First impressions, after almost 9 hours:
The intro is great story-wise, but it sucks battle-wise since you basically can only do simple attacks for the first 2 chapters. After that, the battles get much better very fast. I get why they did it (the system is very different than any previous game), but i feel it was a bit longer than needed.
Otherwise, it has a very strong FFX feel... and i love it!! X is my favorite along with IX. The characters are great til now (only annoying one is Snow, but the other characters actually point that out, so i figure it's intentional). I especially like Sahz, and Vanille reminds me of Rikku, who I loved. Also, the fact that they have english lip-synch makes a HUGE difference. No awkward pauses in dialogs anymore. Thank you!!
The battle system also rocks, once you get paradigms. It's very fast paced, and very spectacular. People are moaning about the auto-battle option, but believe me you'll be thanking the designers for that option after a while. It takes a bit to figure it out, and get used to all the action and numbers and paying attention to health, but once you do get used to it, it's very satisfying. It reminds me of the FFX-2 system, which is great (say what you will about the j-pop-ness of that game, but its battle system was the best).
Overall, I really really like it up till now.. and I wasn't expecting that at all. The massive whining before release actually lowered my expectations so much, that I'm quite impressed.
Seriously, it is no more linear than FFX. And the no-towns thing makes sense until the point I am, so it doesn't bother me. If you liked X, definetely give it a try.