Final Fantasy 13 is a very restrictive but fun game.
first off is the battle system. While fun and decently paced it was far too restrictive like most of this game was. Having no control over party members until later in the game was a major issue. Especially when having to use lightning against a majority of bosses. I don't mind not being able to issue commands to the other party members but it would of helped greatly to be able to turn off moves you don't want them to use and also set battle settings to prioritize what they should be doing first under each optima. like for example medics should be using esuna first instead of cure when hp is above 75% instead of wasting their time healing when the poison will just drain it back down. or like when lightning uses enfire or whatever as a syn instead of protect haste ect. theres also all the 5 bar moves that your party members refuse to use. heck getting them to use 3 bar moves is difficult. i don't think i've ever had meds use raise on a fallen party member.
then theres the whole aoe field attacks thing. just like in x-2 they decided to include aoe attacks instead of attacks that just automatically hit everything on the field. and just like in x-2 they stupidly forgot to give you control of character positioning. aoe attacks make defenders utterly useless because your party is usually standing within inches of eachother. seriously why even have defenders at all when a majority of monsters use aoe attacks. then theres certain attacks that defy the rules for aoe field like roar, quake ect. aoe has many glaring issues and should just stop being used.
staggering was the best idea for the combat system. similar to x-2 the more combos play a major role in the battle system. a well placed combo can not only keep an enemy from attacking but also increases the guage on the top right of the screen. once you fill that guage damage from normal attacks sky rocket and certain moves during the end of stagger inflict major pain on the enemy (highwind plus scourge effect from commando role ftw) it also makes a majority of battles easy since certain enemys are immune to attacks or other things until staggered and then become cannon fodder :P. plus theres everyones favorite past time juggling behemoths.
the story is ok but lacks proper pacing and is often pretty badly written. we're the heros, moms are tough ect.
lets see upgrading and ability synth isn't gone over enough in the tutorials, it was annoying that there were so many missible mobs like the grenades in chapter 11. alot of monsters were just the same skin with a different name DX. all they did with neo ochu was add a little red. they really need better monster designs.