I didn't think FFXIII was all that bad, but I'm worried about SE's production methods. With FFs 1-10, Squaresoft released an FF every 1-2 years or so. Now their budgets are gigantic compared to the earlier FFs, they need about 5 years to produce an FF (even longer for FF Versus XIII), and the only noticeable thing that has been improved is the graphics. I'd have hoped that larger budgets + longer production times = better writing, but the storyline still could have been better in FFXIII, IMHO. While it is an enjoyable story, there's still plenty of melodrama, and the final parts felt extremely rushed. Another thing that I dislike is the way how the series is losing their identity, the features that make FFs so unique. Remove Chocoboes, Odin, Shiva and Bahamut from FFXIII, and rename the game to "Lightning's Story, Part I", and you wouldn't even know it's an FF. Many of the core RPG elements have also been removed (such as NPCs, towns, exploring, making choices etc), making the game feel more like an interactive movie, with some battle scenes. I'm glad FFXIII-2 brought some of those RPG-ish features back.