I have played the older games, just after I played FF13. If the older games are "so much better" it shouldn't matter if I played them before or after FF13, and no FYI I didn't find them so much better and VIII I found terrible. And your post is ridiculous, how far into the game did you get? Vanille is "Oh ha" all the time? Did you even get to chapter 6 in the game when Vanille stops being chirpy after a "truth" is revealed. Lightning and Hope both develop a lot from Chapter 5 to Chapter 9, if Hope is still whiny where you left the game I doubt your that far in. Fang and Vanille haven't known eachother? Lets just ignore their time spent together on Pulse. And "focus" thing, none of them  know their real focus in the first place, how will they know what they want, its obvious you never got the the point where their focus is revealed? Two of them decide to run away (sazh/vanille), 2 of them decide to go to the centre of things and attack (Lightning/Hope). There were differing opinions. And I still say the characters are no less interesting than characters in the older games. This wasn't my first RPG, I am a WRPG veteran, and this "worst game" will always be one of my favourites in the JRPG genre. Whats clear is you simply haven't played much of the game and have no idea about the story, not only me but others pointed this out too.

I saw similar complaint threads for Final Fantasy 12 long after its release. That was a good game too though.

I have played all FF games from VII to XIII and enjoyed everyone by applying single rule enjoy the game for what it is not what u want it to be.the most important thing in any game is production values and story.FF has always delivered on production values although u can argue on story side.if someone don't like linear games then its not the games fault.

Some people say the developers mislead them but I read old interviews about the game and found out that It was already confirmed in interviews before the launch that FF13 wouldn't have an airship or world map and would be very different from the traditional final fantasy with Tetsuya Nomura saying FF Versus 13 would be the more traditional one from a game design and structure point. So why did you still expect many of those things?

Thank you to all the people who are not mindlessly bashing this game. "It's soooo linear!! NO TOWNS!" TheXboxMan makes great points as well. You all could use your time a whole better than bashing this game. If you didn't like it i am sorry, your loss. But what is the point in going on and on about this? Not to mention the game has been out for a while now.

And yes i have played and beat all the final fantasys. I adore the franchise and love XIII. It ranks in my top 3 easily if not higher.

I found this in an article on the game, the article dates back to 2007. You can't complain about it not being like your regular Final Fantasy when you were always told it wouldn't be. The same interview talks about how FF Versus 13 will be more like a regular Final Fantasy in structure.

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/710/710761p2.html

FFXIII will make some big changes to the RPG genre, right down to the basic progression of going to a town, talking to people, then moving on to battles. Kitase believes people will feel "Is this really FF?" when they play the game.

Welcome to the club.

My expectations for versus aren't high either because Kingdom hearts (battle system) sucks ass.

The OP has been far too kind, this isnt even a game, its 6 hours of f***ing cutscenes, filled with overtheatrical melodrama. Lightning is ridiculuous, shes too hormonal, unrealistic and seems like a 45 year old women going through menopause.

the rest of the cast isnt as bad, but still the dialogue is so camp at times. if you look at FF12 the characters talk to each other realistically, they even have regional accents to signify their class background (which is why Baltheir speaks in well spoken English).

the game is so boring, its like we're led down the narrow corridor so we can watch another cutscene about "its our focus, Serah said so". this is the only plot point in the entire game, nothing happens in the cutscenes, all we see is poor dialogue, poor script and abysmal melodrama, which amounts to......."its our focus Serah said so". Sakaguchi would have never allowed this imo, and i think The Last Story is going to put FF13 to absolute shame!!!

those are just 2 out of many

It is the developers fault they said that FF13 is NOT an RPG, and that FF13 was Inspired by Modern Warfare 2 and Lost. and it is the developers fault they've spent 5 years on a game engine so we could watch 6 hours of cutscenes, very, very boring cutscenes. so its the developers fault they've made something i dont think is a game, but more an 'interactive movie' and not an RPG. and yes its the developers fault because Sakaguchi would never have allowed this, and the Last Story will put this awful game to shame.