If anyone is still curious about the combat, and strategy potential, there's a FF fan Podcast where they talk about the combat a lot. They usually play FFXIV and other FF games so they know a lot about the history of the series, and did their homework on how the combat got to where it was.
https://youtu.be/_TKgg78gyFU?t=807 Combat talk starts at 13:43 ends at 1:20:00, they answered all of my concerns, it sounds interesting to me, and if I got it today at least I'll know what I'm in for (waiting on mpatches, DLC, and how new game+ will turn out).
Some highlights:
They like the feel.
The whole game is built around developing iFrames (invincibility animation abilities).
It only ever felt bad to them in one instance (the long gigantic boss battle).
Didn't like the lack of control you have over your allies.
No really engaging fights that force you to learn mechanics in the game.
Felt it was very forgiving (Got hit? Chug a potion).
AI should at least learn to avoid stuff sometimes, not all the time (you can call them away from danger with abilities).
A lot more...
Maybe new game+ will force playing skillfully. Though the AI will probably piss people off if they die to stuff they should learn to avoid, like the Snake coil poison AOE that takes a while to happen as they say in the discussion. Same situation in Dragon Age Inquisition but I can control each of them to get out of the way, hold their position out of the aoe, and position the melee if there's a safe spot for them to continue fighting.
