My Impressions:
A definite good start to changing things.

There were a few thing i didn't like though. I wanted one-touch character switch, but you have to go into the triangle menu then switch out which seems a little pointless since L2 & R2 are unused. The "cinematic action" (glorified QTE's) are not as bad as some gaming Journalist made them out to be. At the end of the Atlas fight it was pretty much exactly what I expected, although in the full game I hope they have more then 'Move Left' and Press 'X'. Graphically I'm a little disappointed. There are ALOT MORE slowdowns and framerate drops. There aren't any trailing animations (such as walking on a puddle/body of water doesn't produce the associated distillation effects). Moogle gets EXTREMELY ANNOYING after playing for just under half an hour with it. Voice acting and lip syncing could use some work, but I'm guessing the US version's gone Gold about now and won't be changing anytime soon.

Some good things I liked about the demo. Choice and variety are definitely there. Love the way side-quests were given (in this instance soldiers you talk you tell you their problem FULLY VOICED and you can choose to accept the side mission). The Temporal Rifts don't seem that fun, but are a welcome change of pace from the usual combat. On the gameplay topic, the combat in entertaining and dynamic as ever and I love the Pokemon/DQ-type Monster collecting aspect. The fact that every creature has its own move set and Feral Link is astounding. Now while I berated the graphics earlier, things do look a little more polished than before. The faded look is gone, replaced with a glossy look. The water effect reflect building and backgrounds appropriately. The rain effect dripping on the screen (even though its been done in every game) is a nice touch. In the 'after-demo-video' snow effects looked nice and a bit of snow gathers on Noel's head. The Historia Crux and multiple pathways and decisions are really nice way to flesh out an RPG. But It seems kind of forced in XIII-2 and regardless of the decision you make, you end up with the same outcome in most cases (read this on a JPN review). Loved the Jump button, even though it's pretty useless. Hate it when it's absent from Mass Effect/Dragon Age (even though it'd be pretty useless in either series).

All in all, I'm looking forward to this game and got the Collector's edition Pre-ordered at Best Buy.