Quote Originally Posted by Fynn View Post
In XIII, just holding forward and getting to mash A every battle just got insanely tedious after a while since there really wasn't anything for you to do. There was no way to really dodge the enemies, and it was really futile to do so because the game had already set up a course for you that must be followed because that's the only way for you to be properly leveled.
It's funny because I actually think XV is a total downgrade compared to XIII's gameplay.

XV suffers far more from the "mash A every battle to win" problem than XIII. In XV I was able to complete the game without using a single magic spell (of which there are only three) or summon (of which there are only four, each being extremely circumstantial). I will say that I was using quite a few of the party moves like Gladio's Tempest for a big AoE attack, and Ignis' Enhancement for some of the post-game hunts and bosses. The problem is that none of it was really necessary to beat the game, and the combat just felt repetitive/stale.

XIII had a lot of variety with the Paradigm Shift system. You could set a paradigm full of 3 commandos to rush down mobs in 5 seconds at high level, or you could set a paradigm full of 2 saboteurs and 1 synergist to buff/debuff in a boss battle. Then switch to a paradigm full of 3 sentinels before a big attack happens. You needed to have a specific plan to grind certain mobs. Adamantoise farming had at least 4 different methods, and Behemoth/Megistotherian farming also had a few methods. I just really enjoyed how you could utilize the system to efficiently grind against high level enemies that would kill you under normal circumstances. And some bosses like Barthandelus in Chapter 9 would absolutely rail you if you didn't have a strategy. There was a lot of freedom and flexibility in the system that I felt was lacking in XV. XV's combat mostly just boiled down to attack, roll away, and hold square to parry. It felt restrictive. There wasn't really any farming, and there was no real creativity.