The more I see and read about the game, the more it reminds me of modern Persona. The dungeons are called "Eclipses" and the gates that lead into them can only be seen by special people. The adventure portion of the game is about going around the school and town, finding out about problems, advancing the character stories, etc. While the dungeon portions are generally finding exit gates to get deeper in and eventually fight a boss, etc.
The combat does sound like a departure from the usual modern Falcom stuff though. Kondo talks a lot about how this time it's not just 3D graphics but a full 3D game. You only see and control one character at a time, there are two attack buttons - one for range magic and one for melee attacks, and targeting will be a big part of the combat. Most of the enemies look like mid-sized foes so it feels more like 1 on 1 stuff, and there'll be evasion, jumping, air-dashing, etc. You build up meters to unleash special attacks and so on. It definitely sounds closer to the sort of gameplay we see in a 3D action game like DMC, or a full 3D action RPG like Souls. Knowing Falcom, it's probably not as technical (maybe on Nightmare) and in-depth as those games, but will probably have a good sense of speed and satisfaction.
Kondo was actually asked about DLC, and he mentions that they are considering costumes, but probably not additional story content since they make content rich games anyway. That should also put to rest some of the F2P concerns, since the way he talks about the game is definitely a full retail product. :P
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