Yeah, you're probably gonna have a bad time if you aren't already digging the combat system. I actually didn't mind the system for the first few hours (initial impressions were a 7/10 for me) but the longer the game dragged on the less I enjoyed it, honestly for the same reason as you.
I don't think it would be as bad if the team AI were even remotely good. The game seems to want to force you to constantly switch between characters, but that kinda falls apart when every time you swap to Barret he's in the corner staring at the wall. The fact that limit breaks can fucking miss through no fault of the player (mostly due to how "cinematic" the combat tries to be) is simply inexcusable, and even one of my friends who liked the combat enough to beat the game on hard cited that as one of his biggest annoyances. Be sure to watch boss health bars like a hawk, because bosses often become invulnerable during phase transitions and the like.
But yeah, it definitely feels like the game has a bit of an identity crisis as far as the combat system goes, and it's really unfortunate. It almost feels like they switched focus in mid-development.
The other issue is that there is a monumental leap between normal and easy. I wasn't enjoying the combat at all at around the 7-8 hour mark so I decided to bump it down, and the easy setting ends up making it way, way too bloody easy. Like, to the point where you could practically set the controller down, make yourself a sammich, eat said sammich, and pick up where you left off with no major issues.
Oh, and the game eventually likes to throw borderline unavoidable status effects at you at a certain point. Get frozen, switch to Aerith, pry her away from the wall she's staring at, heal, switch to Cloud for the DPS, get frozen, switch to Aerith, get her to stop playing with a random butterfly, heal. Rinse, repeat. Kind of another instance of the game not knowing if it wants to have action mechanics or RPG mechanics, because the way it handles i-frames and dodging just feels straight up wonky.
And there is a lot of filler. Some of the additions are pretty fantastic, but in some cases you'll find yourself walking for several minutes with minimum dialogue, wandering past arena-shaped areas that you know are going to be questing areas. This is kind of an odd approach as it just shows off an empty, unpopulated world. The Midgar section of the game has always been pretty linear so I think it would have made a lot more sense if they shuttled the player from place to place so that they couldn't see behind the scenes.
I can't emphasize how much walking there is, either, and just to pour salt in the wound you don't unlock fast travel until you no longer need it. Ugh. :|
I'm really hoping that since they have a solid focus on what they're going for (I guess? That ending was seriously fucky) that part 2 ends up being a bit more coherent, at least from a mechanics perspective. I'm sure the development hell of the first slice of FF7R didn't help matters at all. Of course, that's all kind of a moot point if it's a PS5 exclusive, as I don't have any plans to buy either of the non-Nintendo current-gen consoles.
