cinematics in games were nowhere near how they are today. Voice acting had been the norm for years at this point, but the actual in-game character doing the speaking did not usually show much expressive animation or lip syncing. Playing 13 at release was like playing the most graphically advanced game up to that point, with solid voice acting, and even the real-time cutscenes were well acted (I assume with motion capture). So that part of the experience won't feel as groundbreaking as it was when the game released.

As for the gameplay itself, the first two-thirds of the game is completely linear. Not just in the sense of the plot, but the actual areas of the game you explore are usually just a single path, and character development is also controlled. This is because the encounters are fixed, so everyone who plays through the game will essentially be at the same level all the time (during those first two-thirds). There is also a ton of cutscenes. That first two-thirds of the game is heavily narrative-based. I don't remember particularly liking the plot, but I do remember that I really enjoyed how amazing everything looked in the game, and I liked the cast as well (Sazh being my personal favorite).

Once you get to the open world, that's when it becomes a game where you can power up your characters to do insane amounts of damage and take on the big bosses. Leveling up is similar to the sphere grid in it's style, but it's much more linear. There are a few branching paths to take on the grid, but eventually you'll want to get them all anyways. (I never finished the leveling process myself. IIRC, you can get about 90% through the leveling process, and then out of nowhere those last few nodes start requiring insane amounts of exp. It was one of the last things I was missing for a platinum, in addition to one that required having every accessory in the game.)

Overall, I really enjoyed playing through the game back when it was released. It has a very unique sound and tone for an FF game, but it's enjoyable.

I just realized I didn't really mention the combat. I thoroughly loved the combat system, and I want to explain how it works (because it's brilliant). Absolutely what made this game awesome for me was the combat, and why I stuck through the post game to finish every last hunt. The combat system is quite simple in theory, but it's mechanics allow for some very satisfying strategies when fighting enemies. Your characters each have a role (which is essentially a class), and as you play through the game you unlock more of them for each character.

When you enter combat, the three characters you use in battle determine your "paradigm". I want to say that there are a total of six or seven of these roles in the game, but every unique possible combination of these roles that can be made with those three characters has it's own "paradigm". For example, the two damage dealing roles are "ravager", and "commando". When a ravager attacks an enemy, the enemy's stagger meter grows faster.

The stagger meter is a gauge that determines damage bonus. Different enemies have different thresholds and resistances for how much their meter will need to build up versus how long it takes before the meter depletes. When the stagger meter is empty, you deal base damage (100%), but as it fills, this damage increases up to 999% for some enemies. Others may stagger at maybe 300%. When they stagger, the enemy remains in a state where they cannot attack and you are free to continue damaging them to boost the percentage until it resets back to 100%.

Going back to what I said before, ravagers build this percentage. That's their role. They don't do a ton of damage on their own, but they build the damage multiplier. Commandos, on the other hand, deal tremendous damage, but do very little in terms of building the stagger percentage. However, commandos are necessary because commandos prevent the stagger from diminishing. If a group of ravagers all attack at once, the stagger meter will not sustain itself. You need a commando against most enemies to maintain the level of stagger, preventing it from resetting back to baseline.

So the early game strategy that you will quickly figure out is to build up that stagger bar with maybe COM/RAV/RAV, and then when they are staggered you have to consider how to best maximize damage. Perhaps switch to RAV/RAV/RAV for a few seconds to boost that percentage even more, and then switch to all COM/COM/COM to deal damage until stagger resets.

All of that strategy exists with just those two roles I mentioned, but the other five or so roles will allow for buffs on your party (SYNergists), debuffs on the enemies (SABoteurs), heals on your party (MEDics), and defensive abilities (SENtinel). I think that's all of them.

Probably way more information than you wanted, haha. But the combat kicks ass.

The reaction SE got was reasonable due to the standards expected of them and the way they hyped the project up it didn't help that this was in a gen where JRPGS were struggling left right and centre so it stood out even more so, XIII was seen as the flagship title for the PS3 before the now famous E3 moment (story for another time) and what ended up being delivered was lazy remember SE infamously said towns couldn't be done in HD as an excuse. No towns, corridors, limited battle system, flawed story, lore literally left to a subsection in the menu, character growth is restricted deliberately until later on as in characters are locked to specific jobs purely because that's all the developer allowed for no other reason other than to force balance etc...

The game is not bad but it felt like SE were more invested in their hype trailers than deliver something that at least can match what they're know to be able to put out as by the time the game opens up the's not that much to do in it and that's more in the later stages of the game meaning you have to slog through the tedious parts first.

I really enjoyed 14 and 13-2 never played 13-3.
If they ever got released as a remastered trilogy, I'd buy it.

I personally think that FFXIII is a great game that suffers from it’s pacing limited by the it’s own design. The story seems slow because you feel like you’re playing a tutorial for a combat system which take too much time to be fully accessible and when it does, it’s working really well.
It’s the kind of game that deserves a second play through, the pacing seems faster since you know what’s coming next and what will be the limitation, but also let you know how the gameplay will develop.
This is the kind of game that get better with each play through.

To add to the criticism of the others:
It is a sh*t.

I strongly think that people in charge for writing that thing (and all FFs for many years now) have no idea what they are doing. I honestly beliefe that there is not a single professional writer, or narrative designer with formal education at square enix. There is not one interaction in FF13 that felt really human. No human being talks like those two-dmensional tropes square tries to sell as people.

So if you want dumb, corny, cheesy, stilted, badly directed charakters in an ass story that is partially (and those are important parts) told through optional archives somewhere in the menu, then I can totally recommend it.