LogFAQs > #910975564

This largely depends if you are also going to play FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns. Like if you don't want to do that I'd say probably skip, but if you do then the trilogy is worth a play through. The games are very character focused and the cast is probably the most divisive in the series. You really need to play all 3 games to really get full closure on everyone. But overall I think the trilogy has among the best developed casts in the series. On top of that I also think the world building is extremely good and the soundtrack for XIII is number one.

The actual story though is kind of "wtf". It's really more about characters reacting to what is happening. XIII itself poses some interesting questions but they are solved in the lamest way possible. Some of the writing also seems a little iffy at times. And just like the characters the games themselves all seem pretty divisive in terms of their gameplay. The other is that the characters do start kind of bland or at least not as immediately likable compared to some other ff characters. But weird things happen over the course of the games. Like characters I didn't think much about in the first couple of games show up later in the third one and I can't help but think that "man this is so cool more games should do stuff like this."

As for the battle system. In XIII I don't really know what people expected. Like in terms of when it came out it was the best battle system a FF game has had. XIII-2 improves on it a little bit, and LR modifies it as it's based on using one character (Lightning).
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Updated: July 27th, 2016.