ToS is like... Tales of Phantasia, heh.
It's a huge adventure, really fun and fast-paced with a story that continuously unfolds as the game goes on. The real-time battles are over in seconds, and you can set your other party members' strategies (retain magic, long range attacks/magic only, front lines, protect friend, etc.) as you see fit, as well as have them cast spells whenever you want by going into the menu or assigning a character's spell to C-stick up/down. Lots of sprawling towns, and dungeons that are short and sweet. Pretty good voice-acting that can kinda get cheesy but voices can be turned off. Same goes for the catch phrases during battles, but there are some pretty good lines depending on what characters you have fighting at the time.
There is a cooking system (that I rarely use but really should use more often) where you find recipes and buy/find food so you can heal HP/TP (Tech Points = magic) or status effects right after a battle or whenever you're walking around. There are also Ex Gems which basically power up your party members further, but you choose from four different "traits" for each gem, and certain combos unlock special skills or something. I really haven't messed with the gems too much; waiting till I find more.
Check out MetaCritic for a lot of reviews. I don't know what they mean by "anime cutscenes" because I haven't seen one except for the intro... unless there are some on disc 2 (right now I'm ~35 hours into it, still on first disc).
