I'm about 17 or so hours into FFXIII (just started Chapter 10) and here are some thoughts I've had while playing it and some responses to some just complaints/overall comments I've heard from the "professional gaming journalism" community.
First and foremost, the beginning of the game is dreadfully paced, only offering hints of the (in my opinion) neat battle system. The environment and setting are quite stunning, but that was a given from the promotional material. Besides the initial impression that this may end up to be a marvelously produced game with little to do, after several hours, everything seems to make sense...but then it's taken away again until about the 15 hour mark.
So what would keep anyone going as the game seems so drab for 10+ hours. Well, for me, it was the characters and the story. I know there's some complains about cliche melodrama present in JRPGs or whatever, and the fact that you can't "be" the character is unattractive to many role-players accustomed to the more western flavored take on the genre. But seriously, this game is pretty much the opposite of FFXII, which, to me, was the weakest one. The setting was nice and the end-game was vast and open, but who really cares about the political strife between Dalmasca or the other factions in Ivalice?
This brings me to one of the more striking things I'm sure everyone knows about FFXIII, it is incredibly linear. But is linearity really so horrible? Books, movies, serial TV shows, all of these mediums are linear. I know some of you would say "and that's what makes games, games, the choices the player makes!" But think about it for a second, do your choices in Fallout 3 really affect anything that much? Hell, you're a mute that happens to be able to pick text to people that largely don't affect the overall outcome. (SPOILERS: You need to distill water) Yes the stories branch on your path to greatness (?) but the end result is the same. Even in the open-ended RPGs I play as if I want my character to be consistent, I don't kill a baby then save an orphanage, I want to be heroic. This is what doesn't bother me. Having something make sense in a linear progression makes for a stronger story, with better characters.
So in short I'm having a blast so far (also, Yakuza 3, surprisingly fun, not so surprisingly SEGA censored...) and I might write up a full review sometime after finals.
