XIII was such a waste. I wanted to explore its cool sci-fantasy setting, but the entire game is just "GO GO GO YOU HAVE TO KEEP GOING" until you get to the boring fucking plain that's the only part you can actually "explore".
Then XIII-2 was an actual solid game but replaced party variety with pokemon mechanics and was all over the place with its setting (Academia was cool though).
And then LR's sidequest focus was actually perfect for exploring the setting, except the setting once again was noticeably different. Also no "party" to speak of.

At this point I wouldn't even mind a XIII prequel to make up for this -- instead of the dumb shit they've been doing with VII. Though it'd probably suck.