Quote Originally Posted by Sain Cai
also I like to be able to look for items instead of being pounded while doing so.
That's what the wait mode was for, which although I can't remember if FF4 and 5 had it, I know it was present in FF6 and after. I always preferred ATB since I liked the added pressure of having to think on my feet, although I also liked FFX's system as well since I think it offered more strategy potential than other turn based systems that give you no info on things like recovery time (or just don't have them).