Would it be alright to play this game without having played XIII?

I've been watching my brother play XIII, and he's at chapter 11 so far. I read up on the datalog thingy all of the events that have taken place so far in his game. Being so close to the end, it would feel bad to skip straight to the sequel, but I'm really interested in playing it. The demo I played was really cool.

So, should I wait until my brother and I get to the end of XIII, or should I just go straight to XIII-2?

Also, I jumped right into the game's story at Chapter 11. I could just play through the game myself if reading up on it through the datalog isn't really sufficient. From what I've played of it, I actually really, really enjoy the battle system, so I doubt it'd feel like a chore to me like it does to a lot of people. So, third option is, should I just play the game myself?

you could watch the story/cutscenes on youtube somewhere im sure

I'm fairly certain FFXIII-2 has a feature where you can go through the entire story so far. It's still not as good as actually playing the game, but it gives you a decent run-through of the main story.

yes XIII-2 does have a comprehensive recap at the beginning, even has its own menu to get to it, but i would suggest playing XIII first if not just to get some of the trophies for it and experiencing the game from the beginning with all the awesome cutscenes you missed by jumping in at Ch.11, i wont spoil anything... and dont watch the cutscenes on YouTube that crap doesnt compare to the actual thing in all its 1080p glory and by watching the cutscenes for a game that way you are only cheating yourself out of the complete experience...

Were I to decide, I would play FFXIII first. Unlike other Final Fantasies, your actually level capped of sorts, so you can play through pretty comfortably. Definitely from Chapters 1-10, you can just play through quite fast.

I played very little of XIII and didn't particularly like it, bought XIII-2 fairly recently and found it a lot better, I'm struggling with the storyline though...

Yes. It's continual enough that it makes sense to people who played XIII but not abstract enough that it won't make sense to someone who hasn't played XIII. The really abstract stuff smurfs both in equal measure though.

Just watch the ending of XIII on YouTube to save yourself the hassle of the tedium that was that game!

If you must not play XIII, then at least watch the ending and get to grips with it, because for all intents and purposes, XIII-2 continues off where XIII ended. At least in a flashback anyway, but still, watch the ending.

Watch the FF13 ending first, although it doesn't really matter because 13-2's story is completely ridiculous so you might as well just pretend it's not in the game.