The text in a review that give it 10 out of 10 made me feel it was a horrible game even relative to the lack of good rpgs this gen, pretty sure someone got paid off for the score, anyways all the points made where made in a positive spin but it still sounded to me like the game was crap, and nothing I have seen or heard has made me change my mind

Not really. Summon instantly kill legs of monster. When monster is down, you can apply some statuses to it. And statuses increase chance of Death. With full debuff and with Marlboro wand, you have about 10% chance of succesfull Death.

But it's true, turtles battles are intersting. Problem is, there are just few of these interesting battles, most can be done with just spamming X (A) button.

And lol at SO4. That game has the worst characters to grace a JRPG.

Overal yes but Arumat is certainly not a bad one; It is like they got him from a great game and put him in a horrible team.

And what if Death misses?

Right, you're screwed.

I can assure you it is not the strategy you're going to use if you're aiming for the Platinum.

I never got the auto battle complaint.  Pretty much all FF games battles follow that same idea. Find the move that works best and spam it until the monster is dead. FF XIII just does it with less button pressing.

2nd option for me.

It was a decent game but decent games are all over the place. Far from the experience of previous iterations this one was. I play these games to lose myself in a world of wonder and into a story that captures me with characters i can relate to, on a higher level than this sad little story. No towns, linear, nothing to search for, no puzzles this time, no riddles, bland and flat or predictable characters, conversations that make my skin crawl...
And dont get me started on the 'active' battle system.
Gee... So this is how i feel in hindsight. A game to forget.

I never really understood why people complain about spamming X in FFXIII but don't complain about it in other FF games

A lot of FF games can be beaten by spamming the attack button since the series isn't relatively hard. In FFVIII, you can just spam your GFs with no penalty whatsoever. They have their own HP, so they die before you do. Crisis Core is just button smashing. FFX-2 is also button smashing. FFX can also be beaten using the attack command minus the elemental enemies. FFVI is the same. FFXII can play the game for you if you set up the gambits correctly.

The only FF game that actually gave me a challenge was FFIV.

If Death misses once? Just cast it once more, remember, no MP in this game, you are free to cast whatewer you want. If you fail to kill turtle before it recovers,  just Retry and try once again.

I know, this strategy is no fun, but it's ideal for low level parties. Actually, it's ideal for grinding. But yes, if you can kill it with "normal way", it's better.

chris: Problem is, in this game, you don't need to find commands yourself. Game do it for you.

But overall, it wasn't that bad game as some  peoples says. I just want some superbosses, not jokes as Vercigetorix

In the other ones you set up your character uniquely, in FFXIII everythings automatic, in the other ones you could get away with pressing X alot but you got worn down and harder enemies you had to use different tatics, the free heals in FF ruins the wearing down, and you are pressing X in FFXIII more then the other ones, so it doesn't have the other elements that made it okay in other games and there's more of it

It disappointed me immensely. Almost all depth has been tossed in favor of action, like most other new RPG's. I still haven't finished it and I'm not sure I ever will. This will be the second FF game I never completed next to FFX-2.