Edge7: Vagrant Story is also excellent but its gameplay is a dividing issue. The combat is pretty unique and in all seriousness, I would almost argue VS defies being pigeon-holed into ant particular genre. Its considered an action/rpg/adventure game. It's really good, and its hard for me to say which is better between VS and Xenogears.

Bolivar: Lord, you're not even that far in yet. You should only have done about seven real boss fights by this point. I can't say you're far enough in to see the real boss fights, though the Elly fight where you have to go through her minions first, get used to that. The game LOVES making you do multiple boss fights in a row, and they do get harder.

Fighting without Gears is pretty easy, but don't worry, the game will throw some nasty enemies at you and some really agonizing boss fights as well. You actually haven't quite reached the point where the game stops playing with the kiddy gloves. The Gear fights will become increasingly difficult as well, cause that is where most of the resource management/strategy really starts to come into play.

The Ramses fight wasn't really that scripted, though it is hard to lose when you've got Margie giving unhindered support, but its not like Miang isn't doing the same for Ramses. You can actually lose that fight. I don't even remember the Vanderkaum fight being scripted, though I do remember his fight also being a matter of luck, as to how badly he spams his moves that remove party members from the fray. Weltall is awesome, but you do need those support units.