I didn't hate Graces. Malik and Pascal are bae. :c
Took me a little over two years to finish it though because I was playing through with friends and we all had to coordinate schedules to play together.
I might have something similar going on that I did with FFXIII as well, where I don't have enough experience with other games in the series to judge it in context.
Each one has a set of cards assigned to it that do different things. I have 9 of them, so each little battle can include me scanning 9 amiibos. 1 to increase the exp, 1 to increase the coins, 1 to make my attack cost no BP, 1 to increase my star points, etc etc. I end up spending more time scanning the amiibos than playing the game and get burned out.
Well, what I meant was I played it right after Symphonia. It was hot garbage. Bad dungeons. Empty-ass towns. Obnoxious story and characters. I don't know how I managed to finish the main game.
That doesn't mean you should take a better battle system in exchange for everything else being worse. The overall package is more important than individual parts.
I'll probably post my thoughts/experience on the Souls board because the game is pretty similar... starting Nioh in a few days.
i've been on the fence on that one since forever. looking forward to your review
started the post-game dungeon in berseria yesterday and got bored after a couple of fights. i might put this one down for good. great story and characters, but the combat is just too lame