Tell me you're joking.

Things flow and change, and we have to live with that. It's not fun knowing that my favourite band is going to break up soon. But you have to know that maybe Nobuo was tired of composing just FF music (not likely) but he wanted to do something different (like The Black Mages) or stuff like that. I mean, Nobuo has been the composer of FF for many, many years! I think it's time to give "new" talents a chance. That's my opinion at least.

When the sarcasm is that obvious, telling people you're joking ruins it.

When people expect scads of perfect scores (or even super-perfect scores: remember the prediction of a Famitsu 52?), of course they're going to be disappointed. No game, realistically speaking, is that good.

How many reviews does FFXIII have so far? I've only seen one.

Mmm... don't forget that a lot of the PS1 Final Fantasies were pretty linear, too. I was recently playing Final Fantasy VII again, and even though there's a world map, there's not a lot you can do until you get the Tiny Bronco. You just keep moving to the next place. Same thing with Final Fantasy VIII and IX, too. They're actually pretty linear, you just don't notice. And regarding Uematsu, he's a great composer, but Hamauzu is very good, too. But you know, honestly, I bet most people don't even have the ear to notice a difference. (Not a dig on you, just saying in general.) 

I actually like Final Fantasy XIII a lot. It's very similar to Final Fantasy X. If you liked X, you'll probably like XIII. (I hope.) You might be a little put off by how the battle system looks, but it's actually a lot of fun, mixing the AI parts of FFXII, the changing jobs mid-fight of FFX-2, and the general ATB system of VII. The upgrade system is actually sort of comparable with Materia, I think. You equip them and feed them scrap items which cause them to level up. But now I'm just rambling. Rent it if you're hesitant. It's worth at least that.

Also, pretty much all Final Fantasies drop sharply in sales the second week, it's not a big deal. Everyone that wanted it got it as soon as possible, pretty much. That's all.

It appears people who blame linearity can't forget Final Fantasy VI, during ruined world gameplay. This is the only bit of all final fantasies that makes me remember non-linearity, because you can search or not for every previous member of your party. Final Fantasy was always like a game book.

I wonder how much of the negative reaction towards FF13 can be put down to hype backlash? The game was massively hyped before it came out, and we all know that in these situations a lot of video game "fans" on the internet decide that they hate the game and that it's overrated before they even play it.

That said, I have seen some quite worrying things that can't be put down to this. The maps of the first few parts of the game are just ridiculous; it's true that a lot of FF game are linear at the beginning in the sense that one has to follow a specific path, but rarely is that path an almost perfectly straight line. That is linearity on a completely different scale and can't be compared. Hopefully it opens up later in the game, but we'll still be faced with the prospect of damaged thumbs from holding the left analogue stick in one direction and not moving it for a long period of time when playing through the first few chapters.

Of course there is a degree of big game back lash, but I don't really care. I have been playing FF VII recently, and I must say I prefer the linearity of FF X. Often I am confused where to go, as the game rarely makes it clear {though the game is amazing even though I kind of know the story, especially after playing Crisis Core, which will now need to be replayed as it is the best game on PSP}. The battle system looks great, though I do have 2 questions about the game

1. Can you move your character in combat, the videos aren't clear?
2. Do get control of an airship to free-roam the world, either on the world map or just through a menu, like FF X and XII

I'm still in Chapter 11 myself, so I can't comment on the airship part, though it seems unlikely. You can't move in combat, though.