First Impressions of Final Fantasy XIII

Pros

• Looks pretty

Cons

• No random battles. FF is not FF without random battles. (FF12 sucks too)
  
• The story is told through the datalog and not through the cutscenes/dialog.
• You only control 1 character in battle. The others are NPCs.
• If you get KO'ed in battle, then game over. Pheonix Downs are to revive NPCs only.
• Hard to keep track of how much damage opponents take. Numbers are flying everywhere.
• Battles are boring atm. It's just spamming "auto" mode.
• No towns to explore/loot.. wtf is with that?

It really seems like Square Enix have dumbed down the FF franchise, trying to open it up to a wider audience. But I don't think it has worked. It's too complex for non Japanese RPG gamers, but too basic/shite for "hardcore" players.

If Square Enix keep this up, they are going to lose their throne in JRPGs very quickly. Mark my words.