What's up with all the flashback hate?

[Jinx]

Because the game forces you into random battles even though you do nothing in them, making them pointless, which is a boring waste of time.

Yes, it's one of the most important portions of the game later on, but it's executed poorly because it's just not very fun, or interesting if it's your first playthrough.

This.

Basically, the game acts like it's giving you all of this freedom to do stuff, but you don't have it. They may as well make a flashback scene like any other from the game.