Final Fantasy XIII is a particularly interesting example given my thoughts on narrative as all the characters are very strong, they have clear character arcs (whether or not people like the characters), and with the way the party splits you get nice focuses on relationships between certain characters. I will still argue that the plot is quite incoherent. I couldn't tell you everything that happens in XIII because I don't understand it: largely as I don't think the game does any decent world building to understand the context of the world you're in (with the possible exception of the constantly updating data log, but your game should not depend on people reading that to understand the story... bit like FF15's "KINGSGLAIVE GOES HERE, BETTER HOPE YOU WATCHED IT BECAUSE WE'RE NOT GOING TO EXPLAIN IT BEYOND THESE 30 SECONDS OF CONTEXTLESS FLASHBACKS, LOL" moment). But in XIII you do get that excellent character experience if you actually pay any attention rather than frothing with rage about it being linear all the time. (FF10, also being linear, is similar with having what I feel are fairly strong characters... well, most of them, some have less focus than others. The story, not being relegated to optional reading material, is stronger too.)
As for XIII-2, I liked it a lot (probably preferred it to XIII in a way because I felt like I wasn't really meant to understand anything more than "paradoxes eating everything, lol" whereas in XIII I constantly felt I was dumb and missing stuff the game expected me to understand). I think in some ways it'd have made more sense character development wise if the game made it clear what events the characters go through first, even if we don't see them that way. To use the VLR example, it doesn't matter what way we as Sigma experience events because we make revelations at the same time as him. But Phi does not experience events in the same order, which is clear in certain paths - the one where Phi betrays as we betrayed her (even though we haven't yet), in Dio's ending where it's clear that Sigma has not experienced anything to do with the bombs before but Phi has). But if you look from the beginning to the end of the game those characters still develop in how they interact despite experiencing events out of order.
no subject
As for XIII-2, I liked it a lot (probably preferred it to XIII in a way because I felt like I wasn't really meant to understand anything more than "paradoxes eating everything, lol" whereas in XIII I constantly felt I was dumb and missing stuff the game expected me to understand). I think in some ways it'd have made more sense character development wise if the game made it clear what events the characters go through first, even if we don't see them that way. To use the VLR example, it doesn't matter what way we as Sigma experience events because we make revelations at the same time as him. But Phi does not experience events in the same order, which is clear in certain paths - the one where Phi betrays as we betrayed her (even though we haven't yet), in Dio's ending where it's clear that Sigma has not experienced anything to do with the bombs before but Phi has). But if you look from the beginning to the end of the game those characters still develop in how they interact despite experiencing events out of order.
-timydamonkey