Apparently not everyone agrees with Hillary's review:

Famitsu Xbox gave it 34/40 (81.6%) - The same score as Tales of Vesperia
360-Live (German 360 mag) gave it a 8.8 saying that it's "maybe the best JRPG for the 360"

So it may not be as atrocious as Hillary is making it out to be.

Any reviews in any of the Famitsu magazines are based on hype and what the gaming community expects, the reviewers(or whoever) confirmed this so they aren't reliable.  360-Live probably won't even be included in the metacritic score as I never heard of that magazine and never seen any of their reviews before

IGN is a thousand times more credible than Famitsu (who bases their review scores on hype) and a 360 magazine reviewing a 360 game.

IU must've been pretty hyped in Japan.  Not suprising, all of Tri-Ace's games are hyped in Japan. SO3 in particular had a ton of hype before it was released

No. I doubt this game was hyped there at all. It will probably do worse than Radiata Stories.

Anyways, I like how all the Sony fanboys are converging here based on a numerical score. I guess I can understand the 'revenge' needed to be enacted upon tri-Ace and Square Enix for having the audacity to betray Sony. I, however, fully intend on buying and enjoying this game whenever I get a 360.

Can't believe they did 18 characters. I hope this isn't a trend, tri-Ace should have went for at least 30. I guess what's done is done, but SO4 better have at least 12 characters or I'll be disappointed.

Sorry but they said that it would have the same number as SO3.  That mean only 10 party members.  Hope this doesn't affect your interest in the game.

BTW, how do you know if a game was hyped in Japan or not?

SO3 originally had 8 party members so I really hope they mean 10 (or 12) and not 8.

And I can tell if a game is hyped depending on a number of factors. IU is on the 360 so there's a limited hype factor in Japan since we know few people will actually be picking it up, tri-Ace's last new IP didn't do that great on the PS2, expected sales, the fact that it's preceeding Star Ocean 4 (which for all intents and purposes will be a better game), etc. Right now it looks like IU won't pass Vesperia, and Vesperia is already low for a Tales game.

EDIT: Isn't Hillary Goldstein the Sony fanboy? Why on Earth did they let him review this? This is almost as bad as that heifer on Gamespot that doesn't like RPG but they keep making her review them anyway.

How does preceding SO4 make IU unhyped?

Because Star Ocean 4 is bigger and better.

I think we all know that.  IU seemed more like a prototype for SO4 since it apparently isn't as good as it could of been(no, I am not basing this on just IGN's review).