Only final fantasy I didn't finish, awful story and boring gameplay

User Rating: 4 | Final Fantasy XIII PS3
What is it with new RPGS especially the newer Final Fantasy. There are almost no side quest, and no world map. This game was painful to play, I grinded my teeth all the way to the end and then was like screw it and watched the ending on Youtube.

Characters
-You will hate just about every character in your party. I wanted the teenage girl to die and really wanted the little boy to die. Even if they did die the game would be awful. The characters seem reused. The main character lighting is basically a female Squall from FF8, I loved Squall guy was awesome, this girl not so much. Snow looks like Seifer from FF8 with better graphics and is so annoying.

Story
Was boring and you never start to relate or like any of the characters so this is a big no no in a 40+ hour game. Game was too long. No real exploration and feels like you are walk forward for 2 minutes fight walk 2 minutes fight.

Gameplay
Only 1 person has 1 summon or Guaridian force or w/e they are called in this game. Fighting is also kind of boring. I don't know maybe it's because I have grown accustomed to the US RPGs but this one just was not fun.

Replay value
I am glad I got this used on craigslist for 30 bucks because I grinded my teeth to play it and couldn't bring myself to finish it as I was bored out of my mind.