[Dale Baldwin]

It's been designed a little too linearly for my liking, among other things that I'm not too keen on.

So yeah, too linear. For the first two thirds of the game you can't choose your own party members. There's very little in the way of side quests to do (beyond some monster killing missions, and rebuilding a robot). The battle system is okay, except for the fact that if the leader of your team dies, that's a game over - certainly cheap with battles with foes that can cast Death and kill you instantly.

I don't have a problem with the characters though - not even Vanille - but then I've played my fair share of JRPGs with irritating characters. She's nothing compared to Welch from Star Ocean 4, for example.