Great Game - and I am not a big FF Fan. A couple "tweeks" from perfection...
1) Quickenings - nice cut scenes and all, but it takes you out of the action, ruining the "seamless" quality of the battles. It would have been better to keep the camera in the battle on some more integrated animation for the attacks - for example: I can envision the camera possibly freezing and then spinning you to the viewpoint of the quickening caster, seeing a more modest attack animation, then spining you to the next caster, and so on, then at the very end maybe giving you the movie for the big final hit. This would make the movies a bigger treat to only see them near the end, and make the battle more immersive and seamless. 2) Add a "brawler" mode - just like with quickenings, it would be nice to just get some special combat for your smash and chop characters. I can see a nice little mini segment where your character can mash buttons in real time and put a REAL hurt on the beasts! Possibly when you have a character in BERZERK mode, if you set that character as a leader it could give you some "live action" sword smashing. That would be enough to satisfy us button mashing fans, yet you could ignore it if it is "beneath" you. :)
3) PLEASE add two (at least) gambit "sets", so you can slide in, say, set A ,B or C in special situations. It is sick to have to reset 6 characters X 10 gambit slots = 60 slots to adjust for a boss and then adjust 60 again to put it all back to normal. Easy enough to allow three "sets" and HUGE improvement. It also would get people to use slicker gambit combos more often, making the whole experience better.
4) WAY too much running around and re-loading to talk to people. They should eliminate one step of finding the person for the hunts, that's for sure. The rule should be this - MINIMIZE the LOADS needed to get something done. If I have to LOAD about 7 times and truck through 5 areas just to talk to Mr. so-and-so its NOT FUN! It is BAD gaming design. I realize the chatting with folks and finding hidden secrets is part of the "charm" but it needs to be tighter and more satisfying. You should also get nice rewards for the trouble, not something insultingly worthless. How about a rule of thumb: at least one cool reward per 2 load screens of running around.
5) The CHAIN thing as implemented is kinda stupid. Why only kill one species? The general concept is good - you have to do something to get better rewards, but killing all one species sets back the game play. How about "how many creatures can you kill without using a cure?" Chain ends on a cure/curage/curaja/potion/hi-potion/x-pointing/elixer? Now THAT takes skill! Set all your cure gambits OFF and see how BAD you really are. Now tell me those changes won't just make this game nearly perfect!!??
Let add them to Final Fantasy XIII ?? (SInce it is 13 they should let you play the part of the "bad guys")