1. I admit I misunderstood you, but it's because you write it on one line and bashed the j-pop in the rest of the paragraph

2. Same as above (and I actually don't care 'cause I play in Japanese. Any English dub is an heresy for me...)

3. Ok but you had some harsh words in the battle system in a whole "This is not interactive; it barely qualifies as a game"

4. Ok

5. Ok

6. No problem here

7. Sorry that was one word in the entire review so it's hard to catch, especially when the words "poor design choices" stand out (in French estéthique = design)

8. Ok but since it's a small part compared to the game in a whole it's doesn't make much of a consolation, I'm afraid...  

"the battles seemed to take too long" > please insert FF7, FF8 or FF9 back in your PS3 and you'll see that battles were much longer. FFXIII-2 keeps a far better balance between battles and exploration.

"Besides, people on the forums (and everywhereI go for that matter) have been complaining about the 7-10 scale being the norm, I'm just looking to balance that out a bit by remembering that a 5.4 is technically a positive review.  Remember that" > If this is kind of a big bang in the review system it's ok. So I can expect to see really disappointing games to get 3 or 4...

"but I cannot ignore how boring the second half was for me.  Half of the game was a mindless, time consuming chore that required little to no interaction from me.  That's not fun, and the score reflected that. If you guys find it fun, then awesome, I'm happy for ya, but me...I didn't find it fun at all." > You're perfectly free to feel that way but there's a huge problem : a review shouldn't be a simple personal opinion. What diffenrentiates your review from the one I wrote on my blog? You may influence many people not to buy the game just because you didn't think it fun, while those people might love it. I don't say that against you (sorry if I there's any offense), I just reckon that reviews in general are a really flawed system unfit to today's market. Back in 2009 there was a little JRPG called Trinity Universe, but I didn't buy it because the reviews on French sites were quite negative. I picked it up in 2010 because I was still curious about it, and now it's one of my favorite games of this generation. 

There is a huge TV advertising campaign for this in the UK, I'm not sure if it will translate to sales though.

Seen the advert a few times, it's ok, not great, FFXIII's was SO much better.

The music from it is stuck in my brain!!! Oh, and I don't think it will do well in the UK because people think that it is just an expansion to The previous one, like AOE 2 the conquerors expansion (at least on of my idiot friends do, anyway)

So basically I'm supposed to give in to public pressure and just review the same way everyone else does?  Trust me, if I was going by personal opinion alone, I would have given it a 2 or 3 becuase compared to other FF games it's trash.  Next to no content comparatively, poor story, bland characters, very little in the ways of side quests or minigames and the story is short.  I loved the first half, but the second half was so bad it negated ALL good points I'd come to think.  a 5.4 is still positive.  

And why in the world can I not have an opinion?  It's not like I don't know what I'm talking about or am completely ignorant of the genre/series, so my 'opinion' is just as valid as yours or the dude who reviewed it for EGM or IGN or Gamespot or Destructioid.  Different people will have different opinions, the point of a review is to give yours while substantiating the reason you have that opinion.  That's what a review is, a substantiated opinion. 

I am sorry you don't agree with the score, but I can't be expected to review according to public demand instead of my own personal opinions.  I can't just pretend I liked it just to give it a good score.  I can't ignore what I Feel are glaring flaws in a game's design just becuase I Fear the wrath of public opinion.  I looked at the pros, I looked at the cons, I weighed them appropriately and came to a score I Felt was fair.  if you weigh them differently then that's awesome!  

As a reader it's your job to take what I say and apply it to your own tastes.  I made it clear I didn't care for the battle system, but the text made it clear that it was basically the same as XIII but with some awesome improvements.  Instead of getting torn up over the 4 I gave the gameplay, you should be able to filter and balance my WORDS to apply them to your own tastes, and discern that my reasoning for hating the battle system may not apply to you and therefore can be ignored.  

if people ignored the numerical value I assigned the game, I guarantee people would think the review was fair and balanced.  try it, read the review and pretend I gave it, say, a 7.4 overall...I guarantee your opinion of the review would change drastically. however, I weighed things differently and came to a different conclusion.  

Does anyone know how you get Noels bonus weapon that you get for pre ordering? I put the redeem code in and it all came up and it said that I will find it at chocolinas store, but it's not there so where do you get it once you've redeemed it?

if it's anything like serah's gengi bow, just find chocolina and it'll be available for 0 gil.  

I vote, we don't talk about runa's review in here... since it has it's own thread >_<. This thread should be peaceful!

Agreed.

I spent like 4 hours yesterday building a super silver chocobo for racing.