History YMMV / FinalFantasyXIII

* GameBreaker: [[GameBreaker/FinalFantasy Here]].

** Do the names Motomu Toriyama, Toshiro Tsuchida, or Yoshinori Kitase mean anything to you? Kitase was the producer of the game, as well as one of the designers. Toriyama was the director, and Tsuchida was another one of the game designers. But in the eyes of many critics, the designer, producer, publisher, debugger, marketer, and localizer was solely [[ScapegoatCreator Tetsuya Nomura]]... who only is credited as ''one'' of the artists, and you know what else? ''He's not even the ART Director''! Anyone who knows Tetsuya Nomura well enough to dislike him should be able to tell that this game isn't even really his style.

* IdiotPlot: [[IdiotPlotFinalFantasy Hoo boy...]

* IdiotPlot: [[IdiotPlot/FinalFantasy Hoo boy...]

* IdiotPlot: [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/IdiotPlot/FinalFantasy Hoo boy...]

* FanPreferredCouple:
** Despite not being particularly close to one another, Fang/Lightning rose to be the most popular ''Final Fantasy XIII'' ship, having the most written fics in Website/FanFictionDotNet and Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. In canon, neither women is given an official RelationshipUpgrade with anyone, but Fang and Light have their own respective ImpliedLoveInterest in the form of [[LesYay Vanille]] and Hope.
** Similar to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud and Tifa]], Fang and Vanille are a very heavily implied couple but not completely confirmed as one. And just like Cloud and Tifa, there is a significant portion of the fanbase who pretty much just accept them as an OfficialCouple due to all of those obvious hints and how much fans want them to be together.

* FanPreferredCouple: Despite not being particularly close to one another, Fang/Lightning rose to be the most popular ''Final Fantasy XIII'' ship, having the most written fics in Website/FanFictionDotNet and Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. In canon, neither women is given an official RelationshipUpgrade with anyone, but Fang and Light have their own respective ImpliedLoveInterest in the form of [[LesYay Vanille]] and Hope.

** Lightning is either one of the coolest, most badass females of the franchise and a worthy leader for the group, or a cold and abusive bitch who treats Snow and Serah like crap and never makes amends for her behavior. A persistent debate grew after she grew to prominence, circling on if she really deserved to become the face of the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise in the years after the game's release, with a lot of spin-offs highlighting her presence.

* FanPreferredCouple: Despite not being particularly close to one another, Fang/Lightning rose to be the most popular ''Final Fantasy XIII'' ship, having the most written fics in Website/FanFictionDotNet and Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. In canon, neither women is given an official RelationshipUpgrade with anyone, but Fang and Light have their own respective ImpliedLoveInterest in the form of Vanille and Hope.

* FanPreferredCouple: Despite not being particularly close to one another, Fang/Lightning rose to be the most popular ''Final Fantasy XIII'', having the most written fics in Website/FanFictionDotNet and Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. In canon, neither women get an official RelationshipUpgrade with anyone, but Fang and Light have their own respective ImpliedLoveInterest in the form of Vanille and Hope.

* FanPreferredCouple:
** [[AgeGapRomance Hope/Lightning]], or [[PortmanteauCoupleName Hoprai]]. The two have plenty of tender moments which serve to bring out Lightning's kinder side and help draw Hope out of his depression when few others can. Due to the age gap, the game is obviously presenting these two as having a ParentalSubstitute dynamic, but that doesn't stop some fans. Then the sequels happened and Hope got aged up to actually be a couple years older than Lightning, and the popularity of the ship skyrocketed.
** Although a minority, there are some who ship Hope/Vanille, based mainly upon their optional scene on Gran Pulse, among other small interactions across the story. Although the age gap is a bit questionable at first, this is resolved in later games.
** For the fans that hate Hope or aren't into little boys, Fang/Lightning ([[PortmanteauCoupleName "Flight"]]) is the ship of choice for the two; boasting the most amount of comments/highest views for fanfiction. Being two beautiful and powerful women with some of the most developed character arcs and significant roles in the story definitely helped.
** Also [[LesYay Fang/Vanille]], thanks to so much {{subtext}} that most of the fanbase chooses to consider it plain text.
** Gadot is ''always'' paired with Snow amongst the [[LGBTFanbase gay]] [[BaraGenre fandom]].
** Amusingly, Serah and Snow--the only canon couple--is not particularly well-liked by a majority of fans. There is no real hate about the pairing, but no particular like either. An oft-cited reason is just how uncomplimentary the two seem together -- Snow's massive frame and boisterous demeanor with Serah's positively petite physique and demure personality can leave the two coming across as a big brother looking out for his frail little sister, more than the loving couple they're supposed to be. On top of this is the unavoidable problem of the two already being deeply in love with one another (they just got engaged), which leaves the audience no chance to see ''why'' the two love each other so much. On top of all that, Serah spends the majority of the game as a crystal statue, preventing the audience from seeing her relationship with Snow play out either.

** For the fans that hate Hope or simply aren't into Shotacon, Fang/Lightning ([[PortmanteauCoupleName "Flight"]]) is the ship of choice for the two; boasting the most amount of comments/highest views for fanfiction. Being two beautiful and powerful women with some of the most developed character arcs and significant roles in the story definitely helped.

** Hope is 14, and went through a ''hell'' of a TraumaCongaLine that includes seeing his mom fall to her death, finding out he's basically a dead man walking, and being forced to rely on a bunch of strange adults (one of which he blames for his mother's death) for protection as the government tries to hunt them down and kill them. Yet fans hate him for his FreakOut and angsting, which many audiences regard as unwarranted. A major cause of this dissonance is the fact that Nora died from wounds suffered in an explosion, after which she goes limp and slips from Snow's grasp, but Hope--watching from a distance--could not tell she was already dead. The ''player'' knows that Nora was dead and there was nothing Snow could have done for her, but from ''Hope's'' perspective, it looks like Snow let his mother fall to her death in order to save himself.

* EightDeadlyWords: Of the five party members introduced in the opening sequence, they don't exactly make a good first impression. All of them spend the first few chapters of the game variably act angry, apathetic, cowardly, stupid, and/or just plain irritating, [[ItMakesSenseInContext which is at least partially understandable given their circumstances]], but this can grate on the player and sour their interest in the group. They do all get CharacterDevelopment, but this doesn't happen until hours later, by which point a player simply might not care anymore.

* EightDeadlyWords: Of the five party members introduced in the opening sequence, they don't exactly make a good first impression. All of them variably act angry, apathetic, cowardly, stupid, and/or just plain irritating due to the situation as a whole, which can grate on the player and sour their interest in the group unless. They do all get CharacterDevelopment, but this doesn't happen until hours later, by which point a player simply might not care anymore.

** Vanille is either seen as a tragic StepfordSmiler whose optimism and naive temperament hides a guilt-ridden woman who is desperate to make amends for her actions, or an obnoxiously perky girl who behaves far younger and immaturely than someone who is in their late-teens should. Her English voice acting also got some flak, mainly due to the [[OrgasmicCombat constant and very inappropriate grunts and moans]] Vanille makes in combat, which makes fights involving Vanille very awkward to listen to.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: The game has a very complex and deep battle system, where all characters can eventually use all six Crystarium roles but cannot learn all abilities within them, making the party balanced overall and giving characters dedicated roles while still allowing the freedom to use them in other ways. However, this level of depth is unnecessary for most of the game. Some combination of Commandos for DPS and Ravagers to build the Chain Gauge can see you through most battles, and you'll ocasionally want to swap in a Paradigm with Medic, Synergist, and/or Saboteur to handle healing and buffs, but that's it. Unless you're into the really difficult post-game content where more dynamic usage of Paradigms is needed, you'll probably find yourself using the same three party members in the same three or four Paradigm configurations through most of the game.

* DisappointingLastLevel: Several fans hated the last level because all the game becomes from that point is level grinding to get you to a good level for the final boss. At least with Final Fantasy X, you could still go back and do mini-games and side-quests before the final fights, here it's just going around these "training grounds" and getting ready for a disappointingly easy boss fight.
* EightDeadlyWords: Of the five party members introduced in the opening sequence, few if any of them make a good first impression. All of them variably act angry, apathetic, cowardly, stupid, or just plain irritating, which can grate on the player and sour their interest in the group. They do all eventually get CharacterDevelopment, but this doesn't happen until many hours later, by which point a player simply might not care anymore.

** Amusingly, Serah and Snow- the only canon couple -- is not particularly well-liked by a majority of fans. There was no real hate about the pairing, but no particular like either. An oft-cited reason is just how uncomplimentary the two are together -- Snow's massive frame and boisterous demeanor with Serah's positively petite physique and demure personality can leave the two coming across as a big brother looking out for his frail little sister more than the loving couple they're supposed to be. On top of this is the unavoidable problem of the two already being deeply in love with one another (after all, they just got engaged) which leaves the audience no chance to see ''why'' the two love each other so much and therefore no reason for us to care about their relationship, since it's already at the end point of most happy romance stories. Then on top of all that, Serah spends the majority of the game as a crystal statue, preventing the audience from seeing her relationship with Snow play out either.

--> Literally everyone at one point or another: "Pulse is hell."/"Pulse is hell on Earth"

* LostInMediasRes: A common criticism of the game. The game begins with a context-free jailbreak and hits the ground running, only briefly pausing to parcel out the events of the two weeks leading up to it from each character's point of view and in AnachronicOrder. As a result, it's difficult the weave the plot threads together and contextualize the story and characters. Square-Enix's main sop to audience comprehension is lots of awkward, repetitive {{exposition}} regurgitating plot points like "We're l'Cie, the enemies of Cocoon!" and "Pulse is hell on Earth!" rather than [[ShowDontTell show these things to the player]]. In fact, the ''IncitingIncident''--Serah being branded a l'Cie--isn't shown on screen, not even in flashbacks.

** The game as a whole suffers from this, as there are many players who--even to this day--detest the game due to bad first impressions that were left on them, for any number of reasons listed on this page.

** The Paradigm battle system requires you to pick three of the characters as your active party, set up combinations of their skills (the Paradigms), and then switch back and forth between Paradigms during battle. This rewards planning during the set-up, and quick reactions during battle. You don't gain access to the full system until the end of ''Chapter Ten''. Before then the game keeps on splitting the party into pairs for story reasons, which means you don't get access to their full range of skills, and when they finally start coming together, the game picks the active party for you. FF XIII is sometimes accused of having a twenty hour tutorial: this is why. Luckily there is still a lot of gameplay after Chapter Ten.
** The consensus was that the game is much much better when you get to chapter 11 (it's all linear up to that point). This was actually intended, as the developers stated that Cocoon was more story-driven whereas Pulse was more exploration-driven. (A lot of the people mostly complained about not getting to see more of Cocoon... and really, [[SceneryPorn wouldn't YOU?]])

*** The first battle is easily the hardest. The initial stage with the elemental attachments isn't too bad, but once they're destroyed Barthandelus will almost constantly attack the party with Baptism in Ruin or Thanatosian Smile, necessitating constant healing. Then there's his Destrudo attack, which most players would think to block by shifting to Combat Clinic or Consolidation and healing up. As it turns out, it's strong enough to KO you even with that; what you're ''actually'' supposed to do is to attack him to interrupt the attack, which isn't hinted at at ''all''.

*** However this can be a CurbStompBattle with the right set up, get him to stagger point and unleash Odin on him, the battle can be over in as little as ''four minutes'', and just for comparison the expected time for the battle? 36 minutes. Or alternatively, build up his stagger point without being outright damaging (ie Sab/Rav/Rav instead of Com/Rav/Rav) and then when fully staggered, lay into them before he can transform (juggling him helps a bunch).

** Another potentially frustrating sidequest is getting the Treasure Hunter Trophy, which involves getting every weapon and accessory in the game (thankfully not all at once, just owning each one at some point in the playthrough is enough). It requires an unfathomable amount of cash to do since you need to do a lot of upgrading, plus you need to get at least six of the rare and expensive Trapazohedrons (although there's a trick that allows you to get by with only having to find/buy two). It's not exactly ''difficult'' to do, but it takes much longer than anything else in the game and demands that you spend many hours farming Oretoises and Sacrifices.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: This game is very alien, it does not hit any 'old-school' vibes at all.
** The switch from the traditional ''Final Fantasy'' victory fanfare to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDXRNwyDrSw this]] is kind of indicative of the game's issues. [[OlderThanTheyThink While it's not the first time]] the fanfare was changed, it was the first mainline game to depart from it.
** Critics point out that there is very little player freedom, not much variety in the form of optional things to do and not much of a populated world or people to interact with. The game is highly linear, with the exception of Gran Pulse, which is much more open. (It's argued that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' disguised its corridors by making them comparatively scenic. albeit, that game received some criticism for its linearity, too). Some of the game's defenders use the argument that the characters are fugitives (The general populace knows who and what the player characters are and fear them to the point of hysteria. They are constantly being pursued and have few places to hide, so there is little time for anything but running away), but that does little to enhance enjoyment of the game if its simply not to your tastes. It has a high concentration towards story and combat, leaving little room for anything else until about half-way through the game. Another complaint is that the less-than-straightforward story presentation can lose people, causing them to rely on the datalog to follow along.

** Lighting's weapon is a hybrid of a gun and a sword, and it's only in a single battle where she is forced to use her weapon as a gun instead as a sword against [[spoiler: Havoc Skytank in Chapter 7]]. The player is never given the option to utilize Lightning's unique weapon to decide on a hack-and-slash or gunslinger approach to maximize their damage output.

* {{Wangst}}: Many players claim Hope is guilty of this, spending a good portion of the game whining about how hard things are and that Lightning's being mean to him. Other people feel that Hope's reaction is perfectly justified as a character but are just annoyed at the writers for going down that predictable path, making it an out-of-universe PetPeeveTrope. In addition, the overtly protracted pacing of the arc (there are many moments wherein which he could've spoken up yet choked) was something that many players were sick of having to put up with; it takes too long for the arc to be resolved.

** Lightning's real name being changed from [[spoiler: Éclair to Claire, avoiding stupid jokes about pastries and adding an extra layer to her request to be called Light.]] It should be noted that [[spoiler: in french, éclair also means lightning.]] The intended first name for Lightning did make sense after all.

* LostInMediasRes: A common criticism of the game. The game begins with a context-free jailbreak and hits the ground running, only briefly pausing to parcel out the events of the two weeks leading up to it from each character's point of view and in AnarchronicOrder. As a result, it's difficult the weave the plot threads together and contextualize the story and characters. Square-Enix's main sop to audience comprehension is lots of awkward, repetitive {{exposition}} regurgitating plot points like "We're l'Cie, the enemies of Cocoon!" and "Pulse is hell on Earth!" rather than [[ShowDontTell show these things to the player]]. In fact, the ''IncitingIncident''--Serah being branded a l'Cie--isn't shown on screen, not even in flashbacks.

* LostInMediasRes: This is a common criticism of the game. ''A lot'' of the story actually takes place over the two weeks before the game itself even begins, and these events are presented to the player in flashbacks that are told from different points of view and in an AnachronicOrder. This makes it very difficult to piece together the various plot points and thereby contextualize the story and characters. Most notably, the major event that kicks off the game's plot--Serah being branded a l'Cie--is never actually shown on-screen, even in flashbacks.

** '''TOOOOOOOOWWWWWNNNNZZZZZZ!!!'''

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7dOOy8kBJY [=STEELGUARD=]!!!!]]
** '''GIVE ME COFFEE!! FOR THE HORSE!! ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qyavbSmxW4 FOOOOOOR!! THEEEEEEE!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORSE!!]]'''''

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scnJEf3aabo "You don't know yet?!"]]

** Hope is 14, and went through a ''hell'' of a TraumaCongaLine that includes seeing his mom fall to her death, finding out he's basically a dead man walking, and being forced to rely on a bunch of strange adults (one of which he blames for his mother's death) for protection as the government tries to hunt them down and kill them. Yet fans hate him for his FreakOut and angsting, which many audiences regard as unwarranted. A major cause of this dissonance is the fact that Nora died from wounds suffered in an explosion, after which she goes limp and slips from Snow's grasp. Meanwhile, Hope--watching from a distance--did not know she was already dead. The ''player'' knows that Nora was already dead and that there was nothing Snow could have done for her, but from ''Hope's'' perspective, it appeared as though Snow had deliberately allowed his mother fall to her death in order to save himself.

** Hope is 14, and went through a ''hell'' of a TraumaCongaLine that includes seeing his mom fall to her death, finding out he's basically a dead man walking, and being forced to rely on a bunch of strange adults (one of which he blames for his mother's death) for protection as the government tries to hunt them down and kill them. Yet fans hate him for his FreakOut and angsting, which many audiences regard as unwarranted. A major cause of this dissonance is the fact that Nora died from wounds suffered in an explosion, after which she goes limp and slips from Snow's grasp. Meanwhile, Hope--watching from a distance--did not know she was already dead. The ''player'' knows that Nora was already dead and that there was nothing Snow could have done for her, but from ''Hope'' 's perspective, it appeared as though Snow had deliberately allowed his mother fall to her death in order to save himself.

** Hope is 14, and went through a ''hell'' of a TraumaCongaLine that includes seeing his mom fall to her death, finding out he's basically a dead man walking, and being forced to rely on a bunch of strange adults (one of which he blames for his mother's death) for protection as the government tries to hunt them down and kill them. Yet fans hate him for his FreakOut and angsting, which many audiences regard as unwarranted. A major element of this is that Nora died from wounds suffered in the explosion as Snow held onto her and she slipped from his hand after, but Hope, watching a distance, did not know she was already dead. The ''player'' knows that Nora actually died from the explosion and there was nothing Snow could have done for her, but as far as ''Hope'' sees, Snow loses his grip and lets his mother fall to her death.

* EightDeadlyWords: Of the five party members introduced in the opening sequence, few if any of them make a good first impression. All of them variably act angry, apathetic, cowardly, stupid, or just plain irritating, which can grate on the player and sour their interest in the group. The group do all eventually get CharacterDevelopment, but this happens many hours later, by which point a player may not care anymore.

* HarsherInHindsight: When Hope tags along with Vanille at the Vestige, he has a go at Snow for wanting to save Serah, asking how he could help a l'Cie when they are the enemy. We don't find out until later that Vanille was a l'Cie all along, and stood next to him in silence as he ranted about how much hated them... ouch.

** Barthandelus is quite a formidable opponent, particularly in his first and second incarnations. He has loads of HP and enjoys dropping a Doom timer on your party leader, so your damage had better be top notch.

** Each player seems to find at least one [[PuzzleBoss Eidolon battle]] to be a pain in the ass. Key words being "at least."
** The TrueFinalBoss's first form. He has the highest HP of any non-optional boss, causes tons of negative status effects, and has an attack that will always leave each of your non-Sentinel characters with less than 100 HP, unless your characters are poisoned, in which case they'll be dead before the attack animation is even finished.

** Critics point out that there is very little player freedom, not much variety in the form of optional things to do and not much of a populated world or people to interact with. The game is highly linear, with the exception of Gran Pulse, which is more open. (It's argued that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' disguised its corridors by making them comparatively scenic. albeit, that game received some criticism for its linearity, too). Some of the game's defenders use the argument that the characters are fugitives (The general populace knows who and what the player characters are and fear them to the point of hysteria. They are constantly being pursued and have few places to hide, so there is little time for anything but running away), but that does little to enhance enjoyment of the game if its simply not to your tastes. It has a high concentration towards story and combat, leaving little room for anything else until about half-way through the game. Another complaint is that the less-than-straightforward story presentation can lose people, causing them to rely on the datalog to follow along.

* ContestedSequel: One of the most polarizing entries in the series, as there is many people who loved it, but just as many who hated it, for various reasons mentioned in other examples on this page.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Some critics of the gameplay/combat loop in this game found [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2 XIII-2]] to be much-improved. It spends less time on rails and {{sidequest}}s are more evenly spread throughout as opposed to being collected in one single area.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The gameplay/combat loop in [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2 XIII-2]] is much-improved. It spends less time on rails, and has a hefty amount of {{sidequest}}s. However, the plot gets pretty nonsensical with time travel (which is already too much on top of the mecha-gods), plus some new characters who weren't introduced in XIII. ''[[VideoGame/LightningReturnsFinalFantasyXIII Lightning Returns]]'' goes even further off the deep end, but at least it took a minimalist approach and redeemed XIII-2 somewhat.

** Critics point out that there is very little player freedom, not much variety in the form of optional things to do and not much of a populated world or people to interact with. The game is highly linear, with the exception of Gran Pulse, which is more open. (It's argued that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' disguised its corridors by making them comparatively scenic. albeit, that game also received some criticism for its linearity, too). Some of the game's defenders use the argument that the characters are fugitives (The general populace knows who and what the player characters are and fear them to the point of hysteria. They are constantly being pursued and have few places to hide, so there is little time for anything but running away), but that does little to enhance enjoyment of the game if its simply not to your tastes. It has a high concentration towards story and combat, leaving little room for anything else until about half-way through the game. Another complaint is that the less-than-straightforward story presentation can lose people, causing them to rely on the datalog to follow along.