Not to shit up this thread any more, since it’s a great thread about a great game, but you’re full of shit and don’t know what you’re talking about.
FFXIII is a very fast paced game, and is designed to have battles complete quickly once you figure out how it works. The strongest enemy in the game, the Long Gui, can be beaten in about 90 seconds with the right strategy, and does not need to rely on any cheap exploits or glitches. Every other tough boss in the game can be beaten as quickly if you know what you’re doing.
The people complaining about FFXIII’s battle system usually do inane things like using Commando roles the entire time and wonder why they’re never doing any damage.
None of this is a knock against the great CTB in FF X, but to call a battle system that is 100% turn based (which allows for slow paced strategic thinking) as fast as FFXIII is simply false.
In FF13, the entire game is going from battle to battle. And 90% of the battle time is spent building up the stagger bar, and then once filled you can do a lot of damage. Yeah it doesn't take 5 hours, but when you're running from battle to battle to battle to battle....to battle....and you have to go through the same song and dance every time to build up the stagger bar for the majority of the fight time, relatively speaking it feels really drawn out.
In FFX on the other hand, those typical field battles you come across throughout the game will see the player taking out each individual enemy with one or two hits each. You take out each enemy much quicker.
To put it simply, the typical FFX battle feels like this:
-Battle starts with three enemies
-"Fuck this enemy!" Killed
-"Fuck this enemy!" Killed
-"Damn, I got hit hard by the last enemy, so let's cast Cura".
-"OK let's cast Silence on this last enemy."
-"Let's fuck this guy up with this special attack"
-"And now let's finish you off!" Killed
Your actions are significant and you move from each action instantly.
The typical FFXIII battle feels like this:
-Battle starts with three enemies:
-"OK lets start with paradigm A on the first enemy to builder the stagger gauge"
-Waits for stagger gauge to build
-"Alright, the enemy is staggered so now we switch to this other paradigm to do massive damage"
-First enemy killed
-"OK lets start with paradigm A on the second enemy to builder the stagger gauge"
-Waits for stagger gauge to build
-Your party is taking some damage, so switch to the healing paradigm
-Party is healed, so switch back to the previous paradigm
-Waits for stagger gauge to build
-"Alright, the second enemy is staggered so now we switch to this other paradigm to do massive damage"
-Second enemy killed
-"OK lets start with paradigm A on the third enemy to builder the stagger gauge"
-Waits for stagger gauge to build
-"Alright, the enemy is staggered so now we switch to this other paradigm to do massive damage"
-Third enemy killed
It's the same overall, relatively drawn out, formula that you have to go through every time for both the "trash mob" battles and the bosses. And there is always a chunk of time where you're just kind of waiting for the bar to build while your characters hop around on-screen. The beauty of FFX is that you can go as fast or as slow as you want. So you can speed through most of the typical fights, while taking your time if needed for harder fights and bosses.
Don't get me wrong. FF13's battle system is pretty good, but it's not good enough to carry the entire game, which unfortunately it has to do since there is nothing else. Since the entirety of gameplay consists of battles, I would have greatly preferred to not be required to build the stagger gauge every single time. It gets nauseating after a while. Luckily Final Fantasy 7 Remake realized that error, and made the stagger bar more of an optional aspect that you can take advantage of if you want, more-so for bosses (but even then it's sometimes not necessary).