When Final Fantasy meets Halloween... in my opinion there are quite a lot of similarities, at least gameplay-wise.
In general there are a lot of similarities between the two games. There are random battles, a lot of collectibles that will keep you tied to the console until you got them all, secrets, easter eggs and so on. In general, I'd even dare to call this Final Fantasy in Halloween Town. If you are not into the whole anime feeling of Final Fantasy with androgyneous characters and costumes that defy any and all cultural inspiration this might be the game for you.
The game is divided into short chapters. You play through a chapter to complete a certain task, then you get a rating and a reward depending on your performance. If you archive a supreme performance rating you even have a chance to unlock a special. While those chapters are not overly long they make the game attractive to casual gamers who want to turn on the console, play a bit, finish a chapter and then leave again. The only downside I noticed with that aspect of gameplay is that usually the goal to be completed in a chapter is not obvious, leaving you running around for quite some time until you got to figure out what you are supposed to be doing to complete the chapter. Since gameplay time is counted into your rating this often leads to dampened enthusiasm if you get a bad rating simply because you took longer than the game thinks you should have taken. However, you are given the option to repeat chapters anytime which is not a problem because they are that short.
The game is easy to get into. The controls are easy to understand, I've already played more popular games with a more complicated control set. The difficulty setting can be chosen when you start the game, ranging from easy to hard. It seems to affect the number of hitpoints your enemies have. By default Jack has two attacks which are pretty cool looking and are quite entertaining even if watched numberous times.
The graphics are good, both Halloween Town as well as its characters have been ported into the game really well. The only thing I am missing is a freely controlable camera. However, the game is not that demanding that the lack of that function would ever create any unfair disadvantages.
The sound, music and voice acting are well done. Music was taken from the movie the game is based on, with altered lyrics here and there to fit the situation. Voice acting is superb in my opinion. Voices are provided either by the original cast or by very close doubles. I never really noticed any difference between the game and the original movie.
To sum things up, this game can be recommended if you either like Tim Burton's Movies, are of a more macabre nature or are looking for a Final Fantasy style game but shy away from anime characters and far eastern styled games for whatever reason there might be.