Hi i got the game yesterday evening and had a short test session, and bear in mind i don't have access to season pass content just yet (not "online" until game launch i guess), but what is on offer in terms of equipment is indeed very poor, with but a few additions. Seems you can position the ExEq a bit easier, further away, down etc, shrink and enlarge more, but i am not 100% on this...
faces and haircuts have a few slightly different ones, but i just had a brief glance tbh, and didn't experiment that much with the races but options a lot of possibilities, no race specific parts though and some parts are locked (need ingame "points" to unlock, which is ok for me, as long as it is not microtransactions)...i feel less comfortable with the sticker work somehow, as you can't move the stickers as easily in the projection mode...it is all incremental values now, not freeflow, unless i missed something, feels weird but i am very rusty after years not practicing :)
The game gives you the opportunity to randomize CAS using criteria (like western vs eastern, cute vs serious etc., but the results i got were pretty laughable with pink astaroth with wings etc.)
There is one BIG noticeable improvement though, i remembered Gatsu asking about this in this or another thread, so here is the deal : you have access to a number of presets (remember the but ugly pirates, soldier etc.), but the catch is they've added what looks like all the 1P costumes from the game !
But still can't swith gender for Equ., which is too bad...azwell robes would have been great for female wizards for instance, unless there is a way i didn't find...
They are listed under cheesy names referring to the original cast but can also be found as individual new parts in the equipment editor. What is even better is that you can add, remove parts of them (not fixed outfits) and combine with the rest, thus adding a significant amount of "new" parts per se.
The customized sessions of the CAS editor allows you to browse through created characters, but i didn't see any filters or search engine on offer, so a bit useless and i saw nothing exceptional so far, quite understandable since game not even out.
Also worth mentioning, you can set the music to random and enjoy the different stage music instead of the rapidly boring CAS tune...
You can also add specific battle comments to your CAS, haven't tried it out yet, since i haven't created a proper CAS.
The mechanics don't seem to have changed too much, but the fact that the default color isn't detailed (with the three values) is a bit annoying if you wanna match colors...
The rest of the game is (at first glance) a bit of a mixed bag :
-minuses (taste dependent) : seems there are no controller vibrations as in Tekken iirc (shame on you PS!) so lack of punch, no music really struck me silly, but the CAS music is cool enough at lower volumes, very poor cinematics in the story modes...
-pluses : very good presentation pre and in-fight, amazing graphics (stage textures maybe a bit blurry), crazy fluid and full of colourful effects (at least on One X), and love the new moves and gauge moves, edges etc.
...but, yeah I agree 
