Concerning the story: there aren't many JRPGs that authentically avoid cliches in story-telling. And the few that do often succumb to the problem of having incomprehensible plots. You shouldn't judge a game by a very basic understanding of a story, because some of the best JRPGs ever sound pretty lame when you know only a plot synopsis. To wit: would you consider Chrono Trigger to be a highly intricate and multi-layered story if all you knew about it was that it was a game that involved three time-traveling teens trying to prevent a giant monster from causing the Apocalypse? That sounds like the plot from a half-baked anime, doesn't it?
Concerning the design team: most of the big names in JRPGs from 10 to 15 years ago aren't so big any more. A great deal of the ones still in the industry are trapped in Sequel Hell, constantly making new entries to existing series without any ability to break free and make something new again. The developers who are still free to take risks and make authentically new games are the ones who have the most promising futures.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
