I'm about 3 hours into the game, and while I can write a laundry list of complaints, the game does seem promising. 
 
The major gripe I have is how the plot is given to you. Literally nothing is actually explained in dialog. Characters throw out terminologies and reference events without giving underlining clues to what the hell they're talking about. After most cutscenes, you're given an update to your "datalog". This is your encyclopedia to what everyone is talking about. What's Cacoon? What's a Focus? What the fucking is going on in general? Reference your datalog, bro.  
 
On the other hand, I've always hated how the Japanese handle story telling. It seems like every time a character talks in Japanese media, the plot is constantly re-explained as if the show/movie/game is afraid you don't pause while you take a bathroom break. On linearity, yea...it's pretty glaring.
 
With positives, the game is gorgeous and the writing is surprisingly not as corny as a lot of JRPGs are. The combat is generally smooth and well directed. I'm still sort of confused on motivations of practically every character and why the game's antagonist dos the things it does. I wont make any specific references sense the game came out today.

Yeah I agree with you on that. They just start throwing out l'Cie, focus, and all this other stuff like the player should already know what's going on. The story gets a lot better and less confusing as the game rolls on. Definitely read the datalog at the beginning though, that clarified a lot for me.

I just bought it today and popped it in about 30 minutes ago. A tad confusing alright, but i will keep going on. Seems like it's going to be a promising game.

" I just bought it today and popped it in about 30 minutes ago. A tad confusing alright, but i will keep going on. Seems like it's going to be a promising game. "

Yeah, they do sort of rely on the datalog for a bit too much. Nevertheless, doesn't take long to get up to date with the terminology. 
 
I personally really like the datalog. I spent ages in there reading all the different entires. SE really love their own mythos'.

Not having played the game, that actually sounds like an interesting storytelling decision. I hate that in every second movie or TV series, some time during the first 20 minutes one character assumes the role of Wikipedia man and spoonfeeds the audience everything that might be remotely alien / unclear.
 
There is a way to do that via clever writing, but in most cases it fails. And videogames don't feature clever writing. There are always compromises to keep dialogue to a cutscene-appropriate length, so I really welcome their decision to have the characters talk like they would, without explaining and repeating stuff all the time.
 
But as I said, I haven't played the game. It might be completely terrible. 
 
(Though I found the dreams were the best  and most enoyable part about LO's writing)

Well the game starts "13 days after we awoke" or something like that, and then the game uses flashbacks to fill you in on the plot. I'm not saying that what they're doing isn't confusing, but I think it's an interesting way to tell a story.

Mass effect did this as well. I quickly got a massive amount of Log info stored up and had to read alot of it. (Course most of the ME stuff was just little extra tid bits) 

I honestly don't know why anyone is complaining about "having" to read the datalog...i'm 6 hours into the game and completely understood everything without reading the datalog. They do a good enough job over the course of the long ass intro of what's going on....the other little things you don't know, your not supposed too yet and that's how it's supposed to be. I just now opened the datalog and i knew everything in there except maybe the government system of cocoon but that will obviously be explained later.

I'm actually glad it goes with the "Show, don't tell" philosophy of exposition.  There's no reason for them to explain what l'Cie and fal'Cie are, because everyone in that world knows.  Why would they give exposition on it?  It'd just take you out of the characters.  It'd be weird if there was a voice over explaining l'Cie, or they had to explain it to one of the characters (even though they all know).   I never found the datalog necessary to read, and my Japanese reading was really not at the appropriate level to get a lot from it anyway.  Most of what you need to know can be figured out from context, without having to be told point blank I feel.
 
Yup, it's super linear for the first half of so, but again, I don't really see that as a bad thing.  It's just a quality of the genre.   
 
I don't think the story is super amazing, but it's there, and it isn't bad.  You actually start to feel for the characters pretty quickly (Well, Hope is an annoying brat) and they are much more rich than a certain other recent FF game.

" There is a way to do that via clever writing, but in most cases it fails. "

Reading up on the basics of the world and setting really helps - just knowing what a l'cie is, the difference between cocoon and pulse and some other minor spoiler free details can really increase your enjoyment in those first confusing hours.

Just something that doesn't 'feel' right with the plot... it progresses and develops in a strange way I'm not use to.

...there is a Codex.  Use it.  I got my girlfriend to translate most of it and it was worth it, not so much for her cause she had no idea what any of that stuff means....but good for me. 

" ...there is a Codex.  Use it.  I got my girlfriend to translate most of it and it was worth it, not so much for her cause she had no idea what any of that stuff means....but good for me.  "

Having read all the data logs up to where I'm at (roughly 3 hours) I have a pretty good idea of what's going on. It's kind of sad how the game has been relying on them so heavily to explain what is happening. Aside from a couple cringe worthy lines of dialog the  characters seem alright, and I'm genuinely intrigued about where the story is going. I think that once the battle system completely opens up, and the story picks up this could be a really great game. As of now I'm just walking through stunningly well rendered hallways and spamming auto attack. As with most games out of Japan you have to deal with some really cornball dialog but that's part of the unique charm of JRPGs I guess.