One thing I'll miss that probably won't be there, at least in light of the last few games, is an actual world. I hope to be proven wrong.

Random encounters were great because they allowed storytelling to be continuous. Characters could converse in battle, or certain events could happen in the middle of them. This includes Gilgamesh being caught in funny situations in FFV, or Palmer getting hit by a truck in FFVII ending the battle. For FFXII, they had to basically stop battle, begin a cutscene, end the cutscene, and begin a new battle. That's regression.