Oh boy lets see:
Game is more like FFT as far as classes go. You have your 6 basic classes from FF1 that open up other classses after certain requirements are met.
Tech level seems to be about that of FF4 I'd say. There's mainly swords and sorcery but also some classes can equip guns. And there are airships that you can take between cities. Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of magic items just yet, but lots and lots of equipment in general. Lots and lots of quests to do. And I found out last night that under the Conquest system, you can spend conquest points you accumlate on some decent equipment too. Spells are pretty straight forward. You get access to better spells as you go up in level, and you must buy/find any spells. Not automatically learned as you go up in level.
Each class has specific skills like weapon skills, magic skill, etc, that go up with use. When a warrior uses his sword, his sword skill goes up. When he sucessfully parries an attack, his guard skill goes up. When a mage casts Fire, his elemental usage goes up. When he casts Poison, his enfeeblement skill goes up. You get the idea. I'm not sure how exaclty each skil affects the game just yet, but the general idea is the higher your skill, the more accurate and damaging you are with said weapon/magic.
Plus, if you switch classes, you get a portion of any skill you already raised applied towards your new classs. When I switched to Monk yesterday, I had a decent amount of evasion from my black mage levels to start.
There are a few crafting houses, but I'm not too familair with them yet. Blacksmithing, tanning, fishing, culinary, and a few others I can't remember.