The chocobo race is absolutely brutal, best of luck

Maybe cheating a bit but there are several genres of games that are named after the games that popularized their mechanics such as roguelike/roguelite, souls-like, metroidvania

Not mentioned in the title or the preview is there’s a time limited event from 10/27-10/31

It’s not required to play the previous games, there is some reference to them and the emotional impact of one scene may be diminished but that’s about it. I’m sure there are video recaps you can watch if you decide to skip the previous titles

Hard to disagree with the article, it seems it’s safer to wait at least a few weeks or months to play a new game because there are often things to be fixed after launch. Many games have multiple ambitious and complex systems that need to be tuned post launch. Combine this with high expectations/hype that marketing teams foster and you have a recipe for regret and disappointment on day 1 experiences