I can understand why people will dislike this game. While I am happy that they are trying new things per iteration, I find this move away from certain traditional JRPG elements to be personally bothering.
I want some degree of exploration and control. I love the open world feel, while overwhelming, it is what I feel makes a large portion of any RPG experience. FFXIII just puts you on rails for 20hrs! That is FAR too long! Before they finally give you any real control. But this is a personal sentiment.
As far as the story goes I WAS reading ALL the dialogue and it was still fuzzy. I get it now, but it does not do a very good job ingame at explaining things initially. With all the advancements in story telling done in real-time in this latest generation of games, it is a little bit of a let down. While I absolutely LOVE my JRPG's, I feel that they are falling behind as far as advancing and progressing in many areas. They need to evolve, just like their western counterparts, while still remaining true to their roots. It is hard, but it is their job.
