For most of the reasons people shit on XIII they praise X. Both have a lot of the same problems from being too linear to a terrible plot and characters. Not to mention the godfucking awful Nomura art design strikes again. The only good design he ever put out is when someone told him to stop at some point. Like FF7 and Xenoblade 2 (he designed Jin and Malos)
Linear isn't bad by default. Grandia II is a great RPG but it's also just better paced and written than X even if it's more cliche. Its characters have more character. Yes FFX tried something different but different doesn't mean good. Well, it had an interesting story idea but in the end, it was stupid. Yuna looks insane. For a length of a fart in the wind. Grandia was a competitor to FF. I will die on the hill even with less of a budget. Grandia II is the better game between it and FFX...as long as it's the DC version of Grandia II. That PS2 port was awful.
Bite my shiny metal cockpit!
