Final Fantasy 13 was lackluster in comparison to older titles, that's what I see. The graphics are great, the music is compelling, but the gameplay is actually where it is lacking. One can argue that Final Fantasy 12 (PS2, 2006) plays for you under the gambit system. But in FF13...the battle system takes the automated gambit system a step further. Battles feel stiff as heck, with you doing very little but choosing battles options, alike that of FF10 and past that. I hated that we were forced into a battle every two seconds, but given no freedom in those battles. We don't even move our characters, how boring is that?!
Reaca, you will very soon find out that the battle system is next to no fun at all, with it being simply "debuff, stagger, win".
The linearity of the game bugged me as well. If anyone knows a reason to hate Zelda:Twilight Princess, I'm sure they would pinpoint it on linearity. FFXIII suffers from this as well, with it being impossible to revisit any area from Chapter one to Chapter Ten. Talk about terrible.
The story was pretty good in my opinion, except the ending. I loved all the playable characters except Fang and Snow, with Vanille and Sazh being my absolute favorites
All in all, FF13 wasn't the ideal Final Fantasy for me. It is basically that of TP; a bad Final Fantasy game but a good game overall. If we were given the same type of gameplay as in FF12, what with free roam and no transition to separate battle screens...FF13 would be better in my opinion.