yes, you can't run from battles in FF. You'll get screwed later and there will be no hope but for cheats, or a new game.

I loved the ending and the Final battles were good....but there was a LOT of them...well i guess the aeons and yu yevon don't count because of the auto-life. This was my favorite actually as far as story line goes. Except I liked the KH2 opening better...not by much though