I have to admit, that the first 2 ~ 3 hours, Final Fantasy XIII isn't really showing it's real strength 100%. But seriously, if you continue to play the game for a few hours, the game will blow your mind away. I'm currently at the beginning of chapter 4 and I can't stop playing! (Although I have to learn some Math now -.-)

yes but 3 hour is an entire day playing and i could play something else in that time, is the rest, those 10+ hour really awesome? for example 

kingdom hearts 2 start very slow with the roxas thing and all but that game is awesome, is 13 like that????

I really liked it. Personally so far think it's better then FFX. They made a ton of improvements.

The story is actually somewhat clear, why you fight enemies makes more sense then usual (at least so far), NO random encounters!, amazing combat system, tons of mini bosses so you can actually play around with the combat system.

The game looks amazing, and the characters are not as annoying as I thought they would be, there also seems to be a reduction in cheesiness that are usually found in jrpgs.

For me this game is what Final Fantasy is all about. Then again I've only played FF7, FF10 and a bit of FF12.

no random encounter, does that means i cant grind to overpower mobs ahead? or coming in and out of an area respawns enemies?

The game so far is meh. I've only played a few hours and the linearity is kind of annoying. Now, I realize that linearity is found in most FFs at the beginning. I'm just not used to this "behind the character" camera position. Funny cuz I'm also playing Dead Space and I feel the game is better with this camera view. Perhaps it is cuz Dead Space you have places to explore rather than going straight up?

Oh, and if you're old school RPGer you will not like the battle system.

wait a sec !!!! the camara is not fixed, so it is actually like uncharted???!!! :( , doesnt it feel like an adventure game more than an RPG.

does anyone regrets buying it?

You can't grind early on, once you get to chapter 11, everything changes though!

Basically, the way levelling up works is like the sphere grid, but for each different specialisation you have a different grid (slightly different for each character), but you cannot keep progressing more and more, as story events unlock different barriers in the system. Once you get to chapter 11, it is expanded so much that you are going to have to grind for some time to reach the end as the cost of upgrading sky rockets.

Enemies do respawn, so you can do a little bit of grinding, but other than a few areas, it is best to wait until later on

Not beaten it yet...

But yes. It's good enough. Already my 2nd fave FF game ever, behind FFIX.

Yes, it may not be the best game in the series but it is still an excellent edition to the series.

I'll give my opinion on it. And I have loved all Final Fantasy's even the ones people hate. But I do not like Final Fantasy 13, it is true the beginning is boring. And if you are really willing to play for 20 more hours then good luck to you, I did but only because the sphere grid like leveling system is addictive to me. You can grind later on, but it gets boring after awhile. All you do in this game is swap your fighting stance and then hit auto battle. It's hard to come up with a stratagy during battle because you don't get time to pick what you want. The bosses are really hard, and even some regular fights, maybe they arent necessarily hard, but they take forever. You usually have to do what you need to for the first part of the fight to figure out how to kill the boss then you hit retry and start the battle over again more prepaired.

It is a very linear and perdictable game, so far the storyline is very perdictable and find myself saying the lines before they do. And this is the first time I've played it. Basically what you do is run a straight path, with the illusion that there is more than a straight path, for a few hours then a boss battle. After that a new chapter happens, you run another straight line, then another boss battle, oh and maybe a fight with your summon. Even at 20 hours it's only an illusion thinking you are more open up as you get to the surface of Pulse. The mini games are given to you by these flooting things on Pulse. I didn't do them because I don't like doing things on my first run through, I like getting to the end of the game  and come back to complete it. And I'm not sure if I can go back. Oh, and summons are helpful, Odin has helped me in some regular fights that would have been imposible any other way, for me at least.

I've only rented the game, and I'm glad I did. Give it a rent before you buy it. You may like it, but just as there are those who like it, there are other who hate it, and not without reason. I'll be taking the game back tuesday, I still need to show a friend the game because he loves Final Fantasy.