Some important RPG elements are missing in this game.
First, like all FF games, graphics are fantastic. Every town(!) is designed beautiful with rich colors and lively atmosphere. But i think the character designs here are ridiculous. I liked the ones in 7th game. Not too serious- not too absurd but here, most characters look funny, sorry.
The story is, well... so so. The cutscenes are SO long and mostly boring! Most of the dialogues are stupid and %90 of it is based on personal struggles of characters. Voice acting is good but could be better. Characters are not well developed. There is this Vanille character. I'm telling you, she is a 5 year old girl trapped in a woman's body. I know this type of character is frequently seen on Japanese anime culture and it might sound cute in japanese BUT in English it's reeeaally annoying! Other characters are trying TOO HARD to be cool.
Anyways. I have mixed feelings about battle system. It looks flashy and dynamic but it's also boring and linear. The paradigms add a little strategy to the battle but once you discover the pattern to victory, you begin repeating same process over and over. You can only control one character during the battle and others are controlled by the system. Exploring the world is -of course- linear. You basically run in a corridor as there are no places to explore.
The variety of enemies is very little. You'll encounter same monsters with different colors all the time.
One of the biggest problems is earning gil. You can never get enough gil by winning the fights or selling loots. Best way to earn gil is to sell unused weapons.
Weapon upgrading is boring. You basicly combine spoils -items you win after a battle- and weapons. You never get satisfied with the result. There isn't much variety in the weapon shop either.
Leveling system is same as 10th game but a graphically upgraded version. It doesn't let you use you free will. And don't expect to reach high levels like 99 or 70.
Last is music. There isn't a memorable track, most battles have the same music which is not good.
Overall a good game, looks like Square wanted to make a diffrence. But all these changes made the game quite ordinary. New comers will like it, but fans will be disappointed.