I drove to Gamestop for the 12am launch. I waited online, got my copy and proceeded to play for hours until the early morning. I played many hours the next day, and the day after that.

Then I sold it.

Gamers seem to be divided on FF13. Most can agree on its shortcomings, but many still find it acceptable or worthy to stand next to other great FF games, like FFX and FFIX. I think it's one of the worst in the series.

My issue with Final Fantasy 13 is a body of small issues that come together to make a game that's a chore to play. Here's a few of them:

Environments are one-pathed. Ok, we knew this would be a linear FF. We knew there weren't going to be towns to explore. But nothing prepared me for having to simply walk in a straight line for the first hour of the game. Thereafter, Square Enix tries their best to dress up environments to make it appear like you can explore, but it's impossible to get lost. You go straight, or occasionally have a fork in the road that ends quickly and leads to an item. It's boring.

Battles are just ok. The battle system took a risk and it's fun. It also gets old pretty fast. I can't control anyone but myself and it's more fast paced, which I liked at first...but in actuality, I have to juggle different paradigms and hope characters do what's most efficient. It doesn't help that I can't manage who's in my party...even when I have additional people in my party that I can edit stats for in the menu. This is the strongest part of the game, it's just not a battle system for everyone. I prefer X-2's way of doing things here. The whole paradigm thing is cool, but it ends up just being different, and not better as I hoped.

The story isn't interesting. The game starts without really explaining what's going on...which brings another point, that the game relies too much on the datalog to explain the story rather than through narrative. Either way, without spoiling it for anyone, the story is very generic, odd, silly and simply boring. It doesn't help that it progresses at a glacial pace.

Every. Character. Sucks. There is no perfect JRPG, or Final Fantasy, cast (although FF9 comes damn close). The problem here is no one is enjoyable. Sure, Lightning is badass, but she's quiet, boring and a bitch. Snow is your typical, "No! I love her. Let's do this because I love her!" hero. Hope is pathetic, Vanille is the oddest character I've come across (and nominee for worst victim of localization in a Japanese videogame) and it takes too long to get better or make you care about any of them. Sazh is the best character, but that's just by contrast. Standalone, he sucks, too. I'll take a second to randomly mention that I have 3 Blur codes up for grabs, and that I'll PM you a code if you leave a comment simply telling me what you think; whether I'm an idiot and FF13 is the greatest game ever made, that Vanille is a breakout star and deserves a spinoff, whatever.

Above all, the game takes too long to progress, and when it does, it's unraveling a story that is very weak and shockingly lame. The highlight of this game is the battle system, but that's not for everyone, and even if it is, I know I don't want to sink tens of hours into a JRPG solely for battles. I know Square Enix put a great deal of time and energy into developing this game technically, to have a beautiful next gen FF game. Hopefully next time, they won't forget about the story, characters, or progression for the game.