You will appreciate this game no matter what, Square says.

US, February 19, 2010 - Final Fantasy XIII is different than any previous title in the series, often pushing players forward with comparatively less exploration. Most importantly, it includes no towns to journey to. No wonder long-time fans of the series have become concerned with this decision.

Square-Enix director Motomu Toriyama posted a statement on the game's official website in response explaining the linearity of Final Fantasy XIII, saying the gameplay is essentially split into separate parts between the story's two worlds.

"The game system itself actually changes between these two worlds, with the first half of the game taking place in Cocoon being a very story driven experience, whereas the second half in Gran Pulse is an open world design with a more free style of gameplay," Toriyama explained.

"In order to allow the player to become absorbed in the drama of the storytelling and the new and exciting world of Cocoon and be drawn to the characters without getting distracted or lost we have deliberately used a linear game design for the introduction sections so they can be enjoyed in the same manner as watching a film."

Toriyama explained part of the linear design choice also allows players to learn the new paradigm shift battle system more easily.

"I make a promise that even if you have never played a Final Fantasy game, or even an RPG before then you will still be able to appreciate FFXIII with no difficulty," he added.

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/107/1070753p1.html

WTF!?....I dont want to watch a film..its game!!..I want to play the game!.

What he described isn't necessarily a bad thing. In Final Fantasy 7, you spent a good chunk of time at the beginning of the game in Midgar, which was fairly linear. In Final Fantasy 9, the game is pretty linear until the end of the first disc. However, in FF7, Midgar was only a small part of the game (it didn't even take up a big portion of the first disc), and in FF9, you could explore the world map before you even enter the Ice Cave. So while I agree with that method, the linear part of the game shouldn't take up a whole half of the game, and it doesn't get in the way of plot and character development at all (as a dozen other games in the series have shown).

I don't care though. The game stills looks awesome.

This is kinda sad.
They shouldn't have to defend themselves like this.

The game system itself actually changes between these two worlds, with the first half of the game taking place in Cocoon being a very story driven experience, whereas the second half in Gran Pulse is an open world design with a more free style of gameplay," Toriyama explained.

I actually quite like the sound of that, seems like they've tried to give us the best of both worlds. One of the main reasons I love FF is because of the storytelling and it's obviously extremely difficult to tell a compelling, charatcer driven story without making the game fairly linear. Hopefully the Pulse section of the game will provide a good balance by including more free roaming as is suggested. I do feel they that are being unfairly judged by WRPG standards when the two genres are very different and should be taken as such.