Keeping 'random' battles interesting is one of the more important parts of an RPG, ihmo. In the early games you had to be on your toes because if you didn't fight efficiently you wouldn't have enough MP to make it through the dungeon. In the recent enstalments, with HP/MP restoring save points, and even worse MP restoring with time, all non boss encounters seemed to become more and more filler like. By finaly doing away with the last reminants 'wear the party down' concept they can hopefuly make non-boss encounters fun again.

I don't like what I'm hearing about AI characters in battle though. I've never once played a game where I have been pleased with my AI teamates.