I admit I am not far in, but so far, my impressions are bad.

The characters are the one good thing the game has going for it. The dialogue is well written, and the characters are interesting and likeable.

The plot, thus far, is predictable, slow moving, and generally unimpressive. It will probably pick up, but it is not an effective draw in at the beginning, and, given the way the combat and level layout has gone, it really needs to be.

Combat is way too simple. Starting easy is fine, but they need to introduce more abilities much faster, or it stagnates into a pathetic button masher that gets dull after the first few fights. I mean, plenty of FF games started simple, but they unlocked new combat options and customizibility far faster than XIII has.

I didn't think the linearity would bug me, but it really has. The game is so straight line that I find myself wondering why the game bothered to let me control my character's movements out of combat. A simple battle montage would give the exact same result and would be over faster, and it is not as though you have any exploration options at all, or interesting NPCs to make the journey meaningful.

I'm expecting a lot of this to pull together, but it serves as a very poor intro. The combat starts out as boring and lackluster, and will remain so until they give us some degree of control over how the battles flow. The plot is also slow moving, and disjointed enough that it is not serving as a good way to lure you in. And the straight line design offers nothing to engage your interest.

Personally, I wish they had continued character dialogue and Vanille's narrations during combat. Give us something to occupy us and keep us interested until they can pick up the combat system. Because, right now, I am not enjoying it, and not really feeling like I am playing it. I'd be happier to skip the interactive parts and just watch it as a movie.

Overall, it's the worst, and the longest, intro sequence to any Final Fantasy game thus far.