XIII is the cancer that killed Final Fantasy.
XIII is one of the best Final Fantasy games, and Lightning Returns is one of the best games ever made
XIII-2 is eh, but they can't all be winners
Like XIII's combat system is so cool, its a really fast based ATB style combat but the focus is more on learning and figuring out what paradigm combinations are best fit for what enemies. The game, especially in the latter half, becomes more akin to solving a puzzle with each battle needing you to change your party layout before engaging. If you don't, battles become either long arduous damage sponges or you just die, one of the two.
Beyond the puzzle-y combat, every character has their own conflict going on. There's Lightning, distressed over her crystal-trapped sister and uncomfortable with the marriage between her sister and the immature Snow. There's Snow, a man desperate to save his wife and prove he's not all talk after several failures at playing the hero. Hope, who's angry and saddened at the loss of his mother whom he blames her death on Snow, struggling to accept Snow. Sazh, who accidentally got caught up in this mess after a L'Cie marked and crystalized his child, trying to cope with this loss and find a way to cling onto hope. Vanille, who's happy exterior hides a saddened and pained history involving Sazh...All these characters get their own chapters for them to grow and overcome their problems, usually with said growth being denoted by the chapters ending in a fight against their respective Eidolons, showing both mental character growth and literal growth in their respective power.
The Hamauzu's music is phenomenal, the animations and facial expressions are some of the best in the industry, the graphics were so good they hold up today...And the pacing is so good too! The story is always constantly moving and the environments always look really good thanks to its more linear approach keeping the player focused on moving the story forward. There's no grinding, just one fantastic 60 hour drama.
This scene with Vanille and Sazh (super major spoilers) is one of the best cutscenes in all of video games I am fully convinced. The drama and emotional heartache are so powerful. 6:01 in this video onwards:
