It's mostly turn-based. It takes place on a small grid; normal initial placement of your party can be adjusted. Characters take turns in initiative order, and what they do (move, attack, special move, magic) determines how much "time" until they can move next (magic actually costs 2 turns: one short turn to charge up, and one to cast). The only in-combat real-time aspect is that you can interrupt once your special move meter is charged, and immediately perform your super special move. It's not absolutely necessary, though, and you have a fairly lax time window in which to press the button. In addition, the only out-of-combat real-time aspect I'm aware of is that enemies appear on the map, and how you encounter them determines if it's normal, sneak (when touched from behind), or surprise (when you get touched from behind, or if any of your followers get touched at all) at start of combat, and of course you can avoid them entirely to skip combat.
Retroguiden: (for example active time from FF series).
<shudder> There's nothing turn-based about that combat.