Besides all the subjective stuff, and a town thrown in here and there, FFX released before.
That's a massive difference. Not only it had the benefit of excusing itself on inferior hardware and different standards of gameplay, the very fact it released before vindicates it. The first time you commit an error is excusable, the second less so.
Just imagine a random game trilogy out there. Let's say the first game X was lauded by the public but had a certain flaw, who wasn't however present on its sequel Y. Now imagine Y's sequel, Z, brings the very same flaw back. That's quite frustrating. Z will obviously be hated more than X. It's all a matter of expectations.
That's what I think at least. Though FFXIII was bashed way beyond its flaws, yeah, and that's unfair, but that's also how it is.
