Agree with this 100%. FF13's biggest problem was the worst characters of any RPG I have ever played and a truly awful story. Seriously go to any FF13 forum and all discussions on story end up having to rely on the extra materials not included in the game. You will often hear talk about how Etro is the most important aspect.... a goddess who is barely even mentioned at all in the game. Iirc she is mentioned about 2-3 times in the whole game and only as a brief aside. 

The other problem of being too linear was more of an easy fix. Just open the next game up a little bit. Instead of long single paths just have them loop around and cross a little etc. Not a huge thing to change. 

The gameplay system, leveling up etc wasn't too much of a problem. So it is kinda unbelievable that they would write a sequel and maintain the worst parts of the last game. 

However at the same time we know why this game exists. It can reuse a HUGE amount of assets from FF13. They even said how they had enough cut material to almost make a second game. I'm guessing that FF13-2 exists purely because it was very quick and cheap to make compared to 13. 

I will probably get it at some point but really I wish they had just made a new game. 

I'm so excited!! 5 days now!

Ouch. I thought they were meant to have fixed the flaws from the previous game. Instead, it sounds like they've found new ways to ruin it.

I simply disagree, I think you're judging the story way too soon, the story is a correlative and continuous concept , you can't judge it based on clues here and there , beside , If you checked the latest trailer dialog, you'd notice Noctis is different than Squall , Versus seems to be more about friendship rather than love, Noctis was joking around with his friends , I can't imagine Squall doing that :p . Also, Noctis and Stella are enemies , that IS interesting by itself , would he kill his love ? or she would ?.. " Versus reflects our world today, and its ugly issues" ^^

Anyhow I've played Birth by Sleep not long ago, and I'm sure that Nomura can deliver .

Funny thing that you mention FF12 when we are talking about bad written characters ;). Personally , I'm not really the biggest fan of XII. I believe their main guy has left to Level 5 btw.

Is Square's plan to make this game so bad that XIII seems good?

GENIUS!!!

I'm pretty concerned considering I have pre-ordered the collectors edition. The story and voice acting didn't seem that great in the trailers and the mini-games and extras like "moogle" feel so forced. What pisses me off most is that they feel they have to copy Western developers because they think it makes them look good, but it doesn't, let the Western developers make their mistakes and get DLC out of my god damn Final Fantasy.

Still, this is ONE review, I have a lot of confidence in the game.

- Perhaps the worst story in Final Fantasy history

You've made Naughty Dog very happy!

X360 Magazine UK: 9 out of 10
Official Xbox Magazine: 9 out of 10
Play UK: 80 out of 100
Playstation Official Magazine US: 8 out of 10
Game Informer: 8 out of 10

Source: http://www.gamerankings.com

Doesn't look that bad...

Having completed multiple endings in this game i'm not surprised that someone who didnt like the XIII story didnt like XIII-2, the two stories are pretty co-dependant (XIII-2 is even more heavily based in fabula nova crystalis lore than XIII was). There are multiple plots etc too though, so i'm guessing hes reviewing the canonical ('real') one.

The story is pretty decent though, dense in lore in places, definitely, but still great. But this is probably one of those guys who moaned about the 'convoluted' nature of XIII. My statement still stands, if you read at laest 3 mature level novels a year i'd expect you to 100% understand this games story. Its not rocket science despite being more 'intense' than the average modern rpg tale.

Personally I loved the game, I've played them all & its my all time 4th favourite FF, but then i'm not a 'professional' critic, haha

My advice (for what its worth), play it and form your own opinion.

I'm pretty poor at English, I don't read any books and I have a very short attention span, yet even I understood all of Final Fantasy XIII's plot, minus the last few hours of the game.