By far the best in the series, but not without its problems. My girlfriend and I got it the first day.
Overall, I'm let down by the total lack of story for most of the new characters, no character endings, a horribly cheap AI, and the gameplay being fairly unbalanced.
I don't mind the loss of most of the characters who didn't return. If I wanted to play as them, I'd play one of the older games. I will say it was harsh for me to see Sophitia go, but her replacement actually ended up preferred to me, and her having a 'cameo' in the game was all I really wanted.
It sort of baffles me they all-together left out Zasalamel, Talim, and Yun-Seong. All the other characters got some sort of replacement for their style, but these three are just left out in the cold.
However... DLC could potentially fix all the problems this game has.