People will be butt hurt either way. There is already a huge anticommunity formed around the game from people who have never played it, and that just goes to show you how huge and important Final Fantasy still is in the hearts of hardcore gamers. Like GTAIV, the game will probably garner critical success, but be hated by many of the fans of the previous games, because they didn't like the direction it took. Either way, I've never been dissapointed in a FF game, and my two favorites are FFVIII, and XII,(and GTAIV is by far my favorite GTA game) so I have a little perspective on speaking for the silent majority. Most people will love it, a vocal minority, most of whom never played it or even gave it a chance, will burn it down before it's ever released, so yeah. I predict 89 to 91 percent.

Just to add an example, WKC, a game with a relatively poor critical reception in Japan(with a lot of hatred coming from the community as well) is very hyped amongst PS3 fans, and I'll probably actually get flamed just for mentioning that it might not be that good.

However, it receives none of the criticism or prejudging from jrpg fans that FFXIII has gotten. I've seen some people claim that XIII is "the most hated FF in japan" and that's just a presumption. No Final Fantasy has been hated by a majority of purchasers in Japan, so far, and every FF since VII has been subject from criticism from anti-communities worldwide who would rather have THAT experience recreated than to try some inferior new version, but what they don't realize is that nostalgia plays an important role in their recollection of FFVI and VII, and indeed, it is much better for the gamer, genre, industry, and series for the developers to continue to change and try new things. They've released many great games in this series, and all of them have anticommunites. This is no different. Just be sure you join it by forming your own opinion.

Every FF I've played takes 20 or so hours to get warmed up, imho. However, I wonder why people listen to the 20 hour comments but don't believe the 100 hour of gameplay comments. I'm sure the early linearity(like in every FF) has a varying length, and there is no doubt in my mind that "20 hours" is a embellishment, but either way, I wouldn't mind the game being linear to the end. This is a JRPG, it's supposed to be linear until at least disc 2, lest you forget. I have trouble thinking of many jrpgs that aren't.

Yeah, but they pretty much consider Nintendo an afterthought. Sure, they'll develop a few games here and there for the Wii and DS, but their major titles are Sony exclusive (with the exception of 13). I always thought that, ever since they ditched Nintendo, the FF series has slowly been going downhill. Sure, FF7 was okay, but FFX was pretty bad. But the one game that made me realize just how far SE has fallen was FFX-2. That game is a travesty and encapsulates all that is wrong with SE today. If they had stuck with Nintendo exclusively, the FF series would still be at its best.

i liked FF X (other than the voice acting) and its still my favorite FF game

I alot of people would disagree with what you said there, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX are my favorites, and FFXII is the funnest to play. And looking at sales it was clearly the best decision they made since there highest selling FF games are all on a Sony machine.

I agree though that X-2 was probably one of the worst games they made, it's my least favorite FF game, they were just trying to make a quick buck, which unfortunately they made a lot of money off it.

Also if they would of stuck with Nintendo FFVII wouldn't of been as big as it was because it would of had to been on a cartridge and a lot would of been left out in the game. FFVII is what made FF so popular in the West it basically introduced the people in the West to JRPGs. FFVII more then likely would of sold a lot less if it were on the N64 and FF wouldn't be as popular as is it now.

I'll be honest- I'd love to see the game flop, and I like the range that Seraphic gave it for the scores. But being realistic, it'll do better than that. I do think that it will fall short of 90, but just short; it'll probably be in the realm of 88-89. After all, this game will cater to what many of the "professional reviewers" like to see. But if I'm wrong, and it does fail, then good. I think that S-E needs the wake-up call.

Seriously i don't Give a BUCK about its reviews, Just give me a Bloody FF Game to play lol
I have been waiting for this game for a very long time although i am disappointed because if its outcome, Crap storyline, No NPC, No cities and all that crap or so the japanese/reviews say but it doesn't change the fact that it will still be my 1ST DAY PURCHASE! (hopefully) haha
My favourite FF game in the series is Definitely FFX by FAR, the game was great, storyline was epic, and some parts were emotional. If FF13 is similar to FFX then i would be a Happy guy LoL

Beside that i think its overall ratings would be 85+ i hate to say it but i doubt it would be 90 on gamerankings because of what other reviews are saying, i think Gamespot, IGN, 1UP, X play would probably give it 7.5-8.5 and edge would probably give it a 6 LOL considering its EDGE you know

Ever since i played the demo i knew that this game will be worse than FFXII which many people hated ( i loved it). I would guess average will be 8.2-8.7 on metacritic and gamerankings. Which actually is high for a JRPG for a next gen console.

Realistically,  FFXIII will get 90 if not more on metacritic and gamerankings no matter how much anyone here wants it to be otherwise.  FF will always be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to reviews and sales for JRPGs.  

The only final fantasies with over 90 avreage on Gamerankings are 6, 7, 9, 10 and 12 not even FF8 does have 90. Do you really think this game who already gotten worse reviews than 12 will get more than 8? I dont think so.