Like with XII I got bored of it midway through my first playthrough, and with XII on a replay with a bit more time and effort I began to appreciate its nuances, its a much better game when you scratch the surface.
XIII didn't quite work out like that. I did appreciate the intelligence of the battle system and surprisingly I was ok with the maps. Everything doesn't seem quite so linear when you're looking to grind off every mob and collect every treasure. Challenge level was very good, it generally kept you on your toes.
Characters didn't stand up great to a replay, they initially made a strong impression on me but most of them lacked the kind of depth and conviction that usually becomes apparent with a bit of scrutiny. Plot confused me the first time like with X, in X though on a 2nd play through everything clicked into place. Here, very little did and a lot of the characters I was supposed to care about I honestly wasn't sure who they were, the whole fal'cie, cie'th and l'cie concepts made sense now but they weren't especially endearing plot elements.
The common complaints of no gameplay variety and bad pacing were my main gripes. It appeared shorter than I was expecting too. Game itself was uncharacteristically shallow for a FF in many ways, the whole mission thing and revisiting old areas seems very tacked on. I wonder if this had its development time cut, feels unfinished. Disappointing but still fun
FF rankings:
IX > VII > VIII > VI > X > IV > X-2 > XII > V > XIII > I > III > II
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Smurf, the cream of Sonic fanboyism