We've had threads about that many times. My impression is that a slim majority hate it, often with gusto, but the supporters are pretty passionate about it. I have no idea where I fall: apart from XI, it's the only mainline one I've never tried.

A. Why is it bad that JRPGs are linear? I think it's great, actually....

B. There are few sidequests and exploration in the first 15 hours of nearly every FF before XII. I'm guessing you hated XII. In fact, for you, XII should be the perfect game. Exploration, sidequests, and leveling right off the bat, no progression required.

C. KoToR had level caps, and nearly every FF had level limitations. They just don't call them caps. Instead, you get much less exp per enemy kill in weaker areas. Also, I'm not sure you actually level in FFXIII.

D. In Tales of Symphonia, and Vesperia, you control 1 character. In FFXII you control 1 character, and set up gambits for secondary characters. Same in KoToR and Dragons Age, and many, many other great RPGs.

E. How the f do you think there are no sidequests or exploration in the game? Those things happen in disc 3 on FFVII. In other FF games, it takes sometimes months to figure out some of the more interesting end game quests and sidemissions. You have no idea how deep this game is.

Your afraid that this game will be a shallow game, and that's the long and the short of it. I doubt it is, and I know for damn sure that even if you've beaten it, you might not know for sure. FFXII and VIII have two of the deepest gameplay systems in JRPGs but you can blindly buttonmash your way through the main campaign and call the game shallow, but you won't be beating those weapons...

If my last response didn't convince you to think for yourself, nothing will, and if you have this little faith in the FF series after all this time, then maybe you should skip it. Put your faith in Wired.

The author of the article is the editor of the blog -- Chris Kohler.

He knows a lot about about two things -- video games and Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Kohler)

He is no dummy (PBK and Fullbrights don't go to dimwits). But he occasionally can get hot-and-bothered about something that most people feel very differently about. For example, he panned Mario Kart Wii (6/10) because he did not like the battle system.

Mike from Morgantown

your right

Why do what the consumer wants, screw them we will do what us awesome rock star game devs want

Thats good business

My theory is that most people didn't understand the battle system in FFXII, and how intricate it could actually become, especially with the crafting. I doubt that any who ever crafted a Tournesol hated the game.

The argument there is, "I hated the game, so I would never play it that much."

Truth is, it's like Demon's Soul in that its true greatness can only be seen by those who've seen the glory of accomplishing its challenges. There is a very deep and rewarding gameplay experience in FFXII, and no amount of detractors can ever tell me otherwise on that point, I've experienced it. I was once a detractor myself before I saw the light, so perhaps I have a more balanced perspective than most. I judged a book by its cover, its cover being the first 50 hours of the game without a strategy guide, and boy did I get the wrong impression out that game.

That's what people fail to realize though. It's a 100 hour game, and really, if you don't understand everything about it before you even press the power button, you haven't even started playing. In an MMO, you can turn it on, level a toon, and vaguely enjoy yourself. However, there is also raid content for the hardcore players. XII is a JRPG built entirely around SP raid content, if you aren't ready to dedicate yourself to it, you probably should just skip it.. :P

Anyone who burns a game down based on the type of information he has, gathered in the way he gathered it, isn't "no dummy" imho.

Final Fantasy 13 sold 1.5million first week in Japan. Looks like the consumers had no problem with change.

Need I say more?

Without that change, we certainly wouldn't have had FFVII, and the franchise would probably be long dead.

Yes I think it's arrogent to not take into consideration what the consumer wants.  It's just fortunate FF fans will purchase the game without a second thought.

Unlucky 13- it may well be an average game. We will have to wait for the western reviews. I am willing to bet Final Fantasy XIII will not be AAA game when all the reviews are in. Its average review scores could be in the mid 80's. Good game but not great.

Eye candy game with beautiful graphics/ cut scenes may well be used as a smoke and mirrors to cover up the lacklustre game play. The lack of an open world 30 or 40 hours is considered fairly short for a Final fantasy game. The game will sell well and it will have it fans and haters.

I thought Final Fantasy XIII would be on 4 XBox 360 game discs. It is only on 3 game discs.