Well, I had the luxury of playing for two hours last night.  My 3 year old being off and grandparents, my wife considering FFXIII to be slightly less violent than Left 4 Dead, coupled with the fact that apart from boss battles and cut-scenes - I can idly chat while playing.... Meant I got a good two hours.
 
I'm now at the Spires of Despair or whatever it's called, finished Lake Bresha - have things improved?  In a word - YES!  I am starting to warm to the game.  The introduction of the Paradigm shifts and 'techniques' has livened up combat a little - even though in reality it seems you can win most fights in the defensive paradigm and the relentless attack is just there to speed things up if you get bored.  I at least feel like I'm able to influence the outcome more than just hit attack - use a potion, rinse and repeat.  I even did the first summoning battle with the Shiva Sisters - which was sort of itneresting and a different approach again so...
 
The disconcerting fact is I still have absolutely no bloody idea what the blazes is going on.  The plot makes less sense that volunteering to have my testicles nailed to table and it's probably more painful to try and understand at this stage than having your testicles nailed to a table.... Although I can't say I have a personal experience as a comparitor... I'm getting that the writers are going for a sort of 'who dunnit' approach, where part of the objective of playing the game is figuring out WTF is going on.  At the moment I'm still deeply in the WTF stage, but I'm at least interested in knowing how all this wierd crap fits together enough to play on now.
 
Despite my criticisms though, I recognise FFXIII as a technical marvel and a very clever game.  I'm beginning to think the combat system might end up being ridiculously compliocated by the end and that's the reason everything is so slowly spoon-fed to the player, just to make sure they get it.  I've been gaming for 30 years so it seems to slow to me, but I guess a player who picked up FFXIII for their first game might appreciate the slow learning.  The visuals are awe inspiring at times too, and although I actually loathe all the characters, finding each one irritating, unrealistic, over-stereotypical or all three - visually they are very cleverly designed.  Particularly in that i don't get the feeling of being taken into the uncanny valley, yet the avatars are very realistic, and have some human qualities to them.  The high definition and realistic proportions (For an FF game at least.) combined with subtle movements - like characters blinking, their hair flapping in the breeze... They can be a joy to behold at times, even if you have no idea what's going on in their heads as the story is so baffling and you hate them because they are so irritating. 
 
What I don't get is why they don't take you into the uncanny valley.  Characters as realistic as these, I would think WOULD!  I can only imagine that a long time was spent trying to make them as real as possible, then as much time toning them down to get the balance perfect so that they steer clear of the uncanny valley.  The other possibility is that the world is so alien and baffling that this keeps your mind off it.  I do wonder if technology is part of the solution - if FFXIII had been released ten years ago - would it have caused the uncanny valley effect?  If you watch classic examples like the panned Polar Express film by Disney, then I don't know... I still find that a little uncomfortable, whereas I  had no such feeling from FFXIII.  
 
Now anyone who hasn't an interest in media psychology might be thinking 'WTF is this guy on about?  What is the uncanny valley?' Well, you can wiki it for a simple explanation.  The basics are that as artificial life be it robotic, or computer sprites - anything like that becomes more human-like we tend to feel happier with it.  We like things that mimic human behaviour and seem human.  The interesting thing is this - that it only works up to a point, then the level of realism dips a character or robot into what is known as 'The Uncanny Valley' where how comfortable people feel with characters plummets.  Even a carefully filmed video of a human that is altered so they move slightly robotically - causes this effect.  I can only describe it as how you might feel watching something hideously deformed close-up.
 
Is it a barrier to developing character graphics to their full potential?  It's cited as causing the flop of Disney's Polar Express.... I used to think so!  But playing FFXIII I don't know... It'll be interesting to see where Video Game industry created characters are in ten years time, and whether the uncanny valley has been bridged.