Excuse me saying this, but isn't that the point of every sidequest that involves anything else other than minigames, in every JRPG, WRPG or RPG for that matter? 

Plus, in FFXIII you'll not end up fighting the same way over and over again. That's the beauty of the missions, especially the hard ones, you'll have to rethink your entire way of battling to actually survive in them. In that aspect, FFXIII presents you a challenge like very few other turn based games do. 

If you finish the game. 40 hours.

If you for for Platinum. About 90.

1000/1000G then. :D

I like what I've played,I haven't got the game myself,I've robbed my mates for the week :D

However,as a massive fan of XII (I'm one of about 4 I guess),I don't like the enclosed battles.I loved the freedom of XII.

The story in XIII (for me anyway) is going to have to be real magic to depose XII as my favourite Final Fantasy game.

I can't wait to really dig into XIII though,see what it's all about :) shame about it being so short,but I like to think Final Fantasy games are to be fully explored to see 100% of their beauty,so I don't see the point trying to do them as fast as possible.

Only 15 hours in.
Took a break to play GOW3 through... and then I kinda got side tracked going Trophy hunting after that...
I'm gonna put it back in, but I'm gonna be moving this weekend.. If I put it in tonight nothing will get moved haha :P

To be honest, I don't care if I beat it in 30 hours !
This is the FF I've been waiting for, haven't enjoyed Final Fantasy since 9 ! (other than Crisis Core)
So to me, even just 30 hours of this would be enough to fill my much desired FF need.
But I am a side quester, and I WILL be going for Platinum, so count me in for 90ish hours :D

the point of doing sidequests is variety. you have your main quest where you fight the enemies, but what about your sidequests? why should they be pretty much the same as your main quest?

while yes, every battle is different, you're still going to be fighting battles. same type of input from you, only slightly different approaches every time. you're still looking at a medic, commando, sentinel, etc. doing what they do in the main quest. this is the only final fantasy i've played where you only fight again and again with no other thing to do.

Hey Wagram, how hard was it to get the Plat ?

After looking through the trophies a lot of them seem more "time based" then difficult.

The only one that struck me as difficult is to have all the different weapons and equipment equipped at one point.

Is all the stuff available at the end of the game from shops or is it kinda like "if you missed it, you're screwed"

That's... disappointing...

I finished mine at 42 hours with a around 15 cieth sidequest. Now I'm at 60, with roughly 30 cieth quests. It's definitely not the most memorable FF other than graphics, but I will feel bad if I don't platinum it. I've always done everything in every FF games, not gonna break the habit on this one. Besides, it's still my favorite game on PS3.

I am at 34 near the end of chapter 9. I don't think i have been doing much grinding, I do however like to find all secrets and treasures (not that I think i have all of them). Your time seems way short, how did you manage to beat the bosses? Had you played through it once to know what their weaknesses were? It has been a trial and error thing for me so far.

I had read that the cut scenes alone are about 10 hours, Did you skip over all the cut scenes too?