WK's list of minor annoyances about FFXIII
  • The game feeling the need to notify you in the menu that you obtained another item, even if you already have twenty of them.
  • The fact, the Datalog has this tendency to regurgitate the same information over and over again. The chapter summary for Chapter 1-3 all feel the need to explain what the Purge is, despite their already being an entry there.
  • The menu for the Crystalium is very tedious for no reason. Like, you can switch between character with the shoulder buttons, but the game still wants you to click on them before letting you choose which Role to upgrade.
  • Is it me, or are the step sound effect unnecessarily loud?
  • After Chapter 1 and 2 feel super short, Chapter 3 and 4 feel unnecessarily long.
  • Why is the strategy guide for this game as big as the one for FFXII? Like the amount of gameplay content in XII dwarfs XIII's, and you can tell by how pointless a lot of the guide is. The author must have been paid by the page.


At this point, the gang has split up into Team Serious Business, and Team Silly Business. Everyone has at least three roles for Paradigm play, and I've unlocked the ability to upgrade gear.

The gameplay of this title is just baffling to me. It's like the design team looked at Xenosaga Episode II, Persona 3&4, and Suikoden IV's quirky gameplay ideas and decided to merge them all together without their redeeming traits.

First off, I hate grading systems in games, because more often than not, the only thing that matters is speed, and that just doesn't really promote tactical know-how. It just tells you to blitzkrieg your way through every situation. If a party member gets K.O. because all the enemies dog pile them in the first round and I still manage to finish the fight under a minute, I shouldn't really get a 5-star rating for that. If the point of this system is to promote better involvement with battles, I should be ranked on more factors than just speed. Especially since this limits any real defensive game. Like I get punished by the ranking system for using a Sentinel or Synergist role because they shave off precious second I could be using to murder enemies, and that just doesn't feel right to me.

Killing the team leader = Game over also doesn't make any sense. At least with SMT/Persona, there is an in-game reason for why this mechanic is a thing (SMT= Your demon allies are more mercenary than actual friends. Persona = Your MC is intricately attached to the final villain in a way where their death just skips you to the bad ending) but there is no real reasoning for it in XIII other than to create some fake difficulty. Hell, at least in SMT/Persona, you have more control over your MC's development and load out so that you can limit MegaTen deaths to freak accidents. I'll admit I've died like three times so far, but they feel empty because I never felt like I died because I messed up, all three times have just been due to the enemies dog piling on my leader at the same time. There really wasn't much I could do in those situations, so the death feels more outside my control than usual. Secondly, I just respawn right outside the battle anyway, so it hardly feels like a real setback. The challenge of this game just feels hollow to me.

Finally, the game has an awkward equipment system. Leveling gear feels tedious and unnecessarily convoluted for its own good. I'm already getting flashbacks to the horror of farming items to sell, so I can buy XP bonus items that are too tedious to farm on their own, so I can get the 3x XP bonus that allows me to use all the good XP items I've been hoarding around for chapters to finally stop wasting space in my inventory. Likewise, the Synthesis System is just baffling to me because in addition to the game never explaining it to the player in any clear terms, the bonuses they offer have no middle ground of usefulness. They are either garbage skills you'll never use (reduce damage by 5hp), or some endgame sorcery needed to get that Platinum Trophy (Occasionally ignore all Physical or Magical damage). It's a shame too, because much like Suikoden IV's funky armor set mechanics, this is probably one of the more interesting gameplay mechanics XIII tries to offer but fails to make it robust enough to warrant being used.

It's just been weird for me.