Also bought and tried it out but only got around to a single run so far so I can't say how well I like it yet. I don't think I fully understand the mechanic to gain lives/bombs yet (cherry shield), as I've had a lot of trouble collecting extends compared to FDF 1, which feels like it drowns you in them.
This game drowns you with them just as much, you do just have to understand the mechanic.
Grazing and collecting pink items fills the meter in the lower left. Once it's full, you get a border. Just like PCB. That's where the differences come in.
When your border breaks (whether it's through time or you brealing it manually) you get a bomb/life fragment. However, by grazing and collecting more pink items you can make your border last longer. If you can keep it up for long enough it'll upgrade to a level 2 border, which drops 2 fragments, then a level 3 border which drops 3 fragments. You can't go past level 3 so grazing/collecting items while you have a level 3 border just wastes them (though I think they're worth more score if you collect them at level 3).
Borders operate on a fixed cycle. Your first rotation and second rotations you get bomb fragments, your third rotation you get life fragments, then it repeats. So it's not always optimal to go for level 3 borders every time- sometimes it's better to manually break your bomb borders if you know a high graze section is coming up, that way you can get the most out of your life borders.
Overall I like FDF 1 better, I feel the bosses were more interesting and more challenging there. In particular Ran (besides her last two spells her patterns are just squares) and Lily (it's 100% random spam all day and night) are pretty big letdowns.
That said, this game definitely lives up to the first. Stage 4 is beautiful, and Yuyuko is probably my favorite boss in the series. That final spell is like a piece of art and the fact that you're supposed to dodge it was only an afterthought (though it's not bullshit hard or anything). I don't know if Yukari surpasses Flandre but she's definitely as good as. And Alice has some really unique and interesting concepts.
Well worth the money. Now to wait 5 years for IN.