Bolded: not for staggering, at least.

I detailed the scenario for purely dealing damage (and rudimentarily, at that  - finished the game in mid 2011, so it's hard for me to remember how it works PRECISELY).

I agree with this too. The fact that you cant control your other party members was a let down for me as well however FFXIII isnt the first game to implement that though, FFXII also did that and I'm sure all future FF games will be like that.

Alongside the elimination of MP (which I enjoyed), the summon system, and the fact that they heal up your whole HP bar after EACH battle were cons for me in the combat system.

Bolded: not for staggering, at least.

I detailed the scenario for purely dealing damage (and rudimentarily, at that  - finished the game in mid 2011, so it's hard for me to remember how it works PRECISELY).

No FF12 didnt do that, well thats a lie it did, but you had the OPTION to control your party members. FF13 was the first game in the main series to not give you that option and that pretty sums up my issues with FF13 as a whole...streamline. Everything was so streamlined combat, the world, hell the characters themselves. It never felt like i was playing a JRPG, it felt like I was playing...hell i dont even know what it was to be honest. Like a dungeon crawler, but a crappy one. And i dont care for dungeon crawlers. But i get how people would enjoy that. I wouldnt even have minded if the story was good, but i found it to be terrible, i hated combat in FF12 but at least the world and characters were interesting (not you Vaan)

it seems like you have a more than a few cons, so im curious to know what about the battle system you liked. Cause i couldnt even enjoy the summons, they felt useless most of the time. FYI Im not trying to trick you into admitting the game was bad or something silly, you at the least attempt to explain why you like it instead of most people blindly defending it.

You control them through setting up PARADIGMS, which are a set of choices between physical attacks/elemental/magic attacks/eidolon attacks/item based choices with the added COM/RAV/SEN/SYN/MED/SAB specialization battle system paradigm advantages. It's a deeper combat system than you're used to with prior FF's.

The options are there and  if you're not aware enough to figure this all out I can clearly understand why your opionion is the way it is now. If you played through the game you would understand this....You didn't play through FFXIII did you, neither do the negative game reviewers. ;) IMHO Parroting to serve a brainwashed agenda is common in todays society, good one. It relates to the story quite well in FFXIII in that millions on the planet Cocoon. Didn't stand up to the lies of Sanctum only your party in FFXIII and NORA does, and look how that turned out? Or did you finish the game at all?  I didn't think so.

No FF12 didnt do that, well thats a lie it did, but you had the OPTION to control your party members. FF13 was the first game in the main series to not give you that option and that pretty sums up my issues with FF13 as a whole...streamline. Everything was so streamlined combat, the world, hell the characters themselves. It never felt like i was playing a JRPG, it felt like I was playing...hell i dont even know what it was to be honest. Like a dungeon crawler, but a crappy one. And i dont care for dungeon crawlers. But i get how people would enjoy that. I wouldnt even have minded if the story was good, but i found it to be terrible, i hated combat in FF12 but at least the world and characters were interesting (not you Vaan)

it seems like you have a more than a few cons, so im curious to know what about the battle system you liked. Cause i couldnt even enjoy the summons, they felt useless most of the time. FYI Im not trying to trick you into admitting the game was bad or something silly, you at the least attempt to explain why you like it instead of most people blindly defending it.

One game leads to another game's development. If you hate FFXIII's gameplay system you are gonna hate FFXV and other future titles XD.

FFX-2 (yes the sequel to FFX) was a pre-cursor to FFXIII's game system.

Playing FFXIII outside of combat I do agree that the world was TOO linear, in FFX you can go back to the locations you went to but in XIII you can go only go back to Gran Pulse lol. XIII-2 they fixed that so that was good.

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Anyways to answer your question. I'll list the pros and cons of what I thought of the battle system in XIII and XIII-2 (this includes items, accessories setups though cause I like talking about them too ;3).

+ = Pros
- = Cons

+Roles adds to the overall strategy in battles compared to previous FF games, its like playing a MMO, you have your lead DPS (Commando), Magic Damage (Ravager), Tank (Sentinel), Healer (Medic), Buffer (Synergist) and Status Invoker (Sabetour) - although in past FF games aside from Sentinel/Tank (which the defend command came into play) you  can do pretty much the same exact thing.
+Staggering System - added challenge since enemies had a hard defense which you would have to weaken and increased the duration of battles because some enemies require a bit more hits to stagger than others.
+Accessory/weapon system was awesome in XIII where you can customize your equips, make stronger versions. Too bad they removed that in XIII-2.
+TP as a replacement for MP added additional challenge since TP is shared among the party unlike MP - Liked this.
+ATB having a bigger impact on the battle system's speed and precision is great, adds that whole unpredicatability that FF games had prior to FFX's fully turn based combat system. Also the way you can combo enemies with spells and attacks is a nice touch which originated from FFX-2 but not to the same extent.
+Paradigm shift is awesome since you can set up battle style of your characters either in your own fashion or any of the game's pre-set options.
+The monster ally system in XIII-2 was awesome though despite the lack of a third main party member!
+No more random battles

-Summon system is flawed like in XII where you had two of your allies disappear and the summon fought alongside you. The only FF Game that actually did that well was FFX. XII and XIII had a horrible system for it. To be honest, I didnt even use a single summon other than Odin at least ONCE and that was early in game when I had to use him as a tank so I can heal myself XD.
-Summons being exclusive to characters pissed me off. I wanted to use Bahamut but Fang (who I didnt even bother using) had it >_>.
-The fact that you heal HP after each battle made the game a bit easier.
-They removed the Weapon/Accessory system they had in XIII and gave a huge limitation as "WEIGHT" for Accessories in XIII-2.
-If the party leader is KO'd, game over - didnt like that in FFXIII but glad they removed that in XIII-2.
-Not being able to control your entire party.
-The lack of a proper victory theme still pisses me off ;(
-The fact that you dont get gil/monies from defeating monsters in battle (was actually one of the things I hated about FFVIII).
-The lack of a third main character in FFXIII-2
-Sometimes attacks miss and not like an actual "Miss" but they visually miss (I've noticed this in FFX-2's combat as well multiple times).

To be honest, the combat, music and the visuals are the top points for me in FFXIII. The story was great but the way the characters presented it not so well - although it did get better in the 2nd half of the game lol. Hope is still one of the worst characters ever made though regardless of how they made him to be in XIII-2. He went from a emo to a generic NPC like side character. Fang's also still forgettable LOL.

- = Cons

-Summon system is flawed like in XII where you had two of your allies disappear and the summon fought alongside you. The only FF Game that actually did that well was FFX. XII and XIII had a horrible system for it. To be honest, I didnt even use a single summon other than Odin at least ONCE and that was early in game when I had to use him as a tank so I can heal myself XD.

*Summons and Trap hunting go hand in hand. The only realistic way to craft Ultimate Weapons is using the benefits of Eidolons and farming trapz and ignots.

-Summons being exclusive to characters pissed me off. I wanted to use Bahamut but Fang (who I didnt even bother using) had it >_>.

*Better imho than giving everyone the same skillset imho. The characters in FFXIII all have area's they specialize in Hope =Healing/Magic Damage.  Lightning= Balanced but awesome attacker. Snow Damage+Health+Sentinel. Fang High Health+Debuffing. Vanille Sabotuer only char with Death and Medic, I just touched on a few areas. I absolutely hate it when every party member can become an all in one god of all trades, it bores me to death. Party teamwork is not needed then, and the characters become generic. Yet switching them around would have been neat, yet if you pay attention to the story Ragnarok and Fang have a huge part when it comes to the final battle and game ending scene, but they could have worked it in that way if as you say everyone had the ability to summon. But I think Ragnarok and Fangs focus are inseperable plotline wise. Which is probably why the games creators went that route.

-The fact that you heal HP after each battle made the game a bit easier.

*I think that is great because it brings less tedious micromanaging to the system. Healing and using potions after the mjority of fights gets old in RPGs for myself.

-If the party leader is KO'd, game over - didnt like that in FFXIII but glad they removed that in XIII-2.

*I think it adds more challenge especially in boss fights like Orphan. I loved it just knowing that I can get completely wasted if I get lazy had me on the edge of my seat for that final set of battles. I love that feeling!

-Not being able to control your entire party.

*With paradigms you control every character, but in a way you don't specifically control each and every decision specifically. But the + side is that you basically can if you pay close attention and learn how it functions.

-The lack of a proper victory theme still pisses me off ;(

*You're right that was missing.

-The fact that you dont get gil/monies from defeating monsters in battle (was actually one of the things I hated about FFVIII).

*I'm on the fence on that, but it would have made upgrading your weapons and accessories far easier and exciting in the early stages of the game. So it probly should be listed as a con. Instead it's kinda more end game oriented and post game oriented. 

Nice :D

Also speaking of Orphan....I had a HARD time fighting him LOL. Mostly cause his Death skill one shotted my controlled character almost always first time.

So I had to craft that one accessory which gave me immunity or close to immunity to his death skill (forgot the name) - took me a while cause I had to travel the last dungeon all over again. I killed him in the most cheapest of ways and it took me half an hour XD.

He died via Poisoning LOL.

I'm pretty sure it wont be like the next time I play the game, next time I play FFXIII I wanna record it!