So, many people have diffrent views on this. Mine is simple, it stinks. You have to play for about twenty five hours before you get any story line.. and the course of travel is pretty much a straight line.

Now I am a purest and I think FF games have been going down hill since seven but thats only my own oppion. I wanna know what other people think.

Is 13 the end of the beloved FF seris? Do they need to check they're roots and get back to the basics that everyone loved? Or do you feel the game is improving?

Be honest! I want to know!

Well, honestly, I haven't played FFXIII(I don't have a PS3.) But, I can certainly tell you that no, I don't think that the series has went downhill since FFVII. FFVIII was brilliant in my opinion, and though I haven't played IX, I do know that it's a throwback to the earlier games, and lots of people think IX and X were excellent games, as well as XII(though some hated it for some odd reason.)
Now, I know that I'm in no position to make a full statement only because I haven't played any games past FFVIII. But I honestly don't think the series is anywhere near losing completely all its luster. If I could, would I still play FFXIII? Of course. Even if it's going to be linear or that it's different, I am still willing to try because I can tell, they spent a lot of time on these games regardless of whether or not some of the older members of Square like Sakaguchi or Uematsu are gone, and the quality of Final Fantasy games has never left(though I wish Sakaguchi and Uematsu were still onboard.)
Final Fantasy is simply evolving. They want to try something new, and that's what they're doing. Some might complain that the whole turn-based deal is getting old. That's why they went with the new battle system, which I heard was fantastic.
I'm sorry, but I'm kind of tired of purists who think everything needs to stay the same most of the time. Developers certainly aren't doing that that much anymore. Even games like Zelda and Metroid, which have been mostly following the same formula, have been changing, and even though most people might not like it, they still become good games in the end. So, while I do think some things shouldn't be tampered with(in this case, it would be linearity or stuff like that), as long as the FF series doesn't take a complete tangent into uncharted waters(like say... the Sonic series has), then I'll be completely fine with what they're doing.
Yeah... so, sorry about the whole rant thing lol. But, you said to be honest right? Well there you go haha XD

Great! This is exactly what I wanted! And honest opinion!

Now I have play'ed all of the Final Fantasy games. And yes, they do have decent stories and good game play, but I cant help but feel that the last true epic in the seirs was 7, for the mere fact that the story lines seem to now be taking on a vary simple plot, which seem to be found in every fantasy novel you would like to find.

Now yes, the first few games had this same deal, fight bad guy, save the world, but 7 upped the bar. A bar that I don't feel the other games were able to reach.

Namrea : Haha well I'm glad you liked the honest opinion and took it so well. You're pretty open-minded . So, in that case, I'll be honest again
While FFVII is a good game, I don't think it's the best. The hype really took a toll on that game, and ultimately my views on the game, because after all I heard that was so good about it, and playing it for myself, it really didn't reach my expectations. It was somewhat too easy for me... there wasn't THAT many sidequests I think(though, they were fun), and the story just didn't reach out to me for some reason...
In my opinion, I like FFVI the most, because it's just very well-rounded and a solid game with the Esper/Magicite system and the largest playable cast in the series. Plus, it didn't require FMVs to capture the incredible storytelling that game had to offer. The story was like an epic masterpiece, with a fine balance between science fiction and fantasy, as well as touching on surprisingly mature topics that were never before mentioned in previous installments like suicide or teenage pregnancy. I could just go on and on...
So yeah, I did like FFVII. It's a great game. But I don't really think it deserved that much hype.
And... are they really starting to have simple plots? or are they just cliche or something? I find that nowadays it's hard not to be cliche at some point because there's been SO many JRPGs now.

I thought FF13 was actually a pretty good game. The first few games were the best, but this game probably ranks 6th or 7th if we want to rank all the games.

mdynasty926 : You bring up a good point about 6.. it was vary good. Better then 7. I like 5 the most.. perhaps because it was the first one I every played.

Sone critcism.

Except for that one side-quest in Oerba Village, all side quests are "go there, kill that". There is absolutely no variation.
Vanille + the mute button on your TV's remote = awesome combination.
Hope doesn't grow a pair until late in the game, meaning you are going to have to put up with his whiny attitude for the majority of the game.
There is no "New Game+" mode. Loading up the post-credits save doesn't do anything except stick you back to before the final boss with the crystarium unlocked to stage 10.
The Ribbon. In all other Final Fantasy games, the Ribbon was the crowning achievement for accessory hunters. In FFXIII, it only gives you Resilience 20% (resist debuffs) and increases 1% each level to a max of 25%. If you're already a FF fan, I should not tell you why this is a horrible thing. It also costs 800,000 gil to upgrade to a Super Ribbon (25% to start). WHY?!
Once you hit a certain development level, you will have no more need of anyone else in your party except Snow, Vanille, and Hope. Snow can be traded out for Fang if you absolutely, positively need Slow and Curse.
Hollywood cutscenes with big explosions and gravity-defying stunts combined with cutscenes that are an emo's fantasy does not a good game make.

Positive stuff I had.

The graphics are pretty nice, but that's become a standard for Squenix.
You can sometimes avoid enemies by running past them.
Being able to switch classes in combat on the fly is a good thing.
Game Over. Retry? This option has no consequence, and merely puts you back on the world map just before the battle.
   
Upgrading weapons and accessories is a complex process involving math calculations and spreadsheets to get the most out of your components without waste. Similarly, Dismantling weapons and accessories nets you (sometimes) pretty sweet items if they are at their max level (such as breaking down a maxed Tetradic Tiara to get a Ribbon).

Namrea : FFV was a great game too. I think it was... my 3rd FF game that I finished. It's such an underrated game. Though the story is a little dry for a while, the Job system basically makes up for that A LOT.

xfighter1138 : You have done a much better job of explaining the game then I could have haha. So what though do you think? Is it worth playing again or do you feel its trad in game?

Namrea : To me it's more of a rent type of game, and if you want to play a game similar to that I'd say play Persona 4.

xfighter1138 : I was disappointed by ff13, but in Persona 3 any good? I heard it could be, but people say ff13 was good as well.

Namreas: Like Final Fantasy, playing Persona 3 first is not required for playing Persona 4. Except for one instance where the characters in Persona 4 visit the high school of the characters from Persona 3, both games are completely separate of each other. However, I've heard that P3 is far more brutal in marathon boss battles than P4. P4 is a little more casual, but still challenging.

Casual is good. Thats another things I miss in these new FF games. Random encounters used to feel like.. well random, now you can see them coming and it doesn't quite feel the same.

SquareEnix has stated that their target audience was always those in their teens and that they have no intention of going back to the way things used to be. The franchise will continue down the patch of decay, under their delusion that people will actually like it. It is the epitome of everything that is wrong with the typical modern game, and in no way resembles what it used to be. If it somehow survives going down this road (a disturbing thought), it will still be dead to me.

Well Lagslayer brings up a good point. And it makes me think. Is it good for a game company to aim at a single generation? What about those of us who have grown up playing the games? Don't we deserve games that have grown with us? As opposed to the same thing over and over again?

I think that Final Fantasy 13 was a pretty good game, not awesome or anything, but good.
I found that the graphics were amazing, the characters had personality, the battle system had improved(my opinion), the weapon upgrading system was pretty cool, the summoning system was interesting, the story was deep and interesting(after the first 30mins of a slow pace), and the crystarium was a pretty interesting way to improve the characters abilities.
Now it had a downside too, such as how linear it was. I felt that there wasn't enough freedom in where you could go or explore, besides the fact that there was also no world map to explore. They tried to make this up in the Gran Pulse part of the game in which the map is huge but that's really late into the game. I think if they had just taken the time to work more on the maps and layouts of the areas that they could have made this game much better.
In my opinion I like the changes they had done to the Final Fantasy series because honestly I don't want to be playing the same game over and over again but with different characters and a slightly different story line.
Oh and I also agree that FFVI was the best one. Overall I'd say 13 is my 4th favorite Final Fantasy.

Kerubi : You are one of vary few people who like it. But at least this proves people do enjoy it and explains with they are already working on 14 and 15. Though 14 is going to be another mmo.

I didn't really care for it. None of the characters were interesting in my opinion and basically you could describe this as a movie rather than a videogame, the gameplay was just way to straight forward.

This is going to be tl;dr, so if you don't like reading, please skip this.

Final Fantasy 13 is the antithesis of what I think of a Final Fantasy game being. XIII is the unlucky number in this series. It's completely devoid of any interesting characters or plot twists, and it just seems like the entire cast is in a 70-hour adventure completely consisting of walking forward, and wondering what the hell's going on.

Each character has like 4 weapons, but you'd better stick with the default weapons if you want your characters to even make a dent in the enemies' HP counters. If you use the other weapons, it takes a crazy long amount of time to defeat even the normal enemies.

The only likeable characters are Sazh and Fang. Too bad they take a backseat, because the other characters appear way more often. Lightning, to put it lightly, is just a terrible person. She punches any cast member that has a shred of hope. Ooh, that reminds me, that emo kid Hope in this game is so pathetic. Why does he have a boomerang? Also, why is his health so low that he can barely survive in battle? He's like a decoy character: get enemies to hit him while you attack and finish off the baddies.

This was an extended movie with little bits of gameplay in between. I really disliked it. XV better be good. But they should really end this series soon and move on to another intellectual property. Perhaps since they bought the makers of Xenosaga, they should revive the series and add 3 more games to the series (as the original developers promised 6 games but had to cut it down to 3 due to a lower budget).

But I digress.

Anyway, my point has been made and clarified, its not the best FF game.. and I dont think it could get much worse unless they tried.