This is an action RPG kind of a mixture of Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean system. Where you control 1 member (mainly Soma) and the CPU does the other 2. As for knowing Japanese, its not necessary to know in order to play however it will sure dowse your enjoyment of this game. Some of the dialogs are just to funny to pass up  

This morning after I received my game package, on the manual it said multiplayer which got me very excited. I would rather to have friends to control the two other party character than CPU logics anytime.

I know what I will be spending most of my time this weekend then!  

BTW thanks Triforce for the explanation of this unusual rating system abuse.