I think Golden Sun had one of the better battle systems of RPG's. You had the 8 characters, you could swap at any time, and they all gained EXP.

FFXII was alright, except they didn't all gain EXP. So while you could swap at anytime, if you lose your main 3, my other 3 basically were just put out individually so I could run away.

As for the whole level grinding thing... It should get to the point that enemies barely give enough exp to make a difference. And therefore you have to be in a harder area to gain levels anyways. You should never be at a point where you're UBER above any enemy you can face. As soon as you become masterful at killing a certain area of monsters, they should be giving negligible EXP. So you move onto the next area, and you somewhat struggle at first. This is why I'm a fan of endgame special dungeons. Stuff that you basically have to be capped to even stand a chance in, that's fun to me.

THE JACKEL