Line #100 YMMV/FinalFantasyXIII


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3	* AngstDissonance: In the midst of her 21st birthday, Lightning is hit with the crappiest two weeks of her life and is trying to cope with a few metric tons of grief and guilt over what's happened to Serah and herself, and only starts to actually get a grip on things in the later chapters of the game. A faction of fans point to her {{Jerkass}} qualities as grounds to criticize her for her behavior and dismiss her later CharacterDevelopment.
4	* AnticlimaxBoss: The final form of [[spoiler:Orphan]] is... less than impressive when compared to its monstrous and extremely powerful first form, due to the absence of [[spoiler:Barthandelus]] and its unintimidating voice. Nevertheless, it is still somewhat challenging.
5	* AudienceAwarenessAdvantage: One of the most common criticisms of Hope is that he is unfair in blaming Snow for his mother's death. This criticism is mainly due to the fact that ''the player'' sees how Nora dies, but Hope doesn't. Nora dies due to internal injuries suffered in an explosion and slips from Snow's grasp, falling into a dark abyss beneath them. This is shown very clearly to the audience, but Hope only saw it from a distance and didn't know that his mother was already dead when Snow lost his grip. Thus, from Hope's vantage point, it appears as though Snow let Nora fall to her death so that he could save himself instead. It doesn't help that, when Nora slips from Snow's grasp, the scene immediately cuts from Snow screaming in horror to Hope screaming in horror, which can unintentionally [[KuleshovEffect cue the audience into thinking that Hope saw exactly what Snow saw]].
6	* BaseBreakingCharacter: The ''entire party,'' other than [[OnlySaneMan Sazh]] and [[UnkemptBeauty Fang]]:
7	** 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. After the game's release she continued to grow in prominence, becoming the "face" of the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise for several years, with a lot of spin-offs featuring her. This led to a persistent debate regarding whether she really deserved this elevation or if she was just a CreatorsPet forced on the fans.
8	** You either think Snow is a lovable doofus with a sympathetic angle in his attempts to be the hero of the story to help the needy, or he's an annoying idiot who needs to shut up about trying to play hero - a self-proclaimed role that he's not even good at due to causing more problems than he solves by not thinking things through.
9	** Hope can either be one of the most interesting kid characters of the franchise who grows from a kid into a badass, or an annoying and cliched angsty teen with daddy issues who whines about everything.
10	** 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 what was regarded as a bizarre accent, as well as the - ahem - ''interesting'' [[OrgasmicCombat grunts and moans]] Vanille makes in combat, which makes fights involving Vanille awkward to listen to.
11	** The BigBad [[spoiler: Barthandelus]] was also contentious with the fandom. One group saw him as an entertaining and threatening adversary who offers a great challenge for every fight the party engages with, and is a great [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] who excels at making the party dance to his whims. Another group dislikes how he [[spoiler:kills off Jihl suddenly and without reason, when she was a much more developed and interesting antagonist up to that point]], and consider him a GenericDoomsdayVillain who doesn't get enough screentime to be interesting. His [[WakeUpCallBoss incredibly difficult]] [[ThatOneBoss boss fights]] get him some additional hate from those who think that his fights are ''too'' difficult to be enjoyable, and those who have that complaint especially don’t like how [[spoiler:his plan was to be killed by you anyway, robbing you of any CatharsisFactor for beating him since it only played right into his hand.]]
12	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: If the player visits Aggra's Pasture and examines one of the big sheep, you get a cutscene. Vanille walks up to it, asks repeatedly if it's mad, shoves her hand in its coat, and then bodily yanks off a chunk of wool while the others stand around, asking what the hell she's doing -- then the screen goes black and gives you a message "You obtained [type of] Wool!" like you've just found a key plot artifact. But there's no sidequest -- all this is just to tell you that you can get a new kind of compounding item.
13	* 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 largely unnecessary until the harder sections 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 occasionally 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 in ComplacentGamingSyndrome through most of the game.
14	* 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.
15	* CriticalDissonance: This was the fastest-selling sequel on both sides of the Pacific at the time. Reviewers gave more generous reviews for this game than the players did, both in the West ''and'' Japan.
16	* CrossoverShip: Even before the release of either game, Lightning had been frequently shipped with Noctis from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' (then known as ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'').
17	* DemonicSpiders: Anything with "attacks quickly and relentlessly" or "summons reinforcements" in its description is likely to be really annoying, especially if it comes in groups.
18	* DifficultySpike: Chapters 12 and 13 can be rather hard if you didn't grind a lot in chapter 11, as almost all the enemies are suddenly much harder than what you're used to.
19	** There's also one ''mid-chapter'' once you get halfway through the final dungeon, where the bosses you fought ''minutes ago'' start showing up as [[DemotedBoss regular enemies.]]
20	* DisappointingLastLevel: Several fans hated the last level because all the game becomes from that point is level grinding 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 boss fight.
21	* EnsembleDarkHorse: Nora Estheim, Hope's mother, for being an ActionMom and making quite the impact compared to her then-cowardly son.
22	* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Let's see, we'll start with the fal'Cie Anima (conveniently cross shaped) l'Cieifying everyone, then blowing up the Hanging Edge, and freezing Lake Bresha. Then we see Pulse, who has hundreds of church bells attached to his body that ring while an opera sings a melancholy tune. And that's just the prologue.
23	* FanNickname:
24	** Sazh has been dubbed both "Chocobro" and "Chocofro" by his adoring legion. And thanks to Gadot's expy mention he is now called (by the fans that hate him) "not-[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Wakka]]".
25	** Snow was nicknamed "Mr. 33cm" as mentioned above due to his rather large... feet.
26	** Galenth Dysley / [[spoiler:Barthandelus]] has recently been dubbed Superpope/SUPAHPOPE!, mainly due to [[spoiler: his fondness for transforming into a mechanical monstrosity and beating the party to a bloody pulp. His own Menvra is also called Hedwig.]] He's also been dubbed [[spoiler:"Barty"]] by some.
27	** Snow's Gestalt mode has been dubbed "The Motordyke" by a portion of the fandom.
28	** [[spoiler: Orphan, the final boss of the game, was referred to as Oprah rather frequently during early squabbles over its name.]]
29	** Aster Protoflorian has been given the name [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Bulbasaur]].
30	** The chocobo chick, or [[LetsPlay/HCBailly Let's Player]] nickname at least: [[RunningGag "Frocobo says NO/YES!"]]
31	* 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 Platform/FanFictionDotNet and Platform/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. %%EDITOR'S NOTE: Neither Lightning/Hope nor Fang/Vanille counts as FanPreferredCouple, because they are the Canon-favoured pair, and because most fanfiction and fanarts show that they are less preferred than Fang/Lightning.%%
32	* FoeYayShipping: Careful not to let yourself forget that Hope hates Snow; if you do, several scenes and lines suddenly look a little [[HoYay suspicious]].
33	-->'''Vanille:''' Couldn't tell him? Nothing'll change if you don't do anything.\
34	'''Hope:''' Words won't change anything. [[CanNotSpitItOut Next time we meet, he'll learn exactly how I feel.]]
35	* FranchiseOriginalSin: Most main series ''Final Fantasy'' games up until this one were pretty linear. Through a combination of geography, {{Broken Bridge}}s, {{NPC Roadblock}}s, and plot-contrivances, you usually end up exploring the overworld looking for the next town or dungeon, which is likely the only one you can access aside from the one you just left. You can backtrack, but there's often little reason to do so unless you need to resupply or the plot says you have to, and there may only be a few short sidequests and diversions along the way, if any. It's usually only once you get the airship that the world ''really'' opens up to you, and the previous methods of railroading you may still apply even then. However, ''XIII'' stripped away towns, [=NPCs=], and sidequests, leaving only dungeons to explore, which were devoid of puzzles or interesting layouts. The result is that to many players the game feels like you're just continuously following a straight path lined with enemies and item spheres, heightening how linear the experience really is.
36	* GameBreaker: [[GameBreaker/FinalFantasyXIIITrilogy Here]].
37	* GoddamnBats: Flanitors in the early game in groups of two or more will drive you up the walls. Thanks to being stuck with only two party members, your damage output will be hard-pressed to outpace the endless healing they help each other with.
38	* GoodBadTranslation: A retroactive (inversion?) is thrown in -- a humanoid giant mech named the "Proudclad" makes an appearance. After all these years, we know what [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Scarlett and Heidegger's ultimate weapon]] was meant to be translated as.
39	* HarsherInHindsight:
40	** 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 he hated them... ouch.
41	** This actually extends all the way up to Fang's introduction, with the whole party (save for Vanille) constantly talking about how horrible Pulse and Pulse l'Cie are, thanks to an upbringing leading them to believe that. Fang understandably gets a little sick of it.
42	--->"Pulse is hell."/"Pulse is hell on Earth"
43	** During the fireworks scene in Bodhum, Snow says to Serah, "Our engagement is way bigger news." [[spoiler:When they do tell Lightning about Serah becoming a l'Cie and their engagement the next day, Lightning doesn't believe them largely because of the engagement, thinking it's made up as an excuse so they can get married.]]
44	* HilariousInHindsight: The cynical Hope's hostility towards the heroism-obsessed Snow becomes this when both of their voice actors, [[WesternAnimation/BatmanUnderTheRedHood Vincent Martella]] and [[VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight Troy Baker]] would later provide the voice of Jason Todd, who has a similar grudge against Batman. Adding to it is that Creator/TroyBaker would also go on to voice Bruce Wayne in ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries.''
45	* JerkassWoobie:
46	** Lightning isn't exactly a saint, but she's had a hard time raising Serah after their parents died.
47	** Fang might not be the [[GoodIsNotNice nicest]] person around but in the ending she [[spoiler:goes into crystal stasis with Vanille to hold up Cocoon]].
48	* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Lightning again. Probably comes from being very attractive and without a canon LoveInterest.
49	* LesYay: Fang and Vanille come very close to crossing the border between subtext and text. The ending practically makes it canon.
50	* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: [[spoiler:Sazh apparently committing suicide, horrifyingly dramatic though it may be, is pretty obviously not going to stick since it comes directly after he obtains his Eidolon]].
51	* 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 can be difficult the weave the plot threads together and contextualize the story and characters, at least on a first playthrough. Even the IncitingIncident -- Serah being branded a l'Cie -- isn't shown on-screen, not even in flashbacks.
52	* MagnificentBastard: Galenth Dysley masquerades as the head of [[FloatingContinent Cocoon's]] Sanctum government and an old, helpless PuppetKing of the [[PhysicalGod fal'Cie]], but in reality, he is Barthandelus, ruler of the Cocoon fal'Cie. Surveilling the heroes from afar to help and hinder them in equal measure, Dysley attempts to groom the group to become [[PersonOfMassDestruction Ragnarok]] and destroy Cocoon, fulfilling his goal to exterminate humanity. At the head of the government and the most powerful fal'Cie in Cocoon, Dysley is constantly on top of the situation and always has backup plans ready to deploy when things don't go his way, forcing the party to dance to his tune if they want to keep up with him. Dysley's plans only failed due to a literal [[DeusExMachina act of god]] when the Goddess Etro intervened -- otherwise he got exactly what he wanted, tricking the party into killing him and killing the fal'Cie Orphan, which would have destroyed Cocoon if not for the efforts of Etro, Fang, and Vanille. Dysley demonstrates why humanity both worships and fears the fal'Cie.
53	* MemeticBadass:
54	** Sazh's Chocobo. Just check WMG if you don't believe it.
55	** Fang is the Sexy-Female-Dragoon-Aussie version of Chuck Norris, AKA: Chick Norris.
56	** Two words: '''Snow'''. '''Villiers'''. As one Platform/YouTube comment puts him:
57	--> Snow is goddamned awesome. [[GoodOldFisticuffs He punches]] monsters in the face to get [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower strong enough]] to punch bigger monsters in the face. He faces beasts, [[EldritchAbomination abominations]], [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu god-like beings]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Lightning's wrath]] to [[DeclarationOfProtection save his fiancée]]. He nearly gets killed protecting Hope's life and STILL protects him after Hope made it clear he wants to kill him, and he rides a motorcycle made of women! If this dude was any more bro, the game would be about him ([[AndZoidberg and]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse Sazh]]) instead.
58	* MemeticMutation:
59	** Nora Estheim's "Moms are tough" line from the English release seems to be going down this path, as well.
60	** '''GIVE ME COFFEE!! FOR THE HORSE!! ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis FOOOOOOR!! THEEEEEEE!! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORSE!!]]'''''[[labelnote:Explanation]]The boss theme [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qyavbSmxW4 Born Anew]], with its OminousLatinChanting has been compared by way of MondegreenGag to that phrase. (The actual lyrics are "Mihi nomen Orphanus", meaning "My name is Orphan.")[[/labelnote]]
61	** A series of [[http://textsfromffxiii.tumblr.com/ Tumblr macros]] about the cast has produced "Vodka Lightning". The series has [[MemeAcknowledgment been noticed by]] Ali Hillis and Liam O'Brien, who find them all hilarious, and [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdwe8v7kGv1r8uo3io1_500.png even Ali agrees]] with the captions on how sexy Liam's voice is.
62	%%** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scnJEf3aabo "You don't know yet?!"]]
63	%%** '''TOOOOOOOOWWWWWNNNNZZZZZZ!!!'''
64	%%** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7dOOy8kBJY [=STEELGUARD=]!!!!]]
65	* MisaimedFandom: Lighting has constantly been praised for being a "strong" female character. The problem arises in that fans were usually referring to the pre-development Lightning when they say this, who berates and belittles her companions and selectively ignored the scene where Fang says that punching people right and left ''doesn't actually help anything''. Yet, Serah, who is hands down more feminine than Light, has become almost a [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] to players for her "weak" personality.
66	* {{Misblamed}}:
67	** Vanille's VA has lived in Australia for most of her life. They forced Georgia to match her intonation with the original Japanese, which just makes her sound weird. Hence why everyone complained that her accent "sounds fake."
68	** 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 Tetsuya Nomura... who only is credited as ''one'' of the artists, and isn't 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 his style.
69	* {{Moe}}: Vanille is a cute and kind girl with a huggably tragic past.
70	* MoralEventHorizon:
71	** Barthandelus callously [[spoiler:shattering the crystallized Dajh and Serah prior to the final confrontation]] has been met with revulsion. [[spoiler:Granted, this was just an illusion, but still]].
72	** Jihl was already a manipulative bitch for taking away Dajh from Sazh [[spoiler:for being a Cocoon l'Cie]], and allowing PSICOM soldiers to open fire at Nautilus of all places. But then she manipulates Sazh into letting him kill [[spoiler:Vanille because she was partially responsible for Dajh becoming a l'Cie in the first place.]] Her reaction? To sit back and watch, because she thinks it would be amusing to see one l'Cie kill another.
73	** [[spoiler:Orphan]] crosses it when he [[spoiler:transforms the party into Cie'th.]]
74	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
75	** That is one ''satisfying'' breaking sound every time Lightning finishes her gestalt with Zantetsuken. BAM-BAM-'''SMASSSSSHHHHH'''
76	** Whenever you fill the stagger bar, particularly on a very resistant enemy.
77	* NeverLiveItDown:
78	** Lightning punches Snow three times in the game during times when she's particularly angry at him, and two of these were within seconds of one another. Yet it went memetic, and thanks to this you'd think Lightning spends the game decking Snow over and over.
79	** The game as a whole suffers from this, as there are players who -- even to this day -- detest the game due to bad first impressions that were left on them, for any number of reasons. It taking a very long time for the plot to actually pick up doesn’t necessarily help.
80	* NoYay:
81	** The Hope and Lightning ShipTease is not very subtle and is sweet in some ways... a necessary reminder is that Hope is ''14'', and a lot of the Ship Tease is Lightning acting as his ParentalSubstitute. Add in that "Nora" is the Greek word for "Light", and suddenly the squick of a potential romance with them hits.
82	** [[spoiler:Just before their confrontation at Oerba, Dysley assumes the appearance of Serah and gives Snow a big hug. Pass the brain bleach, please.]]
83	* OneSceneWonder: [[spoiler:Orphan]] only appears at the end of the game, but manages to out-do Barthandelus in sheer dickery in mere minutes and deliver one heck of a BreakingSpeech.
84	* PolishedPort: Picking up the slack of the original 360 release as mentioned below, Microsoft, thanks to getting the assets from Square, went back and rerendered the FMV files, as well as the rest of the game, into a higher resolution for the cutscenes to be more comparable to, if not better than, the Platform/PlayStation3 version of the game ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19Fyy9jhBxs as discussed by Digital Foundry here]]) for the Xbox One and One X backwards compatible version of the game. The game, as well as its sequels, also received a 4K upgrade patch which, while doubling the file size of the first game, makes it exceed even the Platform/PlayStation3 and PC ports in terms of visual quality, which makes it look gorgeous. It also apparently runs a lot better than either original console version too.
85	* PortingDisaster:
86	** The PC version of ''Final Fantasy XIII'' is fraught with issues. Performance is extremely poor, regardless of specs, with the cause being between busted resource management and a complete lack of multi-threading. Various effects like the shadows, DepthOfField, and bloom look worse and/or broken. Before the patches released, pressing the ESC button while in full-screen mode ''instantly closed the game without so much as asking for a confirmation''. The file size is a massive 60 GB, due to [=FMVs=] for Japanese audio being included instead of being a separate download. The game initially launched without ''any graphics options'', and later had a very small selection of settings patched in, all of which had been added prior by a mod.
87	** The Xbox 360 port wasn't too hot either, running at a resolution barely above Standard Definition, missing several graphical effects, suffering from noticeably degraded FMV quality, and also being prone to texture pop-in and noticeably longer loading times. The 360 ports of ''XIII-2'' and ''Lightning Returns'', on the other hand, were virtually on-par with the [=PS3=] versions in terms of graphics quality (with only the FMV quality issues remaining, which was unavoidable due to the 360 using [=DVDs=] instead of Blu-Ray discs), strengthening suspicions that the 360 port of this game was a rush-job. As mentioned above, it took the Xbox dev team rerendering the FMV and other game files into a higher definition almost 10 years later to bring the visuals up to a good quality on the Xbox consoles.
88	* ScrappyMechanic: [[ScrappyMechanic/FinalFantasy Here.]]
89	* SurpriseDifficulty: This is one of the handful of post-NES ''Final Fantasy'' games you can't load up your favorite characters with overpowered spells and weapons and blast through the game easily after a bit of LevelGrinding. The usual AbsurdlyHighLevelCap is avoided, with a cap on the Crystarium throughout the game that gets raised a bit higher at set points. This puts a limit on how strong your party can be at a given point, and even once you're allowed to begin training the party in all six roles, some are clearly better than others at set roles, and no one character is the best at everything. All in all, the game forces you to plan out your Paradigms, observe the flow of battle and switch Paradigms to react to enemy behavior, and know each party member's strengths and how to use them best.
90	* SlowPacedBeginning:
91	** 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. The problem is that 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. Luckily there is still a lot of gameplay after Chapter Ten.
92	** The consensus was that the game is much much better when you get to chapter 11, with everything preceding having been linear. 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?]]).
93	** The worst aspect is the excessive levels of YouHaveResearchedBreathing. Enemies don't drop gil ''at all'' for most of the game, you literally have to find key items to use each type of shop, you can't even '''''level up''''' for the first few chapters... All they manage to do is make the first chapters drag on and the player all too aware of why the game [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity gives you a ridiculous amount of healing items]].
94	* ThatOneAttack:
95	** Barthandelus' Destrudo in his first battle. Unless you shore up your defenses (usually not enough at worst, ''barely'' enough at best) or unload enough damage on him to weaken his attack (which you can do several times), it can easily lead to a TotalPartyKill.
96	** [[spoiler:Orphan]] has three; two in the first form and one in the second. Merciless Judgement can't kill, but it will knock you down to critical HP, is a cutscene-esque attack that you can't change Paradigms in the middle of, and he starts the fight with it. Progenitoral Wrath is an instant death attack with a high success rate, so god help you if you have a Sentinel as your party leader. Temporal Hole resets the chain gauge; and that form can't be damaged unless it is staggered. And you're on a time limit.
97	** Bay and Roar from the oretoises and Screech from the ochus. Not only are they extremely powerful and quick and remove buffs, but the former ones also Daze the entire party, preventing the player from moving until cured or struck. The former can only be done with items and Esuna, which only target one character, and the latter is a death sentence since Daze also increases the damage of the next hit.
98	** 10,000 Needles. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, and like the above, it removes buffs and can inflict Pain and Fog.
99	* ThatOneBoss:
100	** 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.
101	*** 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 ''all''.
102	*** The second battle isn't as bad, but it's still very tricky. Barthandelus comes packing a whole host of status ailment inflicting attacks, including Dazega, and his signature Thanatosian Smile has been upgraded to the much stronger Thanatosian Laughter, which will put every party member into critical HP. He also comes with Apoptosis to remove all your buffs and all of his debuffs, meaning that Synergists are almost useless in the battle.
103	** Each player seems to find at least one [[PuzzleBoss Eidolon battle]] to be a pain in the ass. Key words being "at least." The only exception is Shiva, who can be tricky for new players, but isn't difficult to defeat at all. All Eidolon battles are against powerful foes that lay a Doom counter on the player at the start of the fight to force a time limit, and all bar Shiva can lay down heavy damage on the party, necessitating tight strategies with little room for error.
104	*** Odin is capable of laying damage swiftly due to his ATB Charge ability, and you fight him with Lightning and Hope, who have the lowest HP pools in the party. If you're not careful, he can KO one or both of them outright before you can heal them.
105	*** Brynhildr is almost impossible to beat without using Haste or Dualcasting because she's surprisingly resistant to having her Gestalt gauge built up. It doesn't help that Sazh and Vanille are some of the slower attackers in the game.
106	*** Bahamut is ridiculously fast and strong, and while you do fight him with three party members, it doesn't make much difference due to his AOE attacks that can bring the girls all down to critical HP in an instant.
107	*** Alexander is thankfully a lot easier due to being a MightyGlacier, meaning he can be prepared for. If you don't though, a single combo of his will probably kill Hope before the Doom counter will.
108	*** Hecatoncheir is easily the most difficult of the Eidolons in the game. Unlike the preceding two Eidolons, he's only fought with two characters, Vanille and Fang, which will probably throw off people who have been used to three party members and makes it that much more difficult to build his Gestalt gauge. In addition, if the player hasn't been growing Vanille in the right areas, she might be underdeveloped in critical points, such as lacking her fourth ATB crystal or the high-tier Medic spells to keep up with Hecatoncheir's damage output. If Fang hasn't provoked it, Hecatoncheir can easily KO Vanille.
109	** The FinalBoss's first form has the highest HP of any non-optional boss, causes tons of negative status effects including ''Death'', 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. And the kicker is that this particular attack is the only one in the game you can't change paradigms during.
110	* ThatOneSidequest:
111	** One trophy/achievement requires you to five-star every mission, which can be NintendoHard unless you have a good grip on the battle system. If you don't, have fun with that.
112	** 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 a highly-expensive 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 (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.
113	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: For some, this game does not hit any 'old-school' vibes at all.
114	** The switch from the traditional ''Final Fantasy'' victory fanfare to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDXRNwyDrSw this]]. [[OlderThanTheyThink While it's not the first time]] the fanfare was changed, it was the first mainline game to depart from it.
115	** 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. [[note]]It's argued that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' disguised its corridors by making them comparatively scenic, albeit, that game received some criticism for its linearity, too.[[/note]] Some of the game's defenders use the argument that the characters are fugitives [[note]]The general populace knows who and what the player characters are and fear them to the point of hysteria and paranoia. They are constantly being pursued and have few places to hide, so there is little time for anything but running away[[/note]], 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.
116	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
117	** Due to [[NeverTrustATrailer having major focus in the trailers]], stylish and LoveToHate villainous characteristics, an incredibly appealing character design, and an engaging [[ItsPersonal rivalry]] with Sazh, which could have branched out to include other characters as the story progressed, many had hoped to see [[spoiler: Jihl Nabaat]] as the main villain or at least an active one, and were very disappointed to see them killed off after a total of ten minutes of screentime. So, not surprisingly, those same fans rejoiced in the sequel where, in one of the [=DLCs=], you finally get the opportunity to give [[spoiler: Jihl]] the sound thrashing that's been overdue for years. It has also been pointed out by some fans that this character would have even been a perfect foil to main protagonist Lightning as well, due to Lightning seeming cold and heartless on the outside but a good person underneath it all, while this character totally inverts that characterization as a BitchInSheepsClothing type.
118	** Yaag Rosch, the leader of PSICOM, doesn't fare much better than the previous example. Despite being in charge of the organization that continually comes into conflict with the l'Cie over the course of the game, he ultimately has little relevance and eventually dies in a cutscene. And unlike [[spoiler:Jihl]], there are no direct battles with him in either sequel, although he at least gets to face the party twice in [[HumongousMecha the Proudclad]].
119	** Hope's mother Nora. Though one can argue her death is what serves as the basis for Hope's growth and storyline, her scenes in the beginning clearly paint her as this stronger-than-she-looks woman that's telling Snow "Moms are tough" and she even saves his life. Then she's fatally wounded (via concussive force of a very-close explosion) and plummets to her death whilst Snow manages to survive the same fall. She's not an EnsembleDarkhorse for nothing.
120	** The Menhirrim and Dahaka in Taejin's Tower. Clearly, there should be ''some'' kind of backstory about living statues that have been subjugated by a lone fal'Cie in an immense fallen tower, particularly when the Menhirrim actively fight Dahaka, ''survive'', and then [[ButNowIMustGo depart to fight evil elsewhere]]. They're never seen again, in this game or the sequel, and the most the Datalog can muster for Taejin's Tower is "idk, maybe Tower of Babel".
121	** The Cavalry, LaResistance against the Sanctum, should be one of the places where the player ''can'' get to know the world's populace without the baggage of being a hunted fugitive. According to Hope, people in Cocoon are taught from childhood to revere the Fal'Cie, so people who turned against that to oppose them ought to have some compelling things to say about their motives. Unfortunately, the game cuts away from Snow as soon as the Cavalry picks him up so the player doesn't get to talk to them, and during the later rescue mission, their dialogue is mostly focused on that event. Even at the end, when they storm Eden, you don't get to encounter them in any meaningful way--their movements are conveniently relayed by Barthandelus from afar.
122	* UnderusedGameMechanic:
123	** 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 exclusively 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.
124	** The weather-changing mechanic that shuffles the monster positions on the field is available in only one chapter and never makes another appearance afterwards, not even on [[spoiler: Pulse]] where the area is gigantic and such mechanic would help save a lot of time hunting down certain enemies for loot.
125	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: One of the few things that isn't debated about the game is that it looks gorgeous from start to finish. Part of the outcry about not getting to revisit most areas of Cocoon that the player visits is due to how beautiful most of them are. The hair in-game looks particularly nice for the time, despite the fact that it's probably just a bunch of flat planes sticking out of their heads with a partly transparent texture mapped on, while the [=FMVs=] often showcased spectacular action scenes and breathtaking shots of the landscape. The art direction, while not quite as meticulous as some previous entries, also holds up extremely well.
126	* {{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. In addition, the protracted pacing of the arc (there are many moments wherein which he could've spoken up yet choked) was something that some players were sick of having to put up with; they thought it took too long for the arc to be resolved.
127	* TheWoobie: Pick a protagonist. Chances are, they'll each get at least one scene in this role. However, see JerkassWoobie, too.
128	** Serah ESPECIALLY. [[spoiler:She gets killed to be turned into a McGuffin...TWICE!]]
129	* {{Woolseyism}}:
130	** NORA is originally a pun of the Japanese term for a stray cat. In the English version, it got turned into [[FunWithAcronyms No Obligations, Rules, or Authority]].
131	** 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.
132

Context YMMV / FinalFantasyXIII