The major complaint I read about FF XIII, and the only thing its detractors seem to consistently agree on, it that it is too linear. Well, FF X was extremely linear as well. What's the difference? Now I understand that some people may simply have thought the story in FF X was much better....but that shouldn't account for such a great difference in the rating of the two games unless the story in FF XIII was abysmal. But if that were the case I would expect to hear many more complaints about the story in XIII, but really all I ever hear about it is "LINEAR LINEAR LINEAR!!!"