10 Obvious Video Game Home Runs That Somehow FAILED

Final Fantasy XIII, much like its central character's namesake, was supposed to be lightning in a bottle. 

Thanks to two stellar, critically acclaimed predecessors in FFX and XII, Square was on a streak of success with its flagship IP, and even had the added benefit of releasing the thirteenth installment on next-gen hardware to generate additional hype. Moreover, the studio publically likening aspects of XIII's character designs to Final Fantasy VII (specifically making Lightning reminiscent of Cloud Strife), was music to the ears. There was no way, based on precedent, that failure was possible.

We all know how swiftly that confidence turned to despair and for Square, it never should have come as a surprise. Shockingly, stripping a core gameplay feature from a series thirteen games deep is a surefire way to piss off a sizeable portion of the fan base. That's exactly what XIII achieved by doing away with open-world exploration in the first 25 hours of its runtime, making everything before Gran Pulse feel like a long-winded tutorial.

But that wasn't the only offence. Lightning, Snow, Vanille, Hope, and the remaining retinue of main characters in XIII never felt like a cohesive unit like in previous games. Most were dull, shallow facsimiles of heroes from yesteryear. Poor form.