I'm glad someone besides me actually likes this game for what it is. Everyone wants to complain that it's not enough like Final Fantasy, but you're talking about a series that has a totally different cast, plot, battle system, and setting in every single main entry. The real question should just be "is it fun?" As long as it's enjoyable, they could be calling it Bad Rats 2 for all it matters.
I'm also not sure when "linear" became a synonym for "bad". Especially in a game that's primarily trying to tell a story. You don't jump around between chapters in a book. You don't skip randomly between chapters on a DVD. Why is it so wrong when a game makes you go to all of the plot in order?
I won't say that FFXIII is the best game ever, or even the best in the series (although to be fair, I give both of those titles to the same game). But it's also far from the worst, and the Final Fantasy series is pretty solid company to be ranked among.
I think the thing is this: most past FF's game, you had an open-world (to some kind of an extent) to explore. When people play a series w/ a certain brand attached to it, they expect certain things to be there. Especially, for the most part, that was one of the few things that was ALWAYS there in the series/franchise. Since FF's story normally goes in one direction no matter (i.e. this isn't a BioWare game and you don't make story-based decisions that alter the game's story, characters, inhabitants, game-world, endings, etc), they don't expect the open game-world itself to get cut-out entirely.
It does feel kind of weird that there is no open-world of some sort here; especially b/c I played FF1 NES + FF5-9 on the PSX. Though, the immediacy of the story + characters seem to be in the front here; and it seems to be working, in that regard. Well - at least so far, anyways.
It did take a bit of time for the combat system to really get going, though. Early on, while I liked the faster pace - it felt like it lacked something - namely, depth. Battles also felt WAY too easy early on, as well. Namely b/c you had less direct control over your party (which I didn't like, at first), since you just control the leader - they felt lacking, early on. Once I leveled-up some of my char's, party members getting multiples Classes, and Paradigms - then the combat really began to go somewhere and get to where it's at now: addictive, different, and a ton of fun.
Really love the graphics, though. Artistically, this thing's beautiful. Though, since this is a FF game - should I really expect anything less? Damn shame it's stuck in 720p currently officially - but GeDoSaTo solves that problem easily enough + really unlocks the potential of this game in its 1080p glory for me.
