I just finished playing Final Fantasy XIII. I say “finished playing” because I “finished” it two weeks before. I haven’t enjoyed the extra content in a Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy VII. I think it helped a lot that I essentially skipped Final Fantasy XII. I played about 4 hours, felt overwhelmed, and quit.
I have a single tip for anyone who is getting tired of JRPGs, but would still like to get through Final Fantasy XIII:
Read the Datalog
I think there is a lot of storyline lost in translation. Reading through the story recaps every once in a while will get you back on track. Also note that the character biographies change as the story progresses. It’ll put an exclamation mark next to the new stuff, though. I essentially made it my goal to make all the exclamation marks go away. It’s felt like storyline upkeep to me, almost.
Anyways, just wanted to mention that. I approve of the game’s responsiveness, too. All the previous Final Fantasies had too many black screens while things loaded. Apparently all I needed was a menu that loaded in a reasonable amount of time…