I've been putting in atleast 2 to 3 hours each night since I got it. I'm at lev 25 with 15 hours in so far with 16% of the missions done.
Spoilers: "Highlight the text below to see it"
The ingame cs of Cissnei at the beach is 
She is my new fav FF character ever. She ranks up there with Rikku in terms of omg. lol
I'm still trying to figure out the materia fusion with items and spells. The best thing I can think of is saving the game and trying out diff combos and such. If you screw up just reload the save.