my 3rd time trying to finish this game i finally did it during this lockdown. overall yes the game kinda too linear to a fault and the charaters unlikable.but as it goes on they get more fleshed out and i ended up liking most of them. the plot is so so but the bosses were atleast cool. the games main draw is its stellar ost and beautiful areas that still look good in 2020. great art direction and world. eventually the padgrim system does click with you and when you get to use all characters at once finally u can make some neat padgrims given the situation and swap between. it can be fun but it still never becomes the most engaging combat system. overall when i finished it i would say i enjoyed it but still think its only a decent game. i can see why at the time and now people dont like it but its not the total disaster people made it out to be at the time. i hear xiii-2 fixes alot gameplay wise and has more open areas like the one part in this. so im excited to try that. you can sort of semi focus and tune out and play this so i did sort of vibe with that. if you have the time i wanna get this off your ff to do list its not so bad, but its still a stepdown overall compared to most of the series. but still id say i enjoyed it even enough i didnt regret my 50 hours. there is a hump that you need to get over and you might not.