excuse me? Are you serious? as long as the game carries the title Final Fantasy I will refer and compare it to previous titles of the series thank you very much. 

You honestly think that downgrading the game into controlling one character and having a command window with an "Auto" option is a change for the better in the series? we might as well have great FPSs like Halo have auto lock-on mechanisms. I'm sure Halo fans would love that ~sarcasm

Final Fantasy is being simplified. 

excuse me? Are you serious? as long as the game carries the title Final Fantasy I will refer and compare it to previous titles of the series thank you very much. 

You honestly think that downgrading the game into controlling one character and having a command window with an "Auto" option is a change for the better in the series? we might as well have great FPSs like Halo have auto lock-on mechanisms. I'm sure Halo fans would love that ~sarcasm

Final Fantasy is being simplified. 

Your "Auto" argument to explain that FF is being simplified holds no ground.

It was first introduced on the DS remakes for FFIII and FFIV, and other RPG series with far more complexity than FF have also used that "Auto" option, like Persona.

Final Fantasy was never a complex series, in the overall JRPG panorama. And what yum123 pointed out is true. Every Final Fantasy game distinguishes itself from the previous ones, that's one of the main features from that series. Sure you can compare some common grounds between the series, but the fact is that it's probably the series with most changes to it's original formula.

There have been times when that formula was pushed to harder limits and there have been times when that formulas has been simplified, it's not a constant. None can say how they will change the formula for FFXV, and if it's going to be more complex or simple than FFXIII.

Plus, here's my last point. "Auto" is not forced upon you in FFXIII and you can't beat all the battles by just doing "Auto" over and over again. You're just using that feature to bolster your complaints about FFXIII, when there are other, more valid points that you could have picked up.

In fact, your complaining approach is the same as the people who complained about the Gambits in FFXII making the game too easy and automatical as well, when that same argument holds no ground whatsoever, for the single fact that you can play the entire game without them as it's not a forced feature, just like "Auto" in FFXIII.

“Auto” has been around since mid 90s in RPGs (Beyond the Beyond 1995). it’s usually a sub option to get past random battles or weaker enemies. Final Fantasy XIII introduces Auto as the main option. Manually selecting commands is intolerable. The spells and techniques are all bunched up, and navigating between them is a pain.  It’s not even approachable. It’s like SE wanted the players to stick with auto. Plus, by the time I’m done selecting my moves manually, my comrades have already finished the battle for me. I just don’t find it fun when I’m not even participating or strategizing the battle. I can’t even see what’s going on when I manually select commands because the fight is finished before I can even select anything. The only time I could see what was going on was in dragged out boss battles … and that eventually made me go back to using the auto command because of the “staggered” feature. Like I said, SE is promoting the auto system. The only way to stagger an enemy is to land rapid attacks (combination between Physical and magical attacks) and the quickest way to fill up the stagger bar ,which depletes gradually if you don’t attack fast enough, is to use the auto command.. In a nutshell, I couldn’t even get through the game using the commands manually because the game wasn’t designed for it, especially during boss battles.

I know that the formula changes with each Final Fantasy. However, some elements that defined the game as an RPG were completely removed in this one. The obvious one was the absence of an open world. Not even a town to take a break from all the grinding. it was a nightmare. Walking endlessly in a straight line for 30 hours mashing  the action button to get through battles … comparing that to previous FFs definitely makes them more complex by a mile.  My honest opinion is that too much time was spent on the visuals and the gameplay was neglected. What also made FF a FF despite the “formula” was its unique battle system with each series. Final Fantasy XIII failed miserably with the battle system in XIII. I wasn’t a big fan of the gambits but boy it was a lot better than the pedigrams shifts ( I think that’s what it was called)

“Auto” has been around since mid 90s in RPGs (Beyond the Beyond 1995). it’s usually a sub option to get past random battles or weaker enemies. Final Fantasy XIII introduces Auto as the main option. Manually selecting commands is intolerable. The spells and techniques are all bunched up, and navigating between them is a pain.  It’s not even approachable. It’s like SE wanted the players to stick with auto. Plus, by the time I’m done selecting my moves manually, my comrades have already finished the battle for me. I just don’t find it fun when I’m not even participating or strategizing the battle. I can’t even see what’s going on when I manually select commands because the fight is finished before I can even select anything. The only time I could see what was going on was in dragged out boss battles … and that eventually made me go back to using the auto command because of the “staggered” feature. Like I said, SE is promoting the auto system. The only way to stagger an enemy is to land rapid attacks (combination between Physical and magical attacks) and the quickest way to fill up the stagger bar ,which depletes gradually if you don’t attack fast enough, is to use the auto command.. In a nutshell, I couldn’t even get through the game using the commands manually because the game wasn’t designed for it, especially during boss battles.

I know that the formula changes with each Final Fantasy. However, some elements that defined the game as an RPG were completely removed in this one. The obvious one was the absence of an open world. Not even a town to take a break from all the grinding. it was a nightmare. Walking endlessly in a straight line for 30 hours mashing  the action button to get through battles … comparing that to previous FFs definitely makes them more complex by a mile.  My honest opinion is that too much time was spent on the visuals and the gameplay was neglected. What also made FF a FF despite the “formula” was its unique battle system with each series. Final Fantasy XIII failed miserably with the battle system in XIII. I wasn’t a big fan of the gambits but boy it was a lot better than the pedigrams shifts ( I think that’s what it was called)