What seemed a waltz was rather a requiem
The battle system is very easy to pick up. It integrates both a turn-based strategy with a real-time strategy that will be very familiar to players of final fantasy XII. I felt the battle system was lacking in allowing customization from the user. You are not allowed to choose what is leveled up when you reach a higher level (attack vs. defense points for instance). The game simply decides, or customizes, your character for you. Also, you are rather limited in the specials that you can use and the cinematic exposure of these specials is rather weak. It would be nice if we could actually see the detail that is going on during the use of character specials. Also, even though the battle time is changed throughout the game, battles get quite boring after playing for a while.
The story line could have used some work. I will admit that many of the quotes from the characters were good and thought out; the writing of the script was nice. The characters voices made me want to "choke someone" the whole time that I played the game. I was confused, are these adults or are these children? They all seem so nice and never is there a large confrontation between good and bad; it never feels like the characters want to continue the story...and neither did I. And the pauses to explain a piece of Chopin's life were interesting, but definitely not needed. There were no side-quests, the story just continues straight through directly. Also, don't bother looking for hidden treasures because they rarely exist and are usually not worth the trouble.
All in all, I would suggest to someone to play the game through once. It's sad to say, but probably the best turn-based RPG for PSIII at your disposal. Gaming is taking a turn for real-timed strategy based games now because it seems this is what most people prefer? I'm not quite sure, but I'm not down with it.