I think his argument is that the auto battle doesn’t mean it plays itself because your focus is on picking and changing paradigms rather than the specific abilities. Also, it doesn’t really play itself any more than other Final Fantasies since auto-battle is essentially replacing hitting the attack button over and over. I am not a huge fan of the first XIII game, but the battle system was one of my favorite parts once it opened up more. I liked changing paradigms

I’ll never understand why anyone would say XII plays itself either though. Sure, you can set up gambits where it mostly does play itself, but that is only if you want. I’d say XII probably has the best computer controlled party of any game I’ve played because you have complete control over what everyone does. It was fun for me to fine tune the gambits for specific situations, and I still personally controlled all the actions of my party leader as if I were playing any other final fantasy. I could even switch the character I personally controlled on the fly if I wanted someone to do something I didn’t properly program them for.

Of course my heretical admission is just probably that I think FFVIII is the best in the series even despite the few moments it drops the ball or doesn’t live up to potential.