It was pretty good

A few strong points salvage the story for me: A). That villain. So good.The reveals make for a totally sympathetic yet twisted enemy at the same time. Since villains are oftentimes as memorable/important in a JRPG as the protagonist, getting this right was huge.
B) Noctis' arc toward the end. Kudos to his voice actor…

Agreed on XIII, the hate it gets for being linear feels misguided. If the plot had delivered the linearity would not have been an issue. But focusing the entire game around the story is a gamble and it failed miserably on this front. What made it exceptionally disappointing to me was the world and the initial themes…