XIII looked great, but the story was shallow, the characters were shallow, and their motivations were whimsical at best. Poor scenario writing overall, overly linear storyline / environs only made the game that much less enjoyable. On a side note, I did enjoy the graphics of the game. And the soundtrack was great, although a lot of the music was constantly reused.
I thought the game was " o. k. " (SPOILERS BELOW)
The story was good after everything was explained (the Datalog helped me out greatly at times). Not all the characters were shallow... Sazh was by far the best character. Everything Sazh-related kept me playing; that and continuing the overall story. The linearity did not bother me one bit and the switching of scenarios throughout the chapters was neat. The music was amazing with several moving scores. Even if the beginning was reminiscent of FF7, I enjoyed the easter-eggs of past FF games making an appearance. The primary side quests were challenging, yet lacking. Acquiring money was near-impossible, unless farming Long Gui's was on your daily to-do list. Creating the best equipment and weapons was also a result of farming hard-to-beat enemies over and over again. The ending was also blah, yet good to see a happy outcome overall. But I still thoroughly enjoyed my time in FF13.
Anyways, regarding FF14... i knew it was going to fail, and i am glad it did. Maybe now SE will start on reviving Chrono, since we have this current FF MMO's older brother to thank for... arrgghhh... not going to say it... forgive my outburst...
Thinking about that whole situation makes me want to punch Korcha in the junk repeatedly until those red underpants get to be a much darker color... - "meez gots'CHA in zee bahlz beech! lolz und yo seestar Mel b nexxed ven i slapp d sheet oot uf hur."