If you can't figure out how to know what commands you're issuing, you're doing it wrong.
The game takes a LONG time to learn, but by the end of my game, I knew exactly which commands I would have each turn and I was always able to heal or do what I wanted. The only ones I didn't know were the special attacks, although later on in the game, certain weapons give Weapon Arts that are basically the same thing, except the option to use them will always come up if you have the AP.
It isn't bad at all. It's just that people don't have the patience to learn it. Learning what Battle Ranks do and which characters are good to recruit, and who should be with who and what formations are good for what types of characters is extremely important. If you just try to throw some of everything into one group, you'll end up with a group specialized in nothing. It will always try to give you commands based on your amount of AP and the strongest available option that your Leaders have. If you have the AP and you have either the correct amount of healing items (along with the skills) or the correct spells, the game will ALWAYS let you heal.
The game can take up literally hundreds of hours even while using a guide. It has an obscene amount of sidequests and things to find and weapons to make and all that.
The ONLY thing in the game that I thought was unfair was the Curse status. Only a few enemies use it but when it hits, you have a random chance of dying on every turn for something like 5 turns.
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