YES. There are multiple games where I loved the story and characters but never got far because I could not get past the damn combat. I don't even mind grinding, if necessary, but I hate having the narrative blocked by difficulty that they /could/ easily provide the option to gear down. And the people who love the tactical challenge can gear it up; everyone wins!
Time travel in XIII-2 meant jumping between different points on various timelines, so frequently you'd visit the same location in two different timelines and have very different experiences with the same NPCs and map and all. Sometimes frustrating, sometimes very cool. And sometimes if you solve a particular plot problem in one version of the the node, it'll unlock further ones that derive from it, so you can see the long-term effects of what you did... I liked the premise of that game more than the execution at times, and the ending was dumb, but I honestly enjoyed it quite a lot.
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Time travel in XIII-2 meant jumping between different points on various timelines, so frequently you'd visit the same location in two different timelines and have very different experiences with the same NPCs and map and all. Sometimes frustrating, sometimes very cool. And sometimes if you solve a particular plot problem in one version of the the node, it'll unlock further ones that derive from it, so you can see the long-term effects of what you did... I liked the premise of that game more than the execution at times, and the ending was dumb, but I honestly enjoyed it quite a lot.