I like my A.I. partners in Persona thank you very much and the Gambit system was awesome

I do agree it will be nice to have normal encounters being made more worthwhile but I'm a bit skeptical cause this might be like so many different combat systems in that it sounds great on paper and then falls apart in practice. Its usually when you have to deal with enemies after you party obtains high end abilities that you begin to see cracks in the combat system. The restoring health option might be a moot point if your party can be so awesome to decimate opponents in a few rounds once they learn -aga- spells or some high damage physical skill that can be spammed. We'll have to wait and see but I'm hopeful since they at least seem to be aware of the problem of useless non-boss encounters.