I think an excellent model for battles is FFT (in difficulty, not battle system). The random battles WERE the game for the most part. If we start thinking cross genre, can you imagine someone playing an FPS and thinking "man, I wish there were less enemies so I could run through to the end of the level quicker." This idea seems so rediculous, because in FPS games, killing stuff is the game. Can you imagine if they made an RPG that had a battle system so involving that you just wanted to run around in circles in a dungeon for the fun of killing stuff?