Aye I'd say XIII-2 is a service to fans, not a desperate attempt to make new ones as the media and message boards like to portray it. Pulse would naturally be a world to explore in a more non-linear fashion, as opposed to being tied to a ghastly fate and ducking your head through cities and detours while guards patrolled around you. I just hope the game is capable of some really beautiful scenery, because that drew me into XIII's world in a big way. It looks acceptable, and good by any standard, for sure -- but I never got the urge to pan the camera in the demo.
The demo wasn't too beginner friendly with the battle system, maybe the full game will be, who knows? What's really cool about this battle system that I've noticed now, is you really need to have a feel for it to use it effectively. It's reflexive and dynamic, and not really about jumping in and choosing the blizzara spell to kill a fire foe. I've put ~100 hours into XIII and this took me a good sum of time before my mind started to remember the nuances of the battles and how to be good at the game.
I was really pleased with Sarah and Noel in the demo. I'm not sure about you guys, but I thought they were going to be hell to listen to when I saw the trailers, but really they seem pretty down to earth here. Although my biggest gripe -- and it's personal, not really a flaw of the game's concept -- but I'm really going to miss meeting and incorporating a variety of colorful personalities into my party. Meeting the crazy characters of any FF game is a big part of the experience, and I'm not sure how far Sarah, Noel, a few short cameos and their collection of pokemon will hold through for me.
And I really thought XIII ended perfectly kind of like how X did -- oh well.
The problem I'm having is that I might want the CE for the soundtrack, since such soundtracks are tough enough to find over here.
I liked what I heard in the demo a lot, and think the soundtrack is definitely worth the CE purchase even if it ends up only half as good as the first game's OST. Square also sells the soundtracks to each of their games on their store for $30 a pop. I'm not sure of your situation, but there's always that -- or iTunes. Best recommendation is to play the original game which is on the cheap, and pick up XIII-2 at a lower price as well when you're finished. I think you'll be lost on more than the battle system if you just jump in out of the blue here. Though it looks like it will stand on its own as a monster collecting RPG quite well, regardless. Or maybe it won't -- I'll have that review up shortly after release