You're making the same argument that my friend's been making, saying that there are upgrades later on that make the combat system less shitty. I just wanna know why the combat system can't be fun all the time. Like why can't it just start out being good, then get better, instead of starting out horrible and becoming bearable. I'm "used" to the "two screen battle system" if you wanna say the top screen even counts. I do have it set to Manual and Normal mode and shit. It's like, I can get through the battles, it just takes a while because the enemies have stupid amounts of HP, there's a stupid amount of enemies, and my fully upgraded pins do pitiful damage. So yeah, I can do it, it's just not been fun, and the game's given me no indication that it will ever get fun. Leveling up doesn't feel very good, because it doesn't really boost too many stats. There's also something about the battles in general. Like the top screen doesn't ever feel like you're doing damage to enemies. It never ever feels any good to do anything with the top screen. And it barely feels decent to do damage on the bottom screen. The attacks feel so weak and flaccid and whatever. Satisfying sounds and appropriate reactions when you hit enemies go a long way, apparently. Oh, and I guess one thing that's annoying is how often the enemies will just fly off the screen and then fly back to you for absolutely no reason. There's a lot of waiting involved because good luck trying to follow them with the iffy movement controls.