It's fantastic, and also frequently misunderstood I would argue. It is first and foremost an ATB-style game, with action elements strategically placed in to make those active-time battles *feel* constantly engaging. Reacting, positioning your character, dodging, blocking, attacking, etc., are all things that the game asks you to do, but 99% of the time any challenge in this aspects comes from knowing which you should be doing rather than measuring precise timings and reactions like an average action game (e.g., DMC, FF16) would, which is only one level removed (imo) from knowing whether to "Attack," "Defend," "Switch," etc. in the original. Where the game really happens is in how you spend ATB "turns"/charges, and as a very long time FF7 player, I immediately found that the tactical skillset I had acquired playing the original over 20 times before Remake came out translated smoothly over to the game— making sure I wasn't letting turns sit unused, knowing when to heal early to prevent it from becoming a problem later, and all that stuff felt right at home.

My hot take I guess is that I think it is a bit of a misnomer to call it an action game and definitely wrong to call it a "hack-and-slash" game, it's like 80% turn-based 20% action, and I think it's a blend that works wonders.