Combination of role-playing and realtime combat.
The battle system is very fun to learn about, BUT, by the tenth or eleventh battle you just want to get the fighting over with and move onto the next movie to watch. The only gripe that has been noticed is the extreme difficulty to increase your levels and statistics. If you need, say, 2000 experience points to get to the next level, it does you no good that the 3 minute battle you just fought only yielded 30 experience points. It takes a VERY long time to progress when moving that slowly.
The voice acting on the other hand was extremely well done with actual emotions and feeling put into each and every character using known and accomplished voice actors from NAMCO and KOEI (example...the voice actress of Clair Lasbard is also the voice of Shion Uzuki from Xenosaga) along with the occasional needle in a haystack. The music is also very fitting and dramatic to give the game an overall sense of triumph and emergency to find what you have lost.
The game is well put together and the storyline is compelling, if overly done. The battles can be fun as long as the new weapons and armor help to speed them up a bit. It is recommended to buy for casual and hardcore RPGers but to the passing glance it is not recommedned due to the exposure and time needed to get anything of value out of it.