I actually liked the battle system of the game, really. It was a refreshing and much needed change to the old system. When they tried to revamp it in XII, as we all know it sucked wasn't all that well put together. FFXIII managed to pull off the change as well as redesigning the levelling system, most probably taking off from the sphere grid in X. The crystarium and the paradigms really sold it for me and the look of the game in general. It's so pretty @_@