Thing is, for the most part I don't even need to power level. I just like to have enough gil to get the things you can purchase in the game. Doing that makes me walk through most enemies. Also, the fact that you run out of HP and MP means the enemies in previous FFs were far easier to compensate for that. However, if you knew what you were doing then you never really ran low - you found tents lying around so often that you could always heal up again. Depending on your enemy in FFXIII, you need to approach them in different ways. You can't tell me that the Gui, the Munchkin, the Behemoth and the "what there are like ten enemies" battles all require the same strategy. You simply have to know what you're doing. Sure, that might be a pretty obvious thing, but then, you still have to do that or you're dead.

If you think the most powerful marks are easy to get a five star ranking in then maybe you're calling them the most powerful just because they're a high number or a high ranking. Don't mistake the grade of the mark for how powerful they are. I could walk over some A marks but some B marks required me to think a bit. Also, again, it depends on your own level and equipment. If you use +STR or +MAG stuff, it'll be harder to get the five stars. How easy is it to get five stars against the hardest mark of them all, anyway - Gigantuar? Pretty hard!

As I said, maybe our different strategies made things easier for you than for myself in XIII but there are definite strategies for most enemy groups/individuals and you need to approach them with that in mind, particularly when you aren't of a high level and don't have every job unlocked.

"But power leveling is a choice!" - so? I could say that using the crystarium at all is a choice, too. You could call that power leveling. Either way, it removes the need for strategy altogether in older FF's whilst in this one it doesn't, because you can't. At the end, you can generally get through most things easily, but only once you're maxed, and even then, you still need to use certain paradigms at certain times if you want to get things done efficiently.

Unlike FFVII and VIII, where as I said, attack, attack, attack. You simply can't get away with that in XIII.