After playing the game for a few more hours I must say that I'm really enjoying it.
See, since i'm new to RPGs it took me about 4-5 hours to really understand all the finer points of the game (i.e. how the MAG system works, as well as loyalty, fusion, and knowing what items to stock up on), but once I did I enjoyed the game about 10 times more.
Generally I give up on a game if I'm not enjoying it after 2 hours. But I spent $50 on this, so I was determined to stick with it and I'm now glad I did. See, at first I was dissapointed because I didn't like the random encounters and the combat felt too clunky. And while I still feel the combat could have been slightly improved, the clunkiness and lack of moves isn't that big a problem after all once you start collecting a lot of demons because that's where the strategy and real meat of the combat lies. The whole idea is that you have literally an army of demons in your pocket, each with different skills, abilities, levels, and varying amounts of health and magic, and you must decide which ones to summon at which times. But it's a double-edges sword because if you're fighting a fire demon, you can summon an ice demon who will deal them a bunch of damage, but is also most vulnerable to their attacks. As such there is a heck of a lot of demon swapping during battle, so the actual swordplay is really just a backdrop to keep you on your toes a bit more during combat. So once you get used to the fact that it's not Devil May Cry or Onimusha (as I had mistakingly expected), it's actually really rewarding and a lot of fun.
I could say more, but this is my basic rundown of the pros and cons after 8.5 hours:
Pros:
-lots of strategy, customization, and collecting!
-real-time combat, though not without its faults, is still a lot of fun
-interesting/fun setting with a great aesthetic and lots of style
Cons:
-random encounters (why can't all rpgs be like Chrono Trigger where you can see the enemies and choose whether or not to encounter them?)
-the real-time aspects of the combat could use a bit more polish
-somewhat cheap production values (i.e. no voice acting [or even voice mumbling] and graphics look a bit dated).
So far I'd probably give it an 8/10, but I'm only at the end of chapter 2, and I hear the game is at least 12 chapters, so my score could change by the end of it all. But so far it's only getting better, so one can only hope that it continues that way.