In reading the reviews there is a lot of criticism about the game structure.

You mentioned not being able to gain experience of do much with your characters. This will last for the first 20+ hours of the game. It isn't until much later that the game unlocks everything and actually lets you play it fully with full battle control and character experience, levelling and customisation.

However the reviews I've read said it is well worth getting through the first part as once you get to the fully unlocked system the combat is the best seen in any FF game to date and is something very special.
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Omg, that long
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Yes, it takes a while before everything is unlocked, but you do get to start earning experience much earlier than the 20 hour mark

I found the game a tad easy in the beginning, but later on you'll be getting into some tough fights (even against regular enemies) that require quite a bit of planning and strategy.

So far, I really like this latest installment, the only thing I found a bit disappointing is the linear nature of the game.
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After 3-4 hours of playing, I got now the Paradigms, and I'm also already getting crystarium points to use to level up, so it already works now.

It's really a bit linear, but it's not that it would bother me that much, as I also like following the story with not too many or too long interruptions.
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I agree about linear RPGs. Unlike other genres, RPGs still work well when quite linear, as they are all about the story telling and chapters of an epic adventure unfolding as you explore. I've never been disappointed in an RPG just because is is linear as it can often work to its advantage. There is nothing worse than being in a completely non-linear game world and having no clue what to do next.
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2-3 hours later now into the game and I already have 2 eidolons (similar to all FF's Esper, GF or Summons), and I also have the possibility to upgrade my weapons with experience points.
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Maybe in the reviews they were spending more time at the beginning of the game exploring and doing everything possible, so it took them longer to reach this point.

How many hours have you played before these things started to be unlocked?
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About 10 hours. I'm now in chapter 5. You cannot play the game faster, as it's totally linear and there's no point yet in grinding. You could of course skip the cutscenes.

Btw, this review is really mentioning the cons of the game very well.
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Sooo, how far in are you, DC?

I completed the game a while ago, and I'm having some mixed feelings on it.

Pros:
- Great visuals
- Decent voice acting
- Fantastic cutscenes
- Good musical score
- Superb battle system

Cons:
- Extremely linear - most of the game feels like one big corridor
- No towns! At least, none in the traditional sense
- Most of the classic FF staples are missing
- Relatively short for a FF game
- Post-game content is majorly lacking

Can't help but feel that Square cut out a lot of content just to accomodate the storage capacity of the DVD on the Xbox360.

Here's to hoping there will be some DLC that fleshes out the storyline a bit more, and that Final Fantasy XIII Versus will return to the roots of the series.
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I played now for 24 hours, and I'm in chapter 9. Also did some grinding lately, as I think it gets a bit more difficult. Yesterday I got my 3rd eidolon.

The linearity is really starting to get monotonous, it was already after some hours, but now that there's still no change, pretty dull. But as I mentioned before, I'm not so much offended by linear games.

Aren't there good sidequests later? I thought the world and map wouldn't open up a bit after chapter 10, can you confirm that?

I also didn't upgrade any weapon or similar, neither did I buy/sell something in any shop. I'm playing with the official guide, and they state that in the beginning you don't really have to do that, as it wouldn't really matter. I should do that only later in the game. Is that true?

Btw, I have 5.900 Gil so far, and that after almost 25 hours, that's really strange, in other FF titles, you were always amassing Gil to the infinity. But when I will sell some stuff, I will get some anyway.
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