I think "you don't know how to play the game" is a bad counter argument. Maybe they still think it's slow for an actual reason. Besides when you are doing everything the tutorials teach you and are winning battles easily but they are just taking really long, that's more a flaw of the game design.
It's a slow battle system. Yeah it can get faster but not until you grind up all the various abilities to make it faster and optimize your builds to make it faster but that's the equivalent of saying Final Fantasy XIII opens up after 30 hours. I think it's made worse that things that aren't actually slow about it are made to feel slow. Playing it after Xenoblade 1 and X really highlights the slow battle pace.
You're the second person to compare it to FFXIII I've seen and I don't get the false comparison there as you literally have zero control over your party aside from upgrade trees for a good chunk of the beginning of the game, and the party members and stuff are all locked for stuff for quite some time. It's hardly comparable, but I digress.
The "you don't know how to play the game" is a valid argument, but not one that's the player's fault. The Tutorials being convuluted and badly conveyed (And I'm a huge advocate for the game and its fight system) is a large part of that problem. Unless you're a mega nerd like me watching Enel's videos and making spreadsheets and shit on optimum setups and everything, it can be kinda tough sure.The amount of people asking what driver combos, blade combos, fusion combos, etc are is part and parcel for the game especially when you couldn't save tutorials without screenshotting them when the game launched.
But the moment you get Roc and can do a full driver combo at that point if you're still taking a long time to fight basic enemies that's because you're not playing it right, full stop. The only thing I'd say that would counter that is some of the boss designs where they will put a dps check or something in the middle of it like the Torna fight in the snow where they get OP at one point unless you do things right.
Again, people who say the battles take too long are either at the beginning of the game or not engaging with the system, it's as simple as that. If "too long" is the equivalent to a normal turnbased fight (which on average is what XB2 encounters end up being as time goes on) then I guess the game isn't for you.
However they all share the same issue that it's not really thinky, and that's why I usually prefer Turn-based battle system, my favorites this gen being SteamWorld Quest and Octopath Traveler.
Disagree here, because ignoring the timing element you can deep strategize fusion combos and team builds to solo bosses and/or create OP builds with the right blades on the right drivers. You may be able to "beat it" but the fight system rewards you for "thinking" for sure. I will always prefer turn based combat myself though for sure, and while I liked the job system of Bravely Default a lot I think Octopath had a better risk reward system in place and better synergy with the actions available.
Driver combos are quite controllable.
Nia and Morag both have arts that break, beginning the chain, then Rex has access to blades that allow him to to all the other conditions (Topple-Launch-Smash).
You only need to depend on the characters for the first step, and the AI will always prioritize it if the art is available.
I had Rex with Pyra/Mythra (Topple), T-elos (Launch), and Roc (Smash), and with the other characters I could cover the entirety of the elemental types by the endgame.
This is something that's overlooked a lot as well. You can even cheese the system in a lot of ways since the AI is predictable.
AI will always try to break first, so if you have a character that you want to shift between blades, take off the break arts or watch them repeat the same moves. For example I took off break arts for my AI controlled companions that weren't my designated breaker with the scopes and skills that make their break resist lower because then they'd only spam that art or not change blades at all. This is really bad for healers for example because they'll still try to break despite needing to heal sometimes.
AI will always try to complete a driver combo, so if you launch and they can smash, as soon as they are able they will change blades to smash.
This is especially great later when you get Tora's second and third blade who can do a whole combo on their own, and some quick swap accessories/customizations for Poppi.
I always played as Zeke and let Tora break, meaning I always did the middle two hits while until we got the light blade that gives everyone smash I let Rex smash with Roc because it was always reliable.
The AI will always prioritize Combos so you can use that as a reliable way to manipulate the drivers and AI and how they work. It's great.
