It must be a paradox, Kupo!
Maybe it's just me but the plot had its up and downs. It just felt like when they would try to tie events from the first game with this one, it was a tad random at times. I liked a lot of the side quests though. And the characters I felt were more interesting this time around.
Graphic wise, what do you expect? It's SquareEnix. There weren't as many CG scenes as there were in the first one. But the in-game graphics were still beautiful. The majority of the areas had beautiful scenery and were very detailed. Especially with all the civilians running about.
I really enjoyed the soundtrack this time around, although they did recycle quite a bit from the previous game.
One thing that was nice was the random battles. It's always interesting to see the monsters you can battle out in the field. But it was a very irritating feature before, specially with the awful Crystarium System. In FFXIII-2 you can just run around like a moron and grind all you want without having to wait for the monsters to spawn.
Also a new feature in the game is the ability to tame most of the monsters you encounter in battles. At first, I didn't care too much for this. But as you progress through the game you'll find yourself recruiting more and more monsters. Some being very powerful. And you can even dress them up! Along with a small selection of outfits for Noel and Serah. Although you have to pay a little extra for the outfits for those two.
You can actually explore this time! You're not just following a boring linear path throughout the majority of the game.
Replay value? Hmm... There isn't that much more to do once you beat the game. I definitely wouldn't play through it again. But I did go back just to finish some more sidequests.
Overall, although the game did have a bit of a slow start, I did enjoy it. The story wasn't the best, but the game itself was fun!
I give it a 7.5.