It's pretty funny over here in the Land of Fallout and Baldur's Gate seeing people argue about the relative merits and failings of linearity in FFX and FFXIII. It's like arguing about whether a color is more scarlet or red.

FFXIII has its failings, and I can't really see myself playing through the 25 hour tutorial a second time. But I like most of the characters, the world is fun to run [strike]around[/strike] along, and the battle system is fast paced and fun.

So basically it might not be some grand open-world adventure but criticizing a JRPG for linearity is like calling out an FPS because it involves shooting things.