This was also my first experience with a Tales game and while not the best JRPG I've ever played I did find it enjoyable enough to probably give the older games ago. Although using words like "enjoyable enough" and "probably" are making me doubt my own opinion as I type.
The first part of story was engaging and slowly went down hill and the final dungeon was just a slog I wanted to be over a couple of hours before it did eventually finish. I do agree on the combat not being that great, I also switched from Alphen however combat did just result in me cycling through the same three artes.