I Don't Get the Complaints around XIII

[the AJman]

XII had lack lustre gameplay too, gambits are a step behind what XIII did, basically AI characters.

The gambit system in XII gave you complete control over all three characters on the screen. You are able to automate as much of the actions of the characters you want; heck you can even completely shut off the gambits and control all three manually. If your characters were on auto pilot through out the whole game, than that's your fault, not the game's.

XII had a pitiful gameplay overall

Completely subjective, I personally thought it had the best gameplay the series has yet to see (haven't played XIII yet), but that's just my opinion. To each their own, or as my old man likes to say, different strokes for different folks.

Unfortunately XII's story/Character development was ridiculously underdeveloped.

XII's story was very well developed; for a story that is so plot driven I'm surprised that people actually miss it. Granted it's a very straight forward story with very little twists and turns; it's still very much present in the game, and fairly well written if I don't say so myself.

As for the character's, again the story is more plot driven than your average FF game, so of course character development isn't going to be as noticable. However, just because character development is played down a bit doesn't mean it's not there. The characters do develop and change, it's just done much subtle than in previous FFs.

Wow, that's the first time I've ever had seperate quotes on my response, I'm surprised I didn't goober that up.