I've beaten XIII twice, so I know it well. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. My main criticism of XIII is it suffers from a lack of sense of place. It feels like a disjointed series of unconnected environments, and there's no sense of a cohesive world that you're exploring and learning about.

Lightning is on a train. Where does it come from? Where does it go to? We'll never know. Now we're in a crystal ice cavern. Now we're in a dense forest. Now we're inside an airship. Now we're at an amusement park. There is no sense of how these places relate to one another or how they're connected, and that dramatically impacted how engaged I was with the story.

The battle and hunt systems were the more enjoyable parts. The worldbuilding was lackluster bordering on non-existent. I also really dislike... actually, the whole cast. I don't think there's a single character I like. I dislike Sazh the least, if I had to choose.

But I still finished it. Twice. XV was the only main series game that I disliked to the extent that I didn't see it through.

To each their own. I know a lot of people were disappointed by XVI, and again, I could criticize a number of aspects of it. But overall, I've had more fun than I've had with an FF game since X.

I gave FFXIII 3 shots, putting in over 40h in total. The farthest I got was about halfway through, two years ago. I hated the game so much, that I actually stopped playing games altogether for like three months. It was completely miserable. I'm a certified FFXIII hater.