I really liked Vanille and Fang and thought the ending was decent but the road getting there was so boring.....Hope can go die and I hope to God Square never makes another character like him. Sazh was pretty funny and I really only enjoyed his and Vanille's segments. The cut-scences were top notch (graphic wise) Pixar quality but the story was very uninteresting as were most of the fights. EXCEPT, the giant ship battle because no games ever complete without one. 

Every Final Fantasy is linear to some extent, ffxiii was only a bit more. The real problem is the lack of little sidequests any where in the game as you progressed through the story line. In that sense, the only thing ffxii and VS have in common is the lack of towns. Which is why it is such a poor comparison when there are games closer to it (12 other final fantasies).

FF12 and VS share key factors in common - real time battle, art style, theme.

Back on topic, FF13 - the game, not the title - would have been viewed as the second coming of jesus christ were it considered a new IP. Its too bad people don't always have an open mind when they first listen to a new song, see a movie, or play a new game, because when they do everything changes and everything they believed before is no more.

What I don't really understand is how amazed people are people didn't like FF13. Remeber how only four years ago people were complaining about FF12 being too "vast and overwhelming?" This is #13 and we still haven't learned a thing. I would bet my car FF15 is going to get the same reception from another crowd and they will be just as loud.

A review is not accurate because it is honest. I can honestly express my preference, but this does not make it right. Just glancing at the review, their assessment of the battle system is incredibly inaccurate. It is clear to me that they either did not understand the battle system, did not utilize it correctly, or just flat-out did not learn how to play the game. Looking at a few points they raise:

1. Saying the game plays itself is an overstatement. I would really like to see them beat the later bosses, tackle the Cie'th missions, and beat the Adaman enemies using the auto-battle system. It just will not work despite what they say.

2. I will agree with them that the battle-system is complicated and takes time to master, but it is not so confusing that people cannot control it. I have no problem controlling it myself, and I manually input every attack(of the main character) and never use the auto-battle function. To me, this just shows laziness on the part of the reviewer. If I can properly utilize the system without being confused, there is no reason why they should not be able to do the same. I am not some superhuman video game player.

3. Finally, their complaints about one-hit kills and enemies with haste just further shows they did not attempt to learn the battle-system. One-hit kills? Use Sentinel. It really is a life-saver and a necessity against the tougher battles. Enemies have haste? Use Sabotage. This is the point of support magic.

I also think you are misrepresnting what XBox Man said. He never once put metacritic on a pedestal or said they were the arbiter of quality games. He was just using the positive reviews to show there were people who liked the game and had reasons for liking the game. While I have not read every review, I think it is safe to say they have reasons for liking the game. I do not think a review would even be on metacritic if it said something akin to "I like the game but do not know why."

I don't need to swallow anything, if you think I care about what the metascore is think again. I was pointing out there are 74 positive reviews of the game, if you think all of them are misleading there's something wrong with you, not the majority of the critics that found the game to be enjoyable. There is no conspiracy against you or other FF13 haters, in fact this is the year where critics have been at their most honest because critics haven't given out 9's or 10's to every hyped game (FF13 itself, Metroid Other M, Fable 3, Fallout New Vegas, GT5). Everyone you personally know is no evidence of a games reception because if it were Modern Warfare 2 would be the worst game ever (I and all my friends loathe it), but its evidently not looking at the number of people who still buy map packs and still play it.

FFXIII received 2 awards, platinum award (for selling over 1 million), and a user choice award because gamers voted for their most liked game that year, and yes clearly many voted for FFXIII, swallow that. After the kinds of games I have played simple is the last thing I need, liking this game will eventually depend on whether you like the story and cast of characters along with the battle system (which is nearly universally liked seeing this thread), story and characters is a very subjective topic as we can see from peoples differing opinions on stories in movies. But seeing your posts you label anyone who likes the game as someone who doesn't know why they like it and any positive reviews as misleading, that tells me a lot about the type of poster you are. You were angry on the last page when someone said you did something you didn't, now you are dictating to me what my tastes are in gaming based on 1 game. haha. Keep ranting, I don't think I want to discuss anything more with someone who is acting narrow minded and being very rude towards anyone showing the slightest liking towards this great game.

Looking over this thread is really interesting. The differing views people have on the same game is quite fun to read. I can certainly see why people enjoyed it and there are many aspects of the game that, while not appealing to me, I can see appealed to others. Fast paced gameplay with and interesting leveling and battle system, decent story.

Alas, I am in the 'disappointed' side of things. I bought FFXIII expecting good things, I do agree the graphics are amazing. Cut scenes and FMVs excellent. Althought there was a lack of desire on my part for some of the cut scenes acting and dialog. Leveling was fine but also linear, I just pressed 'X' to level up, I could add a paradigm to a member of my team but it would cost so much more AP then just levelling up one of their original ones so a 2nd play through would mean the same game, no real personalisation at all. That and insta-kills when I don't expect it from 'weak' enemies, enemies just outnumbering my team. Oh and all the running, so much running about in Pulse. I speak to a thingy to start a mission and it's over the other side of the map, so I run over there and the thingy it unlocks beating it is the same side as the original.

... so much running.

This. This x100!!!

I hated this game's battle system with a passion. I don't get what's so wrong with traditional turn based play. The only ones whining about it are the CoD and GoW (God of War) "hardcorez" who don't buy these kinds of games anyway.

Ironically, most companies try to cater to their needs, alienating the JRPG fans. >_>

You can use a Chocabo in Grand Pulsse XD

you should have checked my review oh and my video review is on my sig

It's really shame that turn based combat system is pretty much dying away at least on home consoles. Lost Odyssey is still pretty much only turn based JRPG on HD consoles. Where are my turn based JRPGs. =( LO sold just fine considering that it's on X360.