Favorite character is Lightning. Visually, her character design is really good. She's just a badass.

Great combat - I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I found it very engaging. I really enjoyed experimenting with paradigms, testing out all the various combinations. I liked that when the crystarium opened up, that there were unique advantages for characters in those roles outside of their "primary" ones they start off with (Lightning being able to become a dodge/agility based tank, for instance).

The music and art direction - both go very well together. I think this is one of the more tonally consistent Final Fantasies. It's one of the few FF's where I like some of the other tracks more than the battle and boss themes (although I love FF music. Even FFI has some good ones like Matoya's Cave). My favorite track is "The Vestige". Beautiful.

I liked most things about FF13. Yeah I missed towns and stuff, but with the way the game is set up I really DID feel like Lightning and gang really were exiled. It was a different feeling for sure.