I figured out episode II's battle system right off the bat and is blew right off the bat. It was just boring, long and tedious. Not too far into the game you get an ability that regenerates health when you block/charge your boost or whatever. That turned the whole game into a war of attrition for me because I could beat any enemy and any boss in the EXACT same way. It required zero effort and zero thought to win.

In all honesty I can't even remember the ES battles but I have a feeling they were either the same thing but in mechs or was something else that required you just charge up to use the best attack and nothing else. I could be wrong but since I don't remember it, I assume it wasn't nearly as bad as the rest of the game.

If there is one thing I hate in most RPGs it is random battles that take too long with little pay off and XSII is exactly that. The battles take forever and you don't get much exp or anything for the time you spent on it. This usually make me run away from random battles in hopes that the next area gives me a decent amount and that I can power level there for a short time...this usually back fires in my face because that area doesn't come up for about 4-5 dungons later if ever.

XS II is one of those rare games where this didn't backfire because it was so pathetically easy due to the horrendously monotonous battle system. I never had to stop and level up and was still able to run away from probably 60% of all random battles.

That isn't to say that XSI or III were a great standard. XSI was abusive in that you could make characters insanely strong really fast. This lead to there not being much challenge but at least I wasn't wasting my time. XSIII was just typical which I guess makes it the best because there was more control on the part of the developer to prevent abuse and confine you. In that aspect it was really the best balance and thus best system. It remained challenging without being overly hard, easy, monotonous or speedy. It was right inbetween it all and even though you had a lack of freedom to upgrade character stats, it still turned out the best for that reason. Over modification made it too easy.

You know what...smurf XSII. smurf IT! smurf smurf smurf smurf smurf smurf smurf IT!