Haven't gotten to Sazh yet but Noel, Snow, Lightning and Hope all feel like soulless corpses. Even both Lightning and Hope talk about how they feel no emotions lol The NPC voiceovers are also horrible. It feels like they are speaking in monotone. No emotions whatsoever.

What are you talking about, game is great. I'm on 4 day right now. Near the end of main quest 3. There is some technical problems, but battle system, world itself, and story is quite good. After a mess that 13-2 was, it's a miracle.)

I liked it straight away. Although the combat took a little time to get down pat. 

Sazh will surely fix NPC love, you just wait and see! :D

Ah right. I actually liked the combat side of things but when I found out that  I couldn't get moves like Fire in the same way as previous iterations, I was upset.I'll carry on playing till completion. Who knows, my views might've changed by then.

I hope so because the only character/thing that I've liked in the game was a white chocobo.

I'm  waiting for that 19.99 price drop ;) I have to many games as is right now. 

Probably best to do that I got it for £30 (steelbook + Cloud DLC) and I feel like I should've waited for a drop.

I also loved FFXIII and XIII-2 but I know what you mean.

I'm only into the second day but I think I'm stuck (at least for the day). Went through one of the time gates on day one and stayed in that section (slums) there until 6am, now I'm still there on day 2 and the gates are closed til 8pm.
There's nothing I can do as far as I know except wait.

I thought 13-2 was great. It felt like a mess at the beginning but then everything fell in place. I think the ending had a bigger impact on me though.