Very different to what us veterans will be used to however the change is mostly a good thing, with a few minor niggles.
FFXIII does so many things right I will start by talking about these;
-The gameplay in the battles themselves have vastly improved producing something that gives the feeling of an action game, rather than the typical roleplaying game. The idea of tactics comes in the form of Paradigms in which roles can be specifically set by the player in which the characters will do different abilites. This takes a bit of getting used to trying to find the right Paradigms for the situations and eventually it becomes second nature. However fights usually resort to watching the health on the characters and using auto attack meaning the game chooses what attack the main character will use while the other two do whatever they want. Great fun producing a movie type feel but abit simplified for those that want a challenge.
- GRAPHICS!!!! To put it quite simply I have never seen something so beautiful in all my life, the 360 is certainly put through it paces but the result is something that you can marvel at. The cutscenes provide areas in which CGI can work its magic giving the feeling that the game is real time acting rather than animated.
-Characters. The variety of characters is brilliant, each character is made into a persona in which you can relate to their experiences and you feel as if you are moving along their story as they change. The voice acting as usual is unbeaten with, for the first time in FF, proper english lip synching!!
Now for the bits which are not too good;
-Linearity. The game lost alot of its sparkle with the removal of towns and a proper world to explore resulting in the first 20 hours revolving around traveling from A to B, then from B to C etc etc, giving a very monotomous feeling which after a while gets irritating. Even when the game does open up it still feels linear in comparison to a proper FF. My main gripe though is NPCs cannot be spoken to properly, and shops are non existent meaning the time you spend in towns is pointless.
-Difficulty. Now this is probably something people may disagree with but this in my opinion can be one of the most difficult games ever. The difficulty ramps itself up and down randomly with little regard to storyline, for example; normal enemies can be harder than bosses which can be found later in the game. This can lead to points of grinding and quite simply frustration.
Overall FFXIII is a technical marvel with many things that will appeal to the majority of gamers, however for people like me the changes are a little bit too drastic leaving alot to be desired for a future sequel. Anyone interested in RPGs is recommended to get this game as no matter what it is a brilliant game but be prepared to be a little bit disappointed if you are returning to the series. ( Its better than XII to say the least :P )