After 4 chapters of this game, I am loving it.  I find the battle system intense, especially the fact that you are timed.  The story is excellent, albeit a bit "Japanese" (It was hard to understand Hope's emotional deal without the text in the datalog).  I am also a fan of how linear the game is and limted character development options at this point.  It really allows me to focus on the story and playing the game, not reading faqs/guides on what to do.  In general, I tend to prefer the linear JRPG style to the western open-RPG style.  I tend to double think everything I am doing in games like Fallout 3, Morrowind, etc.  And I am such a Min/Max-er I spend more time reading guides/faqs than actually playing.  With FXIII so far, it seems to push all the min/max/open world stuff to much later chapters.  Which turns out is excellent for my enjoyment of the game.

Nice to hear someone speaking highly of the game, I'm a bit fatigued by all the negativity I see anywhere else. Best part is, it only gets better (except for Snow)! :)

Late chapter 11 here and loving it.

good to see someone else like the game, I'm still late in chapter nine cause i got distracted by Agarest wars and Alan Wake. XD

I'm stuck in the last chapter of the game without much desire to beat it. I heard the final boss requires a lot of grinding, so that kinda killed off my motivation for completing the game. I definitely enjoyed the first 10 chapters, but once I got to Chapter 11 things starting going downhill. Chapter 12 was a little better since I was finally done with the annoying hunt missions, but by the time I got there my interest in the game was pretty much gone. 

30 hours in and I just couldn't do it anymore. I grew so tired of running through hallways, I just gave up and played Just Cause 2.

Just started and its not that bad as they say. 
I've just started using the paradigm shift system, and I like that the battles tend to be pretty quick. 
@Catolf said:

" good to see someone else like the game, I'm still late in chapter nine cause i got distracted by Agarest wars and Alan Wake. XD "

I just started chapter 11 and the missions.  I am really loving the game.  The linearity actually worked for me and I love the paradigm system and the crystarium.  I'm a little sidetracked right now I guess, but the story seems to be really interesting. 

I'm playing this game in huge chunks, from boss to boss. Usually finish one, after butting heads with it for a looong while, then plow through a chapter (guess this won't be possible at ch.11), before getting stuck on the next boss. Then I quit in frustration, and the next time I pick it up, I make short work of that particular boss. This stuff's been discussed on the podcast, and it's a weird phenomenon. And a nice one. Later!

i enjoyed the game quite a bit. Though to be honest Story and Gameplay are quite distinct. In fact when the game starts the Story is really high and the Gameplay isn't so great. Then as the game goes along the Gameplay slowly gets better. At about chapter 10 the Story and Gameplay are equal at a really great point. Then right at the end of chapter 10 I found the Story took a bit of a nosedive and kept going down further until the end. It gets really cheesy near the end of the game, but i still had a ton of fun