I have been looking forward to FF13 for a long time and I thought it looked genuinely interesting. However, the more I have read about it now that it's been released in Japan, I'm starting to become pretty pessimistic about the game for various reasons. The linearity for one really bothers me, I'm a big fan of exploration and running around in towns and dungeons searching for loot, side-quests and whatever else you could be doing. FF13 seems way too streamlined for my tastes, I don't like how linear it sounds, I don't like how side-quests will just teleport to you some other location and I don't like the idea of save points working as shops as well. Linearity can have its advantages, it can help the developers to make the game more cinematic and immersive and it can be great for pacing (Uncharted 2 would be a perfect example) but I really doubt that is the case with FF13 since apparently it has a lot of long cutscenes. I also don't like how the sound of having no levels and health being replenished automatically after any battle. I'm not going to judge the game's level system just yet though because FF10 didn't have levels and it did great job with its battle system and sphere grid. The list of things that bother me goes on, seems like the game has a lot of cringeworthy moments like some bad anime and while I could have stomached that 6-7 years ago, I'm almost sure I can't now.
Anyway, I'm still very optimistic about the battle system after reading these two articles:
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3177403http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9013668As long as the game is challenging enough, the battle system should be great. Also, I loved the overkill system in FF10 and it really motivated you to actually think in battles and if FF13 continues the same tradition and gives you better rewards for fighting well, I know I'm going to like that a lot.