How do people still claim that Final Fantasy XIII was "generally disliked"?

Gamespot Review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0qEe1Qz6vA

IGN Review: 8.9 = Great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9JTEuNAmLw

Famitsu 39/40 - Japan

Dengeki S - Japan

Gamepro 88% - Germany

Consol.at 91% - Austria

Around the world there where people who really liked the game. Only the internet-forum is full of hate for the game.... The Sales figures are also showing that the game had a real mass appeal. It was by far the best selling console JRPG of the whole generation.

So, ok. X is coming for the Wii U, look at this years PS3 line-up of JRPGs. I am thrilled for Final Fantasy X HD and the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD remakes, Ni No Kuni, Final Fantasy XIII - Lightning returns, Tales of Xilia... That alone are 5 great games that will probably sell more than X due the larger install base and an active fanbase on the PS3.

The Wii U has just released and the installbase is growing slower than expected by Nintendo. 4.000.000 copies sold? That seems way to high. Dragon Quest X... don't put too much hope in that. The Wii version sold around 600.000 copies in Japan and that is not much comparing to the earlier offline-Dragon Quests. Like Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, online-main games are not famous for selling well, but FF XI was the most profitable game due to monthly subscriptions.

Look forward to "X", but don't put your hopes too high regarding sales figures.

I'm not sure why you quoted me in your comment. I never talked about PS3 and I didn't say 4 million copies of X would be sold so your comment seems mostly unrelated to mine.  As far as FFXIII goes, yeah, I think most people think it was a backward step for FF.  It reviewed well, but worse than other FF's.  It sold well but worse than previous "team 1" FF's like VII and X. As a fan of the series since its beginings, I can say it was easily my least favorite.  In fact, I haven't finished it yet.  The characters, graphics and story didn't draw me in.  The combat made me feel more like an observer than a participant.  The graphics, while impressive technically were weak artistically.  I became bored with it. That's my personal opinion, but you would be hard pressed to find many people - and certainly not a majority of fans - who would call it a step forward or a high point in the series.  On top of that, Square's game output has severly droppped off. All we get it re-hash direct sequels instead of 3 whole new adventures per generation.  FF is at the weakest point in its history.  As a fan, their games used to be must-have system sellers for me.  Now, I'm not so sure. They seem lost.  I need FF to return to its former glory or I need another series to take its place in my heart.  To date, Bioware's games have been the best at capturing my time and imagination.  But Monolith (with former Square staff) and Mistwalker (with Sakaguchi and Uematsu) both have strong potential as contenders.  Monolith, in particular, with its first party backing and coming off what many consider to be the best RPG of the 7th gen - Xenoblade (I don't like critic scores, but it is a full 6% higher than FFXIII on GameRankings)- could become the standard by which rpgs - jrpgs in particular - are judged. That the early imagerly looks so great and that it is so far along in development while we still have nothing to see of Versus XIII.

So anyway, I think the market is hungry and the game looks like it could be perfect to feed it.  If Nintendo gives it a proper makreting push and timely worldwide release I think it could sell along the lines of many hit titles, and sell 3 million or more.  Certainly early impressions from those that have seen the video are positive.