[Kabukibear]

I recently managed to get ahold of a copy of Dragon Quest VIII to rent, specifically to check out the FFXII demo. It really only consisted of the promo and then missions that seemed to just show off the battle system. I only played through a little of them as they were a little boring but the one thing I noticed that was REALLY different from past FF was the fact that there were no random battles. You could see the monsters as you ran around a level. Also, when you entered into battle you actually battle on the same screen you explore on. What I mean is you don't enter a "battle mode," like the previous FF where you're standing there and you choose your moves and such. You still have to choose your moves and it uses the ATB, but you're still able to run around on screen while you do it.

My question is, what are your thoughts on this battle system? I, frankly, was a little put off by it. It was hard for me to get used to still having to choose commands and wait for them to be acted out, but still able to control my character. I kept pressing the action button to attack like I would in, say, Kingdom Hearts. It was hard for me to get used to. One thing I really didn't like is, if you're going to include the ability to move your characters mid battle, why not give them YOU the ability to dodge attacks rather than making it statistically based? It was annoying, because I would see the monsters begin the attack motions, so my ass would run away, and even though they slashed at me with an axe and I was about 15 feet away it still hit me. I thought that was kind of pointless.

Anyway, anyone elses thoughts on the matter would be welcome.