Isn't video games ultimately about memorizing?
Some more than others.

Compare XIV to XI, though, and XIV's dependence on memorizing mechanics is obvious. The battles in XIV are really only meant to be tackled a certain way -- within that narrow path, there is some room for variation, but you're pretty much on rails. In some battles, the boss literally follows a script regardless what the party does.

In XI, the fights depended less on a script and more on your balancing of jobs, subjobs and abilities. Different party setups often required completely different approaches. That's just not the case in XIV.

I'm not one of those folks who wants XIV to become XI 2.0, but it is what it is.