Initial reviews seem mixed from what I've read. A friend imported this and I had a chance to play a bit during his quest, along with watching him. This probably is the best looking console game I've ever seen, though granted I haven't played many PS3 / Xbox360 games. Sound / music seem great, and evidently the story is something impressive as well. Obviously I can't understand that part not being able to read Japanese, but it's probably compelling enough to keep us interested. It seems the game is split up into sections for each main character.
But looking further, the game can be linear. No world map until the end when there is an area that is like 10x Calm Lands, and even that is limited. Not many side quests but to be fair those who have played it claim that despite being straight-forward, there is plenty to keep you busy. Died a few times and in general this game is going to be difficult, requiring you to grind quite a bit to get on the level of even regular enemies (many of which sound harder than some bosses, though boss battles look intense as well). The action is fast paced, a good reason for why it's difficult as when an enemy gets on you it's hard to recover in time (in addition to simply dwarfing you in terms of damage taken / dealt).
In summary, it's going to get a lot of people upset because it's more of a hybrid action / turn based rpg, and just takes out so many staples of RPG's (side quests, talking in villagers, having towns, upgrading weapons (there are upgrades but it's basically powering up the same weapons over and over). In turn this should open it up to a more mainstream crowd but may also turn them off with the difficulty. Certainly a different style for a Final Fantasy and it'll be interesting to see how it's received here. I'm still interested enough to get it though it's nothing like I thought it would be. As I'm fond of saying, "we'll see"...
*in a side note, read today that Strange Journey is going to be delayed a few weeks. Probably a good thing, not worth releasing right when FFXIII comes out. Smart idea.
