Also don't find 7 all that much, liking it mostly for working well as a self-contained story (take a gander what I think about its expanded universe πΆ)
But as others said, story does pick up after a while, though at least in my impression, it still grows at a slow burner speed. And regarding the battles, and if you have the option, maybe pick a save editor to pump up the stats so you can avoid them as much as possible?