Just began piddling around on this game again and I have to say the battle system on this game is awesome. I know a lot of people hate it, but I think they took a step in a nice direction and it's a great way to break free of the random encounters without fully breaking free of it. I wonder how time consuming and costly it would be to could create a Final Fantasy with optional battle styles to chose from and add something like this for the people who like it and the traditional random encounter style for other players. I tend to like just about all the battle systems each game has to offer, and think it's great XII took such a leap in changing it for this game.