Overall, an enjoyable, yet typical JRPG
I don't know why this reviewer was looking at this with what appears to be WRPG (Western RPG) eyes, because JRPG's are typically linear, with a few exceptions. If you want non-linear gameplay then play Mass Effect or Dragon Age (I played to former, and that was great). One of the major problems would be the AI, in this instance the GS reviewer got it right, although I'm not going to be as harsh as they were. Sometimes all you got to do is push the person out from behind a rock or piece of rubble, and apparently if there is a great distance between you and one party member they then disappear from where they're stuck at and drop right next to you. Still it would be nice for the AI to know to go around those obstacles. The Healers in the party (that's neat that they come with two healers, typically there is only one), are good at healing you when you need it although you may have to pinch heal with a potion now and then to help them along. One of the things I like to do to reduce using healing potions, is use my healer to heal members of the party outside of battle; however, you can't do that here which is a little annoying. The only frustration in combat is the overdrive/overheat system. I think they needed to give a little more stamina points for your characters or reduce the cost of stamina in order to fight, because if you don't watch you get into overdrive very easily and hence go into overheat soon after, and once in overheat you can't do anything at all until the overheat bar goes down, which is very slowly. So you either have to go to another character or stuck out of the battle for a long amount of time. However, the plus with going into overdrive is once you do a skill, you can do a chain that is go to another character and that character's power is doubled. Also if the character also goes into overdrive and uses a skill then a Chain Break happens that not only deals a double dose of damage to the enemy, but resets your stamina and the stamina of the party member you chained with so no overheat. Plus, compared to other JRPG's the boss battles in this are a little easy.
Despite these faults I found the journey through Lanzheim to enjoyable and fun. So even though nothing innovative or eye catching is here, they grabbed what elements of what made JRPG's great and brought them in this game. And even though these pieces didn't fit quite right, they still make a solid JRPG that manages to keep you entertained.