I enjoyed the game, and I thought the presentation was fantastic. Though it did have some problems with the narrative like pacing, particularly in Chapter 11, but it was great overall.
However, FFXIII did feel like a step backwards coming after XII in terms of content and map designs. FFXII had a semi-open maps and lots of things to do such as exploration, hidden boss fights and hunts. FFXIII, on the other hand, just had missions which were just battles against evolved forms of enemies you've encountered in the field. No exploration, no hidden boss fights, nothing. Also, the dungeons were a piece of string; it did open up in chapter 11, but it went back to linearity quickly.
Anyways, I liked FFXIII and thought it was better than VIII, X and a lot of JRPGs that came out this gen.
