Squeenix Why do people hate FF XIII, but love FF X?

[Xor]

I liked VII much more than VIII, but in thinking about it I couldn't really tell you why. Maybe it's because the atmosphere of the game just sucked my 16 year old imagination in. I was going through my anime phase at the time, and that probably helped. I remember when I first played VIII I quit within an hour just because I found the opening sequence incredibly boring by comparison, and I only got decently far into the game recently when I forced myself to play through just so I could say I did.

Anyway. I'd agree with your tier list, except X is low tier at best, and arguably shit tier. The English dub is atrocious, the plot is pretty stupid even by Final Fantasy standards, the game is linear as fuck, there's little to do beyond grinding once you reach the endgame (remember side quests? Apparently square doesn't.) unless you're fucking insane and want to get the celestial weapons, which will probably take 200 hours by itself. The stat system is also not nearly as engaging and interesting as it appears to be as when unwound each character path only has a handful of actual choices.

Also I can't agree with putting VIII over VII, as VIII was fucking atrocious and I actually still kind of like VII.

 

[Blaine]

The stat system is also not nearly as engaging and interesting as it appears to be as when unwound each character path only has a handful of actual choices.

There is an "Expert Sphere Grid" option in the international PS2 version and the HD Remaster that allows for far, far more customization, at the cost of lower overall character stats in the long run and being very exploitable when you know what you're doing.

Unfortunately, the characters' base stats limit the viability of the paths available to them, at least to begin with.