I was personally disappointed with the game. I thought the characters as a whole were a step up from FFXII but still short of the other games. Sazh, Vanille and Fang were all interesting but I found Hope, Lightning and Snow to be dull and irritating. The story was probably one of the games stronger points and it progressed nicely especially through the gradual reveal of the events from the 'Thirteen Days' prior to the begining of the game but it was spoiled by the dialogue which at times was cringe worthy.
I wasn't really a fan of the gameplay either. The battles too often revolved around just mashing x with little skill or thought required and the lineality was painful. It became a case of run down a straight corridor, fight a few enemies, watch a cutscene (which did look fantastic) and then rinse and repeat. Where as with previous FF games I couldn't wait to carry on playing to find out what came next, with FFXIII I just became bored and was actually glad when I finished it.
Perhaps I set myself up to be disappointed with the the anticipation I had for the game but it really did fail to deliver for me.
