The plot / writing feels like it was put together by a 13 year old, or maybe an AI. it's almost interesting, and almost makes sense, but doesn't. Things just sort of "happen", and they don't really make sense and aren't really explained. Character motivations are unclear. Also, the gameplay is shit.
The world they created is super compelling, which seems to always be the case with Final Fantasy games. I just wish they could make an actually good game to go with their top tier world building and art direction.
Welcome to most modern Square games.
Recently my idiot friends were riffing on how the Kingdom Hearts story is incomprehensible and I suggested so are most FF games they lost their minds. I asked them to explain the plot of FF13 and collectively they couldn't do it.
FF8s plot is so insane that people go with "actually Squall died in disc 1 and fhe rest of the game is a dying dream" because that makes the most sense.
I enjoy 8 well enough, including having fun with its mess of a plot, (only non-mmo mainline final fantasy I dont enjoy is II, and even that has my boy Minwu) but some online friends I have cling so heavily to the "Squall is dead" theory, not just in a death of the author sense but insisting that it was intentional because they are under the delusion that professional writers don't write sloppy stories (one said this verbatim).
Like I think its fine if killing the author and believing that theory makes you enjoy the game more but insisting it had to be intentional is just a delusion.
* gestures broadly at everything Square has done *
I mean, I love their games but the plots are almoat always a mess. I don't fully blame them, coughing up like 20+ hours worth of story content which has to keep the average 14 year old engaged and remaining coherent is a tough task.
The one exception to this I will raise is that I think Chrono Trigger is very tightly plotted, which is astounding because its a time travel story.
The actual PLOT of 13 isn't that great but god I love the character development and I will defend that game against the massive hordes of haters for that aspect alone.
What gets me with Kingdom Hearts is that it's the same characters every time. I haven't played since Birth By Sleep since the Nothing/Heartless/ whoever all feel so interchangeable
At the very least FF has new faces and places
FF13 plot is relatively simple albeit having stupid names for things and not explaining those terms.
FF13-2 and lightning returns tho are completely incomprehensible. Bur sahz has a chocabo in his hair so its all ok