I enjoyed XIII when I first played it, but not enough to ever be able to play it again. I've tried a few times, but it's just designed in such a way that replays are a chore. There's nothing really new to explore or do, and the way they lock your progression throughout the game/have that lengthy tutorial period just adds to the boredom. That said, I've never understood the complaints about them throwing out terms like Fal'Cie and us not being able to understand what's going on. I never had a problem figuring out the world.

XIII-2 was hella fun though. As everyone has mentioned, it fixed a lot of the issues of XIII. I enjoyed exploring the world and getting to know more of the story behind Noel, Caius, and Yeul. Monster collecting was fun. I liked dressing up the monsters a bit too. The soundtrack is also one of my favorites in the whole series. I also liked the religious lore getting fleshed out a bit more. I can see complaints about the story not being the best, but I still loved it all the way to the end. DLC was even pretty enjoyable (except for the Sazh stuff. That was pretty terrible).

Lightning Returns was also pretty fun, but XIII-2 still comes out ahead. I enjoyed Noel and Serah more than Lightning in this game. It also bothered me how Hope kind of regressed in this game. His character was pretty cool in XIII-2. The world was beautiful though, and I really liked how it felt pretty alive. It is kind of funny since the world is kind of dying at this point. The gameplay was enjoyable enough, but I couldn't really get into it. Lightning moved a bit too slow in battle. I feel like if the speed was ramped up a little, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I enjoyed learning more about the lore as well.