I got and completed this last week, here's my thoughts for anyone still on the fence;
+Good overall style, I was never sold completely on how FFXIII looked (even down to the menus) but it seems to have grown on me with XIII-2
-Performance wise and general visuals are a rather big step down from the original (I'm speaking purely about the PS3 versions) One thing I did miss is the gorgeous CG cutscenes, there just isn't enough of them!
+Good overall length, I got about 50 hours out of it - 145 fragments or so (I don't really care for trophies) Didn't feel like it overstayed it's welcome like some RPGs can
+The freedom to explore and some none-linearity in plot progression is very welcome!
-Not enough unique locations, if you do all of the sidequests you're visiting some places upto 4 different occasions in the timeline, needed a bit more variety
-The gimmicks, the minigames, the clock puzzles, the brain blaster, the slots - they were all shit
+Music and voice acting overall is fantastic. My favourite track plays near the games beginning (New Bodhum) The soundtrack is both unusual and refreshing, it was also nice to hear some FFXIII themes pop up (like the battle theme) Mog's voice is the weakest of the cast, by far
+The characters are actually likeable this time! Even the villain
+Battle system is as solid as XIII was, the Monster recruitment allows you to be either hands off, or involved - which is good for hardcore players or people just coasting through the story
-Given the non-linear nature of the story, it's a bit hard to make sense of events as they happen, the writing is ambiguous (Toriyama lol)
+The ending is AMAZING! Provided it's not a cynical ploy to ensure we all buy overpriced DLC to find out what happens next, and we actually get an FFXIII-3, then it's one of my favourite endings in FF - completely ballsy and unexpected, I loved it
I was one of the people who could never make it through XIII, I have both the Japanese and English version, even imported FFVII ACC to play the demo of it! But I couldn't force myself through it, the pacing was brutally slow and linear and I couldn't warm to any of the characters. XIII-2 is the opposite to that, so I now have more confidence in SE and the FNC mythology itself.
I'd probably give it an 8/10
I look forward to a sequel!