Y'know, after reading a lot of this thread (and getting some sleep), I really have to ask: what was so appealing about FFXIII's visuals?
This game seemed to want to make everything - and I mean bloody EVERYTHING - an assault on my eyeballs and sense of immersion. It took the "zomg lol epic!!!1' knob and cranked it up to 11, but it never gave a good reason why. Technically, it may have been visually wonderful, but I think that my eyes dropped another level in glasses prescription and my number of questions rose exponentially for every minute I watched that game.
Granted, I know that Final Fantasy games generally have a level of spectacle they strive for, but this game was just way the hell too much. I watched the same friends playing 13 play 12, and 12 way just so much better in terms of presentation. It made sense! It was coherent! I didn't have to look directly into the sun to play it!