.... that is the question.  I stopped playing FF after about 14/15 hours into the game, i believe where our heroes are just about to all meet up for the first time. For the life of me i pushed myself to play the game as so far i feel the story telling is a bit of a pain in the ass... i shouldn't really have to traul through pages of text to find out what the hell is a far'cie or who this random airship captain is... tbh, i should just get a glorious cutscene or some ingame dialogue. Maybe thats me being lazy??....   anywho. I DO want to get back into it.. i've even saved up a lil'  bit of monies to treat myself 
to a nice new Hd tv because im stuck in the dark ages in terms of TV's still :(((
 
My real question is though, is it worth it ?  Ultimately i'll have the TV for other gaming delights ... but was there anyone out there that was satisfied with the story at the end if it all ?????

I just completed FF13 yesterday and while the end of it was satisfying enough I spent the last few hours of the game just pushing as hard and quickly as I could to get it finished once and for all.

I'd love to know someone's opinion on this as well since I'm in a similar situation. I've heard about FFXIII taking ages to get good, but I want to know juts how good it gets after those 30-40 hours? I'm willing to slug it out if the end justifies the mean.

Thanks Cwaff, i guess i'll grit my teeth and play thru the boring-as-balls 15 hour tutorial .... its a gorgeous game though :P and the combat defo has some potential.

The combat gets really fun when if finally opens up completely. I would suggest keep slogging through. I'm about finished at like 51 hrs and I'm excited to see the conclusion of the game!

I'm 17 hours in (everyone is still on their separate paths) and the combat is quite enjoyable. I still enjoy switching paradigms, so I wonder what it'll be like when it "opens up." I guess I benefit from all the negativity I'd heard about this game because I had low expectations - I'm really enjoying the whole experience. I haven't played a FF game since X almost a decade ago and I forgot how fun this could be.  
 
The combat is really fresh to me because they've really taken the drudgery out of it. My party fully heals after battle so I'm not constantly buying potions and tents, and if my party dies, guess what? No big deal, just try again with no penalty. That means I'm free to focus on the strategy in battle and not the actual clicking of everyone's ability. Sure, sometimes I want the ability to tell my other members what to do, but more often than not they do what they're supposed to do. 
 
So back to the original topic, I can't talk about the ending, and obviously our experiences thus far have differed, but I say get back into it. And speaking of getting back in to it, I like that they give you a summary of what the characters were up to leading to your save point. I've gone back to RPGs after a while off and I had NO idea what was going on. This gives you a great refresher to help get your bearings.

I've noticed this earlier... 
Why do people have to complain because they don't understand what Fal'Cie, l'Cie, Cocoon or Pulse are? We know this since 2008 and it has been repeated so many times that you should know it right away. It are only 4 words,  there are games that are more difficult to understand than this one >_<. 
 I say, continue playing. It's a great RPG, with a lot of value and depth. The story'll get interesting and you still have to experience a lot of great things. I personally loved the game, never thought that Square Enix would be able to create such a great lore after what they've done in FFX 7 years ago. Keep playing!