Press x till the fight's over, walk to the next one. Repeat.
As a long time fan, I am very disappointed in this installment. I don't know what else to say. It's linear, repetitive and boring. Normally, I would say "maybe fanboys will like this". Unfortunately, I'm an FF fanboy and I still don't like this.
Maybe I'm being a bit too critical... The story isn't good, it's great (although the characters aren't all that interesting) and the game isn't pretty, it's absolutely beautiful. If I'm coming off as too critical, it's because I am comparing this game to other games from what is probably the greatest RPG franchise ever. In that context, it just doesn't stand up. Other people have said, "just get through the first 20 hours and it gets a lot better". That may be true, but that seems like a pretty weak RoI to me.