The gameplay is great, as it is very realistic. Aside from monster slaying, there is even a deep weapon creation system. Some of the game can only be accessed on a second playthrough. It's a game that lets you do almost everything. There are 40 characters, so you can put together a party consisting of three great warriors to a baby dragon, an alien and a flower.
Many parts have several ways of doing the same thing as well.
In addition to that, the battle system is really cool and the music is top notch. So what if it's not the best in the series, it's still fun. The game is very cinematic and story driven, but it has a whole lot of small annoyances, such as the Trance system, that is essentially an often worthless version of the limits from the previous games. Imagine a marriage of Final Fantasy VI and VII and this is what you would get. Overall, a good game but nothing to write home about.