I liked it. Not like there was any reason for me to dislike it. I'm used to typical Japanese cringe-worthy moments, I accept pretty much any character without second thoughts and I don't mind a hallway if it doesn't get too monotonous. And honestly, I didn't think XIII's linear path was all that monotonous, and that's because of one thing: the battles.

The combat system had me as soon as Paradigm Shifts were introduced. Fighting by essentially controlling your party's strategy and switching between them on the fly is an interesting concept. The game gives you a long time to experiment with all the different roles and find out what works best for you. And then it finally opens up entirely and you can play around with it all you like. It was quite fun.