Why do people hate Final Fantasy XIII so much?

Personally, I feel the FF franchise has been steadily accelerating downhill after the release of IX.

FFX: While I liked the combat (standard turn-based for those of you who have not played it). I hated the linearity...and the whole Sin story...well...sucked. But most of all, I really REALLY hate Tidus...and his incessant whining. Every time he opened his mouth I felt like punting puppies.

FFXII: Eh, what to say. This whole game was kinda meh, not terrible...just meh. The lead character wasn't as annoying as Tidus, although that's not saying a lot. Combat felt like an playing an MMO with a pet class that could have more than one pet out.

FFXIII: I hated the linearity, and the story is crap. The combat system is the crappiest out all the FF games that I have played (all of the main series up to XIII). Either give me a turn based combat system, or an all action based system....but this hybrid crap sucks. It's like playing whack-a-mole in that you are constantly flipping through different pre-made "builds" through out the course of the battle depending on which skills/spells you need at any given moment. This makes pretty much every fight in the game tedius. Oh, and they cant take Snow, Hope, and Vanelle (spelling?) and flush them down an industrial strength toilet.

I don't know, since the release of X...Final Fantasy games just haven't felt like Final Fantasy games. X seems to be where they decided down the path of graphics over gameplay, and the series has suffered for it. To me FF games were always about an epic story (though usually pretty standard JRPG epicness). Turnbased or ATB battles. A large world to explore, not just a map with "pins" in it to land on, and lot's of secrets to find.

I know there are lots of fans of the newer style FF games, and good for them...if they enjoy it by all means play the hell out of them. They are just no longer the games that I fell in love with starting with the first one on the NES. They introduced me to jrpgs and I am grateful for that...but long gone are the days when I would wait for a new FF release with gleeful anticipation.

Don't even get me started on Skyward Sword. Assuming that is the one you meant, because most people seem to love A Link Between Worlds. I cant wait to get it one of these days.

All the complaints toward the game that I can think:

-linearity (never agreed with this TBH. Linearity is not a game design flaw in any way as far as I am concerned; even in an RPG)

-no towns (Eh, there are technically a few towns in the game and there are moments where you interact with NPCs, albeit not as much as previous FFs. That and any functions a town served (buying stuff and restoring health) were still addressed in FFXIII. That being said, the few towns the game DID have also had monsters and did not really differ from any other non-town area in the game, so the towns did not really serve to offer a different type of location for the game's pacing. Overall I partially agree to this complaint I guess)

-TOO EASY, ONLY NEED TO PRESS X TO WIN (honestly find this complaint irksome because it could literally be applied to most other FF games, where you can pretty much manage perfectly fine 90% of the time just using the attack command, maybe occasionally only use group magic attacks just to speed up battles and save time. In nno way are games likes FFVI or FFVII harder than FFXIII, or require more strategy than FFXIII. I mean, FFXIII isn't that hard of a game outside a small handful of boss battles or certain few enemies, I just find the hypocrisy kind of annoying)

-bad story (agree with this)

-terrible characters (agree with this for the most part)

-Bad pacing/long tutorial (can agree with this, albeit it doesn't really bother me THAT much)

-lack of content (definitely agree with this)

Personally, while FFXII was overall pretty mediocre and disappointing, I do think the game does get a bit more s*** than it deserves. I did find a few things about the game to be enjoyable (notably, the combat system, music, and graphics/visuals), it's just a shame the game was flawed and lacking outside of that.

i didnt give 2 S***s about the fact the game was linear, the fact that every character was a bad joke ruined it for me. hated every single one of the characters except for the end boss guy; i played it at launch so my memory on the matter isnt too specific but he was the least cartoonish. i honestly cant fathom why they made two (F****in 2!!!) sequels. final fantasy games have had some great and some horrible characters but ff13 was all "horrible". we get no ff6/7 remake or sequel, no final fantasy 15, and 3 garbage cans

I enjoyed the series and pay no attention to Kevin's reviews anymore. Especially not after making me buy Dark Souls II, but some good came of that as I traded it in for Last of Us + DLC and still £17 on credit. Last of Us by the way is frigging brilliant.

Kevins very opinionated despite how hard he tries not to be.

Like many I hated how linear the game was. I also believe it had the WORST cast from any of the previous titles in the series, and the fact that it had a battle system that could pretty much play itself didn't sit well with me either. I missed having towns to explore, instead all my shopping was done at the save points. Over half the game you were on the run from the enemy, which also made for a bad story IMO.

It just didn't live up to the epic greatness that the other games gave me.

And it's pretty blah to say that linearity is the sworn enemy of JRPGs since most of them are linear.

On topic: I thought FFXIII was decent but definitely not up to usual FF standards. I gave it a 7.

Pros: Gorgeous visuals and music; inventive and striking art design. Pretty good voice acting (even if some of the writing was shaky). Challenging, but not frustrating. Great boss battles. Very good combat system for the most part, though it felt like it could use another component; I kind of felt like something was missing. Also, I felt that staggering enemies made fights last too long.

Cons: The story had potential, but was not very well executed and fell apart at Gran Pulse. Characters were a mixed bag; the game was much too extreme in its linearity and often felt like a chore. There was not enough diversity in the side content. The world, for all its beauty, felt hollow and not particularly convincing; kind of a shame when considering the technology they had to work with. The crystarium was pretty lame compared to the sphere grid and license board. The Gran Pulse section of the game was extremely boring and pretty much sapped away any momentum the story had before then. I felt the villains were not particularly interesting, which is very disappointing for a franchise with such strong villains.

Not sure. I started it awhile ago and I thought it was great from what I played.

@cory_vet_gamer: Don't bother posting in this thread anymore if you can't do so without the condescending snide attitude.

/\/\/\That