Not as bad as people make it to be really. I found the gameplay to be more fun than other typical Tactical JRPG. I think the triangular all-out attack is a great feature because when you play smartly, it makes the gameplay much more dynamic and snappy and you can beat a stage with surprisingly few turns. But this mechanics also overshadows most of the other RPG mechanics in the game including the persona system, making it more like a puzzle game than an RPG. The last 1/4 of the game also felt dragged out because it's basically just wave after wave of boss rush without anything new or challenging.