Since it's release, Final Fantasy XIII has recieved a fair bit of flak for it's linearity, departures from tradition and failure to live up to the hype. But criticalgamer.co.uk's Ian D believes that the negativity surrounding the game has been overexaggerated, especially considering much of it seems to come from people who haven't yet played the game.
Go to the source for the full article, including Ian's two cents on the game.

FFXIII came under a lot of unjustified fire from numerous people who haven’t really played or seen enough of the game to accurately judge. I strongly feel that there are many people who will look at a new Final Fantasy game and if they don’t see Cloud or Sephiroth will immediately dismiss it as being terrible, but that’s another story (as is my opinion that Cloud’s dialogue is some of the worst ever written – he’s like an especially inarticulate thirteen year old). There will be those who have played enough to accurately judge and still decide they don’t like the game of course, but I just feel these credible opinions are being lost in the hysteria and assumptions that seem to be sweeping the internet.

The newest in the contradictory line of Final Fantasy games is an excellent RPG. It is by no means the greatest thing ever made but certainly, in my opinion, easily eclipses the last two or three games of the series. It has helped SquareEnix regain some credibility in my eyes – that they can still produce a decent game despite the better part of their staff leaving to form Mistwalker and I just hope that they continue going down this route of a more adult and darker way of storytelling.

Miss Razz via criticalgamer.co.uk »