Final Fantasy XIII takes some time getting used to the gameplay and the battle system. It is more accessible to all types of gamers. Over 100 hours of gameplay to complete the game to 100% completion provides a lot of gaming.

Downside 20 hour compulsory tutorial through chapters 1 to 10 before the game picks up in its late chapters. The game has 64 side missions and game opens up after reaching chapter 11. Plenty to do after finishing the main story.

The linearity of this game makes it hard to level up in the first 10 chapters of the game.

so far this game is boring me massively... however i am "only" 7 hours in and on chapter 4/5. hopefully it gets better like most of u say, but it's just ridiculous i have to deal with this shit until the game gets good.

not really a fan of the battle system... like someone said earlier i feel like all it is is shifting paradigms which is boring and annoying.

big fan of ff4,6,7,9,10, so maybe this game just isnt for me. SE is destroying this franchise IMO. need squaresoft back

3rd best FF for me. Is a different direction FF, but at least it is a good one :D

You don't need to grind for the first 10 chapters.  You need to grind on Gran Pulse(Chapter 11) because Chapter 12/13 would be impossible to do otherwise.

I think the lack of traditional towns and the linearity for the first half of the game makes sense story-wise.

I beat it last night.

Linearity = Overblown. But in some instances it is really narrow and small and I wished it was longer. But overall it isn't just walking straight like some fruits make it seem.

Lack of Traditional towns = Yes it is true. There technically are towns in the game, it is just now that you use them like you would a real town. XIII doesn't give you that sense of what all JRPGs seem to do and that is that towns are a safe haven and that the worlds time stops. It never bothered me once though. It made more sense overall.

I finished it a few days ago and now I can finally say: FF XIII is my new favourite! :)

Well, FF X has been my favourite for a long time, which was the most linear, I think, before FF XIII.
That's not only because I like linear games more but also because of the Story and Gameplay.

I really think it's just a matter of personal taste if you like or dislike a certain Final Fantasy. I don't like FF IX and FF XII so much, for example, although I finished them both. And for me FF VII was not as good as FF VIII, but that's just my opinion.

If you would like to. I wrote a review for the game. You can look at it on the page in the game database.

My characters were ludicrously overpowered though, when I fought Jecht, I took him down with 2 hits with Tidus, who had at least 4 turns before anything else....

I did use Mega-Flare a few times, but most of the time, they were fairly useless other than for 1 big attack

As a stand alone game its a good game that takes awhile to take off but as an FF fan i was a little disappointed but good game overall.

I love it !