Well personally I didn't find FFXIII Appealing though I don't hate it, Id just put it somewhere average yet entertaining at based on the playthrough videos I have seen, and personally FFXIII Ironically resembled FFVII(Being called the so called best) more in terms of ambience and overall feel of the game.
Though Lightning is one things though
.
But one thing above all I loved is FFXIII's Soundtrack, and FFXIII-2, although FFXIII-2 Composer is a different one I personally love the more modern feel of the composer handling it. Many hate it because of the aforementioned interpretation yet ironically the music resembles Persona 3 and 4's music, which some of them actually like. Talk about double standards.
That being said FFXIII's Blinded by Light is still one of the Best of Battle theme's I've heard.
However FFXIII-2 seems to be Fantastic as the developers actually did take note of their mistake.
Rather than Monster Hunter The capture system reminds me more of
Pokemon
And Oh
FFXIII Agito is no longer that game's name its been changed to
Final Fantasy Type-0 Completely separate from the Fabula Nova Crystalis Series (FFXIII, FFXIIIVS)
(Type-1, Type-2, etc. has been patented by SquareEnix so far so Its probably Type-0 may be a Spinoff Final Fantasy)
And speaking of FFXIII VS they only just started Pre-production for it Last year
meaning it may "probably" take about another 2 yrs or maybe even more for it to see daylight
Im more practically Excited for Type-0 as ironically being the most ignored of the next Gen FF's became the most anticipated as for a fact it was originally set to be a phone game in Japan, However due to limitations it was moved onto PSP and
it is likely we wont get to see a Type-0 NA release in the PSP as they would wait out on PSP Vita which has more better capabilities.
Personally I loved FFXII the battle system was just fine more better than the turn based actually
the only problem was actually the level up and skill system, Which could be abused since every character could attain every magic/skill and mastery of weapons, which would render the diversity of the party and made practically even secret bosses easy. It was Remedied in FFXII: Zodiac Job International system, There is already a translation patch for it since one could easily make a homebrewed PS2 game unlike the next gen's
not to mention Added Cutscenes/storylines to give more sense to the game were included. The Job system limited the characters ability (not taking a job would just be much worse)and it was irreversible which made the gameplay more challenging and more diverse.