I think the problem for me is that without the ability to micromanage your groups and characters in and out of combat, the game feels "unrewarding". The combat system seems like a it took the prototype system from White Knight Chronicles and sped it up. For crying out loud, even the paradigms seem to be a water-down gambits system; one where Square "relieved" the player of all that messy setting up of gambits on your own. Now you get generated variations of different combinations, none of which seem to satisfy me personally. I'm willing to bet that you could probably beat your way through the game by not shifting a single time if you have enough potions on hand and a quick trigger finger.
Which leads me to my next issue with that system.. the games active battle speed. Half the time I don't feel as if I really 'won' a battle, but rather that my teammates won it while I was still faffing about with the menu trying to decide what move I wanted to use. One combination of abilities rarely feels different from any other, so it seems that you could just select "attack, attack, attack, attack, etc" and still accomplish the same goal. Also, i don't know if anyone else has experienced it, but the sensitivity for the controls seems far too light, which annoys me because sometimes while trying to get to my items i'll overshoot the selection about once every three times because the cursor whips by too fast.
What the game successfully does is makes me feel like a ferret on crack, trying to juggle expensive crystal vases coated in vaseline. I feel like the entire battle system at times is an over-complicated QTE... they could have accomplished the same thing by simply placing a gauge that moves back and forth rapidly forcing you to click it when it hits the "sweet spot" to initiate a random, visually busy attack. In fact, that might have been better, because at least I could relatively observe whats going on without all this 'pretense' of a deep battle system.
The problem is exasperated by the fact that I can't control ANY of my party members in combat, so I can't have them use attacks or spells that I know they have but don't use when I want them too. How is this a Final Fantasy game when I can't even control my own party? I searched the options, hoping for a setting that would allow me full control and to revert the game to a more standard turn-based combat system like they did in FFXII anticipating that their battle system might not go over so well with old-school rpg gamers, but alas, there is not one. So I'm stuck controlling ONE person who typically is not the person I want to control for a segment. Which I guess fits with their 'more action" appeal to mainstream players who enjoy the type of game where you can get by with pressing the x button repeatedly to win fights.
Finally, it feels empty not leveling up. I feel sometimes that the combat system has no "reward" because I don't ever feel like I'm progressing. At least with a grind, you get the joy that your taking time to fight every enemy will result in a more powerful party that will give you a slight advantage if utilized properly. Instead, every battle ends with a scoring system that makes me feel that I just won a fighting game. Given the combat system employed, this actually makes sense, because each battle FEELS like a fighting game rather than an RPG. All it needs is for an off-screen narrator voice to go "K.O.!" at the end of each battle as my opponent bounces in slow motion off the ground after colliding with my fist.
Another note... the transitions in this game are terrible. It seems that for the first dozen hours or so you run down one short corridor consisting of a pathway, a branching path, and a final pathway leading to a final location with several waves of enemies lined up between points A and destination C. Exploration is minimal, which is a shame because some of the set pieces in the game are visually amazing to behold. But then things always come to an abrupt end with a fade out and a few moments load a new scene. It seems that Square decided that the best way to eliminate long "loading screens" was to split them up into a hundred tiny loading screens as you zone in from one section to another, usually resulting in a switch to another character. Especially in the beginning of the game this can be a bit jarring since just as you get used to the combat and skills of one character, you are unceremoniously dumped into the shoes of another.
I'm sure the game works for some people though, many of which might be enjoying this new battle system but for me it robbed me of an experience I've waited 5 years for. I sincerely hope that this new change to the traditional jrpg system Square unleashed upon us brings in packs of new mainstream fans because they'll need someone to replace me. This marks the last time I'll ever get a final fantasy game on or near it's launch, and possibly the last time I'll ever buy one. The NEW Final Fantasy might appeal to hundreds of new-to-the-franchise players, but not to me.
