When I bought my Wii, the first console this generation I got without knowing for sure if I ever would get a another one, I thought about what I may loose. Final Fantasy XIII was one of those games and my conclusion was that the series were not that appealing to me anymore. I had seen the artwork and some trailers: too flashy and teen to my taste, that's what I thought.
Then the game came out and it received a lot of hard reviews. That really took me by surprise. Even the amount of people saying it wasn't worth it.
Time passed by and I decided to give it a chance. For old memories sake.
The truth is that though I can easily empathized with the OP, I came to the game with really low expectations and that may have done my experience even sweeter. I loved every element of the game. Yeah, at the begining it may have been a bit disappointing not to be able to micro manage during the fights (on a tactical level of sorts), but trying to see why they thought macro management was a solid option was nice and even fun for a change.
I do agree that chapters 9 and 10 could and should have been erased. They really don't add much but time consuming events and fights, but overall, it was a fresh and beautiful experience.
I am looking foward for more tradtional takes on Final Fantasy in the future. At the same time, I'm glad I know I can enjoy just as much what they are offering now.
