I'd read all the reviews that say FF13 really is slow to develop.   
 
But I can't really say that I was prepared for how slow it was to develop.  I looked at the game clock when i started to get experience points....Experience points, not some complex concept--3:01 into play.  Mostly due to me reading every single codex entry since the world of Cocoon-Pulse is pretty alien and new.    More than 2 hours of literally pushing straight and mashing circle.  
 
3 hours is half of a shooter, so that's a bit weird. One wonders why they  take so long to introduce the games core mechanics to the player?  I don't understand how they could weigh the risk of confusing the player with mechanics and put that on a scale with the risk of boring the player taking hours to find itself. 
 
That said I knew what I was in for.  I really like the story so far, the characters all seem pretty interesting and have okay motivations.   And oh yeah it's incredibly gorgeous and looks so different from Western games.  And I mean that in a good way.  
 
I trust the battle system will come along, but  I wonder if I'll have the patience to wait on it. 

So I was very nervous about this through all of Mass Effect 2. 
  
 I couldn't get jack back loyal  despite having a completely full paragon bar, and almost no renegade--but I had sided with Miranda in my confrontation.   I was very apprehensive that not having her loyal meant someone would die.   
 
Fortunately  I made it through ME2 with everyone unharmed.  Even saved Kelly and the crew thank goodness.   
 
Enter Heavy Rain.  I've twice failed a challenge so far.  And I just can't deal with it.  It may as well just be a game over screen.   
 
I have a compulsive need to get the perfect ending in a game.  Fortunately these games don't have the kind of obscene requirements something like FFX2 has where you get the best ending if you play through the game 2-3 times doing every little fucking thing in the game.   It's just do everything and don't fail.   Talk  to everyone, get every upgrade, restart if dude dies.   
 
I read Peter Molyneux said that when their was a visual penalty for dying in games players couldn't accept it.  He at one point gave you a scar every time you lost a fight in Fable 2 and in play tests players couldn't deal with it.   I understand now, there's just a compulsion to not get a bad outcome that makes it may as well be a game over screen.    

I really like Heavy Rain. 
 
Strangely though, I can't seem to play it for very long.  About an hourish, or two-three character chapters, and then I'm kind of done.   I've never sat through a normal length play session.   Each chapter works sort of like a segment on a TV show, so a few of them work like an episode of a crime drama.     
 
Not only that they tend to have a story arc.  The character breaks sometimes seem like they meld together.  For instance one guy is pointed to being the origami killer, it cuts to him and what he's doing .  It's kind of like having the DVD of a season of Law and Order. 

But on the bad side each of them has a pretty notable load time even after the game having a pretty long install.   Sometimes the gameplay is kind of drab, which also breaks up session times.   Most other games with great stories I love I can really stick with for a long time but this is different here too.   
 
I'm loving the game, but it's a different kind of experience including how long i can stick with it.