No, I said Final Fantasy is a turn based JRPG, not FFXIII. We just expected that. Sure the ATB is there but a butchered version, FFXII had a weird version too but it was luckily a great game.

I'm not comparing FFXIII to other games, I'm comparing it to Final Fantasy games. That is what it had to live up to and it really didn't. 

 KH wasn't trying to be a game where you control everyone, the main character is Sora so you played as Sora. I haven't played Nocturne so can't comment but in a Final Fantasy game, I expected to fail only if all my party perished. In FFX you could choose the advanced sphere grid and if you want make Tidus a magic user. No MP meant strategic magic use was out the window, no longer could I have one character cast protective magic knowing that's all they'll cast while my other character uses Fire magic because they have MP left and the other to Heal. Hardly exploration, one part of a world when in previous FF games, I could go back to any area I wanted pretty much. Yes, having health regen removed things like hotels or tents, using MP outside of battle remained lost so the risk in your next fight was greater. The random encounters is more of a personal one mind you, many people don't like those but I was always fine with them but same with FFXII, there was no element of surprise, did not one fear the arrival of a random Malboro hoping it didn't use Bad Breath before your could escape?

If I can't connect to characters it means my enjoyment of the characters/story is lost in a game that is meant to be story focused. The X to win thing is based on zero thought put into it, not literal. Yes you pressed 'X' to choose a skill in FF8 but you had to choose what to do, attack normally, choose a magic, a GF or an item. In FFXIII it was press X on the first auto-battle option then wait until the ATB filled and do it again. In other FFs you can choose in what order character learn things, if they learn things, their abilities their magics, in FFXIII you went to a crystarium and pressed X until the points ran out.

Maybe I am nostalgic, wanting FF games to be a certain way but why not? FF games were great because of superb storys and solid traditional gameplay. This felt lost in a FFXIII. It was a good game but wasn't a good FF game. This is the problem.

I played FFXIII for about 3-4 hours before I stopped playing it completely... Granted that is not much time but if it failed to grab my attention by then, I am not willing to spend my time until it does... As for KH, I have a mixed experience of it... The story is good, the gameplay is good and there are a few neat plot twists here and there but what really breaks the game for me is the Disney Characters... I understand that they aren't a big deal to many people but when there are scenes where you have to sing and dance with the god damn little mermaid and her fish friends, I just can't continue...

And I think Fury give you pretty good reasons as to why FFXIII doesn't deserve the sales... The characters are just so bad imo... and its so damn liner... I understand that once you get to over 15 hours into the game the world opens up but by that time, its just too late...

The main reason we are so harsh on Square is cause they made some of the best games ever made but recently for the past few years, their games have not been up to par at all which is really sad... We are so desperate for a real FF game that we are now relying on games like Bravely Default and X to give us that FF Experience cause it almost seems as though square can't deliver anymore... That may change with FFXV but until it comes out, there is no way to know for sure

I'm not a fan of Kingdom Hearts, only finished the first game btw, but it's a series of action games.  Final Fantasy 13 wasn't.  Final Fantasy 13 is a game that wanted so hard to be an action game, which is why they made the gameplay like it was.  Lightning Returns is probably what they wanted to do, and what they should have did for the very first game.

Why just PS3?  You don't just review a game based on what games are on the console.  You review a game based on everything that's been released.  But to be fair, I'll humor you and list better JRPGs on the PS3 and 360.  Take note that all of these games aren't exceptional, some of them aren't very good at all, yet they're still better than Final Fantasy 13. 

Ni No Kuni, Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2, Star Ocean the Last Hope, Atelier Totori, White Knight Chronicles 2, Tales of Graces F, Tales of Vesperia, Xenoblade.  This is only based on what I've played.  Other games that I think are better that aren't completely JRPG style, but fall under that category.  Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4, Dragon's Crown.

*Looks at list*  Yeah.  That's just about every JRPG/JRPG like game I've played this gen and I think they were all better.  A couple of them sucked, too, so that's really saying something about my opinion of FF13.  I haven't played Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon, Tales of Xillia, Disgaea 3, Disgaea 4, Breath of Death 7, Cthulu Saves the World, On the Rain Slicked Precipice of Darkness Episode 3, On the Rain Slicked Precipice of Darkness Episode 4, the other Gust/Compile Heart games, but I have a good feeling they're better than Final Fantasy 13..  The only two that I have played that I won't say are better are On the Rain Slicked Precipice of Darkness 1 and 2, only because those games were equally as bad as Final Fantasy 13.

Ff xiii was great tho

No. It was a terrible game by FF standards. And they just milked it for two extra titles.

I think it's a sad statement that in the longest gen in history we only got 1 true, unique Final Fantasy, and it was a poor one. There should have been 3. I am very disappointed in you Square. Very disappointed.

I so miss the days when Sakaguchi Square could imagine up and create a new world and a great title every 2 years.

I'm sure Square-Enix would be somewhat disappointed with the total sales of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. First game was a major disappointment and you can probably see that in the heavy drop off of sales for the somewhat better sequel.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 restored my faith in the series a little, whilst nowhere near the top tier of JRPGs it was a fun playthrough with an interesting villain.

FF13-2 was imo a great game, way better then the first game in the series. They should have stopped there though..

It's not a question of whether or not it deserves to sell though. It sold, that's the important thing. We can go on all day about stuff that other people deserve, but at the end of it all, SE was able to generate excitement for the game, people bought in mass, it was pretty much panned for the most part, and the sequel, while still a success, basically saw half of it's sales get cut away. In a way, if you wanna talk about the d-word, FFXIII is getting what it deserved. LR isn't likely to be a big hit. It'll sell less on both platforms because of a bad rep, new consoles, competition in the same genre, and will be releasing in a time of the year where games don't typically do hot numbers. That's a total prediction on my end. LR is simpyl up against too much to even cut even with FFXIII-2.

This.

Brand recognition and CGI plus the fact it took so long after FFXII to squarnix to release FFXIII meant great sales, despite critical and fan reception being pretty lackluster.