12) Final Fantasy XIII (2009)
Regardless of what the majority of franchise fans may claim, Final Fantasy XIII is a Final Fantasy game in the truest sense. It features bold new gameplay, a unique story with dynamic characters, and graphics that push the boundaries of its time. Having said that, most of the new aspects brought forth just didn’t work as well as they could have.
The plot is genuinely interesting, but 90% of what you need to understand it is hidden behind walls of Datalog text that you’ll easily spend several hours reading through by the time you reach the game’s end. Then there’s the dynamic new Paradigm Shift battle system. Clever and interesting if you can get the hang of it, but if you don’t pick it up quick, you’ll have a hard time once the difficulty spikes later on in the game.
Then of course there’s the total shift in gameplay from previous titles. Often called a “hallway simulator,” in Final Fantasy XIII you walk from one end of a corridor to the other, killing everything in between with no room to deviate, grind, or take on side quests. There’s an open world with a bunch of extra missions at about the 20-hour mark, but most of those are knock-offs of Final Fantasy XII’s hunting quests, and the rest are pretty lacking in content. This is an absolutely beautiful game with just a bit too much wasted potential.