i hate turn based combat, but personally, i loved FF7''s implementation simply because I love FF7..the battles were smooth and fun, and materia made it even cooler. i also loved zelda64 and its real time battles, but the ocarina wasn''t a very in-depth game..it seemed more like an adventure game than anything..so i''m not sure if i''m into the whole real time combat for RPGS.. im sure there are plenty of other battle systems out there im not mentioning, and maybe some of you have some nifty ones in mind. care to share (btw, not here to rip off anyones ideas, im not even working on a game, just curious as to your opinions).

I really liked the combat system from Chrono Trigger, the tech combos were really cool, I think it would have been perfect if it had limit breaks, which is why FFVII has my second favorite battle system. A little different one was in Star Ocean 2, which cut to battles like the FF games, but they were in real time, and a lot of fun because they were nice and fast, but still took some strategy.

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We get signal.
There are bombs exploding all around us!!

The battle system from Drakan was great. Though that is an adventure game

-Maarten Leeuwrik
"Some people when faced with the end of a journey simply decide to begin anew I guess."

I personally liked the combat system in severance: Blade of darkness. The gore element was a nice touch also

I think it''d have too be real time
with interesting direction.

"There''s so much too do, and a lot of you are wasting time.
This is ART dagnammit! get creative or get buried."

i found ff9s battle system to be quite innovative, but trances were far too easy to reach

Actually, my fave was from a non-game RPG called GURPS (http://sjgames.com/gurps). It''s a pretty cool idea, but the main downside is there aren''t levels of skills to advance through. If you start the game with a 9, for instance, then you''re stuck with a 9 for the rest of the game. If I ever make an RPG based on it, I might change that. Or not.

If you would criticize another person, you must first walk a mile in their moccasins. That way, If they get mad, they''ll be a mile away and barefoot.

Anyone play Golden Sun for the GBA? The battle system in that was great!

You had to collect these animals called Djinni throughout the game, and depending on what groupings you equipped them in, they would give you different spells (Also depending on the characters skill level with the Djinni grouping; the Djinni determined the player''s "Class").
Also, if the Djinni were set to a character, then they increased the characters stats. You could release them during battle to use a special effect at the cost of these stats. But also, while they were released, you could combine the power of a few of them in a powerful summon spell. If you did this, they would need 1-4 turns in battle to recover, after recovering, they would be set to their owner once again.
Also, with the different types of range spells (ie: the spells affect different numbers of characters, and by different amounts depending if they are close to or far from the cenetr of the spell), there is a lot of strategy you can use in battles, especially ones with 7 or more enemies.

''Bout the consol-rpg battle systems:

Final Fantasy 7. Fun in the beginning but got repetetive... And you could too easily max out your characters and make them almost god-like in strength.

FF8. A slow battle system and also very dull. The magic was simply annoying to "draw" from enemies.

FF9. Incredibly slooooooow. Battles takes ages! But the system is still a great improvement over FF8.

Chrono-Trigger. A very good battle system... The combo idea was great too!

Golden Sun. Great looking for a hand-console game! Also fast, and entertaining. Battles aren''t as much of a chore as they are in the FF games.

Final Fantasy X has an AWESOME battle system! No more Active Time Battle...time passes only when you execute a command, meaning faster battles. You can also change your characters/armor/weapons during battle.