Do you consider fun to memorize fights?

[Fendred]

Any well designed boss fight worth its salt is going to have patterns for players to recognize and exploit because that is the basis of good encounter design. A boss that switches tactics is merely changing his attack pattern, which in turn is a pattern that players can recognize. If I do action x, he will start doing x, y, z, but he will do a, b, c if I do something else.

The problem with the encounter design here is not the lack of dynamically changing boss tactics, but rather that many of the attacks that end game bosses have come without any warning or cues. For instance, Twintania puts a big glowing symbol above someone's head. How is that supposed to indicate he is going to lob a fireball that spreads its damage out among players? All I know is he is targeting me with something fire related, so I really have no idea how to react to it as a new player. Furthermore, what indication does it give that it has a relationship with the fiery whirlwind he uses on other players? What are those strange platforms he puts on the ground? Do they give any indication of how they are supposed to be used?

The problem is not patterns, but the lack of sufficient cues for pattern recognition. In addition, no pattern should come so suddenly that a new player cannot in some hypothetical situation compensate for it. Ifrit EX's room wide plumes after each leap comes entirely without any warning and is instant death if the players don't know they need to stand in certain spots.