A) Everyone has spells. Just like in Tales, all characters have a standard attack as well as an amount of slowly recharging MP they can use for spells and special moves. They even take time to cast, with the game showing you when the spell will go off on the turn order-list.
B) Each character has a speed stat and that dictates when they get their moves and how frequently. Your party generally goes first, but as battles go on, the monsters/enemies moves will quickly get intermixed between your own.
C/D) Very small party sizes and maps. You can only take 5 characters on each mission, and maps haven't been too big or complex so far. They're generally fairly compact, and characters' movement allowances are also fairly small. It's worked well so far. The enemy usually outnumber you so much that the lack of buildings/obstacles is generally less of a concern just because you're focusing on crowd control.
E) Skills like in a Tales game, kinda. Every level up you get some hard stat boosts, but you also get SP you can spend on passive abilities. You can just straight up buff your stats or give defenses to specific elements, but you can also give people abilities like Zone of Control (it takes more MA to get past their adjacent tile) or being able to counter an enemy attack.
It's really fun so far, and for some reason the side-missions (which seem to be mainly focused on getting more characters) have been far harder than the main ones so far. It's really neat seeing all the characters I'm familiar with with their Japanese VA's, and it's also cool getting a kind of preview for characters whose games I haven't played yet.
