13 minute introductory cutscene, not sure where it clocks in for FFIX or FFX, but it is pretty long, but at least it's not too boring.
Battle system takes a lot of getting used to. Mobs don't 'shatter' your screen or anything, they just spawn outside your radar radius and come running at you during a scene. Targetting is a little weird but not impossible. The only thing I can't get used to yet is the delay on every single action in the game. Nothing is instantaneous, everything has a little 'casting time' bar next to your character's name, even actions like using an item or stealing from mobs. Still, things flow intuitively and battles begin and end more quickly than before since there's no loading of scenery before/after most random encounters. That's a win in my book.
Graphics are really pretty, but that could just be a side-effect of me watching FFXI's graphics for so long, they're definitely not the top end-benchmark IMO. They tried to make the human characters a little too 'real' and it ends up forcing you to notice the ways in which they're just not quite real enough. Skin textures are kind of a problem for that reason, all the weird tan effects and random blemishes on people's faces makes them look kinda gross.
So far so good, same ol' Final Fantasy game presentation you've expected for so long.
About 30 minutes in so far, so we'll see what happens once I get party members. My opinion of the battle system will most certainly change once I have 3-4 people to give commands to.