My opinion on FFXIII is different from the OP I played it last night for 3 hours. The game plays like a movie where you are shows a particular point in time and then there is flashback taking you to that point and beyond. FFxIII employs it realy well. It even uses narration between scenes to emphasize it.
As far as the story being a mess is concerned, I was actually amazed that I learned so much lore in the first 3 hours (hint read the datalog as pointed out by the game itself).
I am not as pleased with the combat as I might have liked but I think it is a natural evolution of FFXII and is quite good. I just wish it had the tagging ability from Last remnant. I have read that as the story progresses so does the combat so I am sure it will get even better over time.
The game seems very new comer friendly and should appeal to everyone. It seems less action-y than a few of its predecessor's so far (which i think is a good thing).
The issue about linearity is overblown in my opinion, FFX consistently comes up as one of the best titles ever made and it was completely linear. An RPG is ultimately trying to tell a story and the more control a director has over how the story is told the better it becomes. I have read that only the first 20 or so hours are linear which doesn't seem to be too bad for a 60+ hour game.
I also think it is ironic hat people who decry linearity love FPS and TPS games that are generally completely linear.
Just my $0.02
