I am convinced that what we saw was prologue. The player character is recounting events to a third-party and eventually we will catch up to that point in the narrative and will play out the rest of the game in present tense. At least, that is what I'm hoping happens...
You mean its similar to Final Fantasy X?
The first scene of the game is a point very late in the game, then you play the story from the beginning up to that point and every now and then the main char makes comments from the off about the things that happened then.
arbitrary example:
In one scene the main char tells another char: "Don´t worry, everything will be OK."
And then comes the off comment: "Of course it did not. It never does. But we would learn this lessen soon enough."
Prof. Dr. Dr. Mad S. Tist 
