I'm actually expecting a Xenogears level storyline from this game. I have a feeling it will deliver on that. The premise of FF13's storyline is pretty damn amazing.

You should lower your expectations because Xenogears's story is considered to be in a league of its own.  I am not saying you shouldn't expect a great story because it is looking to be great but don't expect something along the apparent quality of Xenogears.

@loves2splooge

FFXIII looks to have soul and charm in several ways.  The melodrama is practically part of its soul and charm.  Melodrama has been an FF staple since FFIV.  It probably took people some time to notice it do to the lack of voice acting at the time.

This is a great feature.  FFXIII will be the first well reviewed JRPG to use this mechanic.  We won't be wasting MP and it will balance out the difficulty since FFXIII is suppose to be harder than previous games in the series.  I cannot tell you how useful this mechanic would have been in FFXII.  It is similar to another mechanic in Dragon Age Origins where your characters will gain back HP if you stand around without doing anything.

60 hours sounds good for main story,side quests should take another 10-20 hours. Whats bugging me is there is no collectors edition of the game!!!??

I think it's a great features as well! It let's you grind easily and kind compensate the fact you just can't scape from battles.

its quite long.....
i finished FFXII around 50 hrs WITHOUT grinding and doing all the sidequest
ala 100% completion.
So its quite long xD

As long as the side quests are not essentially a chore like they were in FFXII and the weapons you get actually make it worth while.

First play through of FF12 was about 80 hours as I didn't know what I was doing (leveling up all characters instead of just 3 was a big mistake) and did a few side quests to get stuff but it's replay value that really counts in FF games and FFXII didn't have much of that compared to other FFs, even FFX-2

http://www.kotowari.org/final-fantasy-xiii-weapons-system-missions-and-more/

Sounds an awwwwful lot like FFXII hunts to me. Really hope it's not as tedious...

Well, what about if they add other story-lines by DLC in the future? Like stories in the future and in the past, secondary stories that happens paralleally with the main story and things like that.

50-60 hours is what they always say.