that's strange, i heard that the gameplay was pretty fast like in ToS. What the deal is is u probably just haven't really gotten into it and stuff. The same thing struck my mind when i first played ToS. At first the battles seemed oversimplified and gay, but once i got about 10 hours or so into it i was hooked. Just wait until u get more party members and techs and stuff before making up your mind. Wait til you've truly tried the game's flavor.