I've been playing a bit of Final Fantasy XIII, and agree with most of the free world that it starts out too linear, and the early plot isn't all that great.  You walk down a hallway, fight two battles, watch a cutscene or two and then switch to some other characters.  All the while reminiscing about the much more interesting things that happened the last two weeks before the game started.  Not my idea of a good time.  But even though you don't get to the real meat of the game until Chapter 9, I feel the story starts to pick up a whole lot once you get to stop following around Lightning and Hope.  (Even when you eventually get back to them, at least the story has managed to find them).  If you really want to promote the game, here's what you do, start packaging in the box, a BluRay containing a 30 to 60 minute summary of the beginning of the game, and a save file that starts your characters off at Chapter 6 or 7.  Chapter 6 had one of my favorite revelations so far, but it would work as a part of the summary video, while chapter 7 is pretty much the action you were waiting for all along, where instead of walking towards the plot and obsessing over flashbacks, you finally get to a point where relevant things are happening around you.  And really, from that point on, it's a great game.  At least as far as I am.  I'm at about the 25ish hour mark, at around the beginning of Chapter 10, and while it seems the plot has been pulled away from me again, at least the combat's still interesting.