I played it for the first time in January when it came out, and I really liked it. From a story standpoint, it's such an odd game. The initial pacing is very different from other games in the series. You can tell Horii had Chrono Trigger on the brain around the same time.
Gameplay-wise, it's pretty good stuff. The job system is pretty deep, probably deeper than most people will scratch to be honest.
The characters, while not so interesting at first, develop fairly nicely throughout the course of the game. Oh, and the vignettes are among the finest in the series.