Final Fantasy XIII

I just got Final Fantasy XIII (360) in the mail from GameFly last night and started playing.  The first thing that struck me was the fact that it was a 3 disc set.  3 discs for a 360 game, it got me wondering what kind of adventure I would be getting myself into.  The game began with a great action sequence and the depiction of a world in danger.  Lightning reminds me a lot of Cloud from FFVII.  She's a former soldier (as opposed to SOLDIER) she has a cool sword (though hers is more like Squall's from FFVIII since it's apparently a gunblade) and her first scene is on a train.  Sazh, however, is not at all like the big bad black Barret from FFVII, that role probably goes more to Snow, who also seems like a mixture of Tidus from FFX for whatever reason.  Sazh does add comic relief as Barret often did, maybe there is some racist element that Square is hiding from us, some kind of blaxploitation perhaps? Just kidding! Square don't strike me down for that one.  Hope and Vanille are pretty cute kids too, Vanille having a happy exterior to hide her fear, and Hope having difficulty telling Snow that his mother was the woman who died.

All the main characters I've met so far are quite relatable and familiar.  This isn't a game that will spawn an army of Cloud cosplayers and hardly any other fans, but I can see people being interested in all the main characters.

This is just my impression from the first couple hours of playing, but I think this game will be great.
I'm going to keep updated on this game and try and keep the spoilers to a minimum, but I won't make any promises.

Love you guys!