Simply because people who import it must be great fans of the series if then a fan says he don't like it it is more special. 

Damn. I would buy even this game from these girls. Damn.

The "wait till you get to Chapter 11" folks are not, for the most part, saying "If you thought Chapters 1-10 were good, just wait till you get to Chapter 11." What most of them are saying is "Wait till you get Chapter 11; that's when the game gets good. In other words, while a middle ground may very well exist, it sounds as though FFXIII may not occupy it. I, personally, am not willing to play 10 bad chapters of a game before getting to the good part: at that point, nothing can make up for that experience, and the game itself is bad.

FF13 might not be like that. But I can't rule out the possibility, because past games have run the whole gamut: to games that were awesome from the very beginning (4, 6, 9) to games that started out kind of 'meh' but got much better later (1, 7, 10) to games where I couldn't stand to play past the beginning and thus can't even judge the later parts (8, 12). I notice the brand right from the first mention, and I take interest quickly enough, but I cannot blindly trust it to produce good games, because while it has produced some of my favorite games it just hasn't been consistent.

i agree and i still will buy this game! lol

lol joke review

the reviewer has played the game for 8 hours it says

GOTY.

After reading many many peoples user reviews it seems FFXIII will either fall in the first category or second one. Probably the second category for you.

THe problem FFXIII is dealing with is its giving too much on one end then too little somewhere else.

Most people who thought its story lacked feel the characters were amazing & overshadowed the story, with characters that were so good, the story should've been much better

Most people pulling out the linear card feel the presentation & backgrounds are so amazing you want to explore them

it seems FF13 shows promise, a lot of it but doesn't take you the whole way.....thats the main complaint haters had.

Once again from what I have heard the first few chapters till 6 are extremely good, then 6 - 10 are more like "fillers" after which 11 begins.

Once again they were the opinions of the "haters" that I analyzed, nowhere near the majority's opinion.....people who loved the game seem to like most to do with it.

I think it's a bad trend when jrpgs are made to be a "wait to Chapter 11 for the good stuff" kind of jrpg. This is a symptom of jrpgs intentionally putting in a bunch of padding and filler in games to appease hardcore gamers (a small segment) who whine that the game would be too short otherwise ("waaah i completed this 30 hour main story in less than one week. waahh. That's not enough! I need a 50+ hour main story and 100+ hours worth of side quests!). Most gamers don't spend all of their free time on video games. Most people have other hobbies too. Most gamers are willing to sacrifice quantity for quality. That's why the most popular games don't tend to be very long.

As for FF13 in particular, I'm Gameflying so I don't care. If I don't like it, I can always send it back and get a new game in my hand. No commitments.

The problem with this game if I am searching around the net is that it has many elements that can you make hate this game.

For example many say you don't have to grind much in the game...For some it is nice...Others find it pity because they love to do that in a game.

Anyway if you want to read more personal opinions check for sure Neogaf's thread :

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=383441

Don't know what all the fuss is about. There have been several decent Wii games whose averages have been ruined by one or more of these "rogue" reviews. I especially remember one of NSMBWii which probably cost it a"9" average on Meta. Back then, people were justifying the review, saying the reviewer was entitled to his own opinion, which surely should be the case this time, then, no? Or is it different because this is Final Fantasy?