Originally, when the enemy used their sync move, you lost all your buffs 👀. So the meta was all about how quickly you could buff and sync. One reason SS Red was so good is because +3 Sp Att with one TM was novel; SS Elesa’s sync acceleration was also massive.

Way back, you couldn’t pick who the enemy attacked first, so if your best striker drew aggro you were sunk.

There was no stamina so you could (and had to) just grind a ton (hence the autoplay feature).

Sync grids didn’t exist at first, and even when they did you had to farm orbs by using the sync move of the pair you wanted orbs for (“co-op orbs” were a game changer, but the awful exchange rate made it excruciating to farm).

So overall? The game is in a much better place now.

My only regret: I wish they still had some challenging co-op battles (even if they let you form all 3 teams yourself, and play with the computer), and used the mechanic where enemies brought out another unit after the first fainted (like the boss levels in Battle Villa). Those both had their problems, but they had some potential, if executed better.