The characters of VIII are not devoid of personality, just character development.

And really, go enjoy FFXIII for all I care. I just really think it's unfair to judge the game this way and pit it up against VIII when they use different styles of narrative.

And yes, Pheesh, this is exactly what this thread is - it's an opinion thread. I can say I think the writing in XIII is terrible however many times I want, and it's none of your business how much time I spend on it. And if you don't like that - that's your problem. I never said you're stupid for enjoying XIII, but you jumping at my throat for every opinion you don't understand or disagree with is, well, unfair, to say the least.