Oh, I don't hate the backstory, I hate the flow of events in the actual game which were bland, uninteresting, and poorly plotted. 

So sad, the scenario and lore was actually good.  Though I'll say hiding the lore in the data logs was a horrible mistake.  Funny how they needed a sequel to properly explain FF13's lore cause they couldn't be bothered to do it in the first game.

This is the game's most damning flaw in my opinion. The execution of an actually good underlining story was completely muddled and lost on the game. After reading all the lore text I was really expecting the cast to be more "Fuck you god for setting us up to be slaves, We killed orphan, YOU ARE NEXT!!!". That would have been a great premise  for continueing the story. I just could never shake the feeling that the cast had no fucking clue what they are doing and that they basically ACCIDENTALLY saved the world. Did we forget that they had a half hour argument on whether they should kill or save orphan in the end? They basically flipped a fucking coin and said fuck the consequences. Thats NOT EPIC SQUARENIX!!!! More like the epitome of anti-climactic.

Man don't even get me started. What a horribly shoehorned battle mechanic to pad the game with a fictional layer of depth. If XIII had scrapped the monster party thing, introduced the cooler more mature Hope, brought back Sahz, maybe some other new characters and had them persue saving Lightning, the game would have been a lot more bareable for me.

The way you guys are talking about XIII-2, I'm amazed I still get hate mail about people complaining my scoring on it was so low.

And yeah, that's one thing that REALLY pissed me off about XIII, they spent SO much time writing and elaborating on the lore, but virtually none of it came through in the game. I read a 10 page report a few years back explaining etro and the gods and the history of the world, and honestly it's one of the best backstories in the entire series, but NONE of it had ANYTHING to do with what happened in the game, and if you didn't read the datalogs, it might as well not have happened. Such a horribly wasted opportunity.

and for the record, that article I was planning, I wasn't even going to bring up the story, or explain how the villain was entirely forgettable and generic, or how the world was poorly presented, or how the character's actions seemed to follow no logic, or how stupid the characters were, or how Cid wasn't even in the game (and no, the person they called Cid was NOT cid, they just shared a name), or how 90% of the game was spent aimlessly wandering down a hall with no real goal in mind other than a simple core idea of "we've got to get that fantasy pope for his crimes" or something. I dunno, it's been a couple years now, I don't remember the plot, yet I could tell you almost every event and side story in any Final Fantasy from 4-10 (12 was a great game and had fantastic characters, but i don't remember its story very well either, it was good if generic).

Something else the Square Enix's Final Fantasy series needs to think about if it is to return to form, Villains. Every epic needs and I mean NEEEEEEDDDDSS a good villain. Where are the Sephiroth's,Kefka's, Edea's, Kuja's of old???? Villains are probably the biggest draws for JRPGs. What would FFVII be without Sephiroth? I really hate the more obscure villainous "entities" like Sin,Necros, Orphan.

PS. Also who else other than me think that Selvaria Bles and Sephiroth are a match made in heaven? from them the perfect villain could be born!!!! :D

Another thing. I did not like what they did with Hope in FFXIII-2. It's as if they consummed all his soul. And he was deprived of personality. Yeah maybe he was annoying sometimes in FFXIII but at least he showed emotions. Now he just looks like an old Hollywood actor who had too many plastic surgeries.

Boutros, I'm really starting to wonder what game you actually played, cause its starting to sounds like you didn't play Final Fantasy XIII-2 at all.

THis is ONLYY the beginning!

rumors point to this turning into a never-ending Lightning SAGA!

2013 - Lightning Returns

2014 - Lightning Forever

2015 - Lightning & Serah (claims to be the ultimate conclusion to the dramatic saga epic)

A few years later S-E will want to reboot the Lightning FFXIII Dramatic Saga Epic due to ravenous fan demand from e-mail addresses that all mysteriously seem to have either darthdevidem, boutros or ihateruna contained within them!!!

2020 - Lightning Begins

2022 - The Dark Light

2024 - The Dark Light Rises

Don't forget Lightning: Cocoon Asyllum And LIghtning: Cocoon City