The game is the most stunningly beautiful MMO world created to date, from a pure artistic design perspective. The world is huge and gorgeous and has so many thoughtful details (the noise of the crowd at Black Brush station was a wonderful surprise.)
As for the gameplay, it's bland compared to some more action-oriented games, but if you want a button masher fighting game, there are already games that fit that bill.
SE's strong point has always been the storylines and cutscenes. The thing they're losing out on in the NA version is the terrible voice acting. I'd almost rather there be no voices than these awful faux British accents.