Even I liked a few things about XIII. The main party was decently strong, each having their own personal and understandable motivation to be there. A big part of what kept me going was waiting for the inevitable Snow/Hope confrontation as they were my favorite members of the party. I felt that whole subplot was expertly done.

Sazh and Vanille also had a wonderful dynamic and I did not see their subplot's ending coming at all. It was also adequately emotional.

The problem lay in Lightning, whom I hated, Fang, who i didn't care about.

Then of coure you end up on Pulse and the character development just dies and now it's all about "the Plot." God save us from FFXIII's plot.

The very beginning of the game is also very frustrating as they literally bombard you with terms like Cocoon, PSICOM, Sanctum, fal'Cie, etc.. I didn't get any of this until I looked it all up and by tht time I was scratching my head in irritation. This is bad storytelling. Contrast witH FFVII, where Barret is kind enough to explain what the hell is going on here with the Mako Reactor and what Mako is.

FFVII has a very fast paced beginning just like XIII but the former was well-done while the latter was not.

SO4's beginning is also nice enough to give you some exposition to explain everything that's going on. Exposition might be a bit of a lazy tool but it's still better than having to search datalogs or get on the internet and ask people.

Dare I say it, SO4 had a better articulated story.