Final Fantasy XIII

The Good
The graphics are fantastic, as is the sound design.

The story (character-driven) is well-written and each character is developed fabulously.

The Main Character is one of the best female leads I've seen in RPGs from that era (and even more in recent ones). If today's "strong women" tropes were a third of what she was, no one would be complaining.

The vibes between the main cast is great. By that I don't mean they're always buddy, but that the game doesn't drag any of its characters down the mud just so a different one can shine more like they did with Tidus (X) and Vaan (XII), for instance.

The Bad
Most importantly, this is a terrible PC port of the game, filled with performance issues and some weird bugs. Thankfully, this can all be fixed with a simple and free mod.

The battle speed could use a "speed up" function, especially in the late game.

They overuse a certain dialogue line about being enemies of a certain place to the point it was a bit annoying.

A certain character's VAs (her name starts with V) sound a bit too lewd. Especially for a character that looks that young.

The Bottom Line
Final Fantasy XIII is a fantastic game, and I truly do not understand the hate it gets thrown at it by some FF "fans".

I've been playing the franchise since the Super Nintendo era, and always had a very prejudiced and misinformed vision of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy due to other people's reviews (in the FF groups and whatnot).

This year, I gave it a try, and boy was I wrong. The characters grew on me so much that this game entered my top 5 FF games EASILY.

I think most of the hatred comes from the terrible PC port. That's truly the only thing I can think of (other FF games were more linear than this one, or had slower battles, or worse characters, worse gameplay and so on)...

Regardless, if you are reading this, go give Final Fantasy XIII a shot. Don't let some FF "fans" keep you from paying this fantastic game.

Oh, and if you're a Final Fantasy fan like me that has played the franchise from the start, you're not going to be disappointed. Especially if you liked FF X.