As innovative as a Final Fantasy game can be
The first thing you'll probably will hear from everyone who has already played this game is: it is too linear. I'll have to agree with that because, unfortunately enough, the game does not allow you to go any other way than what was previously designed. And this is also valid for character grinding. No, you didn't read it wrong: the level-up system limits the amount of abilities that your characters can have per chapter. But do give it a second thought before giving up the game. The Crystarium system is simillar to the level-up system from Final Fantasy X, but with less possibilities. It allows you to improve the character's best features according to your choices. After a battle you gain a certain amount of points called "Crystarium Points" (or CP - and yes, this means you no longer have EXP). For each attribute in the Crystarium, you have to spend a certain amount of CP. The stronger you get, the more CPs are required. At first each character can have three jobs. As you advance through the game, you are able to master more jobs.
The story is the same thing as the usual: the main character is the gorgeous-but-cold-blooded Lightning, a girl soldier in search for her younger sister Serah. Along with her new-made friends, she needs to find her little sister and ends up in a need to save the world. I must say I'm slightly disappointed with the story itself because it doesn't seem to add anything that we've already seen in other RPGs. In fact, the story of this one game is pretty similar to FF3. The cutscenes, of course, will definitely not disappoint you. But considering the hardware power of the current consoles generation, I wouldn't expect anything less from it.
The gameplay and battle system are excellent. The control responses are very nice, although I must say that I got frustrated with the camera positioning and the jumping system a couple of times. Before you can say "WTH", no, you don't have to press any buttons to jump. There are brilliant circles throughout your way, indicating that you must go that way to reach another level of the dungeon. Just lead your character to that direction that s/he will jump that way. The problem is that a couple of jumping points are too close, forcing you to STOP RUNNING AND TURN THE CAMERA BEFORE YOU CONTINUE. But nothing that made me want to give the game up.
Speaking of the dungeons, can they even be called dungeons? I mean, it's nearly impossible to get lost in any of them, since you'll very frequently have only one path to follow. Treasure orbs are pretty rare and getting money is nearly impossible before you finish the game. No, enemies do not drop money. The only way to obtain it is either through treasure orbs you find along your way or selling items you get from your enemies.
About the battle system, most people usually say that it is an improved version of FFXII and once more I'll have to agree with that. But if you didn't like FFXII's battle system, don't lose your heart yet. At first I was also skeptical with it, but this battle system worked like a dream in this game.
Unlike all the previous games, in this one you'll control ONLY THE LEADER'S ACTIONS. Believe me, you'll thank the game designers for that, because that means you'll have to plan your actions very well.
Each character has a set of jobs. Commando favors attacks, Ravager favors magic attacks, Sentinel favors defense, Medic favors healing, Synergist gives you defensive/offensive status, Saboteur causes bad status to enemies. You can arrange this job to each of the characters in your party according to what you like better, in a set called "Paradigm". You can set up to 5 or 6 paradigms and change them in the middle of the battle.
After each battle, your performance is rated with 1 to 5 stars. I don't know what's the use of this rating system, though. You don't get any extra points if you do ok or great in battle.
About the summons, yes, they're present in the game but, in my opinion, in a flawed way. You can only use your leader's summon and each character has a single summon. Most of battles are easily won if you use the right strategy, making summons pretty much useless. I went through the ~50 hours of the game using only two or three from six summons. Since you can't shift your leader during the battle, it's likely that you won't get to know all the summons.
Overall, a good game. While it isn't the OMG BEST GAME EVAH, it isn't a complete wasted of time. It is fun and if you like to make a run for all trophies/achievements, you can continue the game from where you stopped and carry on with the subquests.