I haven't had a chance to play it yet since I don't own a PS5, but your comments sound a lot like what Yahtzee brought up in his review.

I too have been sceptical since I first heard about the idea of a "serious, mature mainline FF game", since to me that sounds almost antithetical to what the series represents (it's even got Fantasy in the name!).

I also have to say, knowing it was made by the same team as FFXIV dampened my interest in it a little. I played that game for a while (and enjoyed it quite a bit initially), but as time went on and I moved onto later expansions I started to lose interest in not only the story and the way it was told but also the direction the game was evolving in mechanically for the various classes.

I'm not saying it's objectively bad, but it started to feel like my tastes for story and gameplay no longer align with Sony Creative Business Unit 3.