TOP TEN TOPIC: RPG BATTLE SYSTEMS (BY GAME)

I could only think of 9, and I have never played any tactical RPGs except Ogre Battle, and I didn't like it much.

9. Baldur's Gate
Pausing the battle at any time while characters maintained their own turn counts. It was pretty slick!

8. Jade Empire
Like KOTOR, except with button timing. I didn't like it as much, but still good.

7. E.V.O. Search for Eden
This was basically a platformer, but biting enemies and then eating their remains is always good fun!

6. Secret of Mana
The only console action RPG I really enjoyed!

5. Dragon Warrior 4
I'm weird in that I liked the lack of control of party members in battle. The Tactics option was all I needed, anyway. And I like DQ battle system in general, because it's great for balancing. Everyone gets an action per turn.

4. Final Fantasy 4/5/6
Sideview battle systems at their finest!

3. Chrono Trigger
Double and triple techs ruled.

2. Diablo II
Intense clickfest.

1. Knights of the Old Republic I/II
I LOVE this battle system. It's passive, yet I can pause and control my characters' next move(s), AND there are lightsabres. Win Win.

10.Arcanum
Arcanum's battle system is really quite shit. It tries to combine real-time with turn-based in a badly made mix. However there is one good thing about the system and that is that it goes really fast. The real time battling means that killing critters takes two seconds and the turn based part means that harder battles can be planned.
The balance is quite bad though.

9.Planescape Torment
I never liked the Infinity Engine battle system but Planescape Torment had one thing that set it apart from the other games. You were immortal. Battles became endlessly less frustrating when you knew you couldn't die. I just went into a place, whacked away and hoped for the best. The bad battle system didn't shine through in the slightest.

8.Secret of Mana
This is really a stand in for the action Zelda-type battling. Action based and all that and it does it well. With timed hits that takes different amounts of damage and all that. I like it. And it seems balanced enough.

7.Vampire Bloodlines
This is the stand in for FPS-RPG mechanics. Essentially the shaking big crosshair that becomes smaller as your skills increase. Deus Ex also had it. Bloodlines does some aspects better than Deus Ex though. Namely close combat. So I picked it before Deus Ex.

6.Fallout
Fallout's turn based system with percentages and aimed shots is a lovely one. The only bad thing is essentially that killing critters takes a while. Basically useless battles take too long.

5.Ogre Battle
Ogre Battle's strategic battle system is one of my favorite ever. The fact that you don't directly control your fighters makes for a lot more exciting gameplay than usual. And it makes you feel like you're actually a general ordering people around rather than control people directly. It's a great concept and one I'd love to see in more strategic/tactical RPGs.

4.Fallout Tactics
Fallout Tactics has a lot of flaws but I'd say that the battle system isn't one of them. It improves on a lot of things and makes the interface easier to navigate. The bad thing is probably the real-time combo which doesn't entirely work. But at the same time it is pretty nice. With the overwatch and other rules that makes controlling the soldiers easier.
It's also the first of this kind of game I ever played and the satisfaction of (in real time) crouching behind a sandbag wall with multiple guys and then standing up with all of them at once shooting the guy behind with automatic fire is one of the best there is in gaming.

3.Temple of Elemental Evil
I didn't think D&D's battle system could ever work in any variation anywhere anywhen. I generally hate it. But the fact is that in ToEE it works. It's still the clunky DnD, but somehow, when it finally is really faithfully reconstructed in acomputer based turn-based gameplay, it's a lot of fun. All those rules seem to click to place.

It's still easy to die though. And healing means you always have to run back and forth everywhere.

2.Jagged Alliance 2
Jagged Alliance 2 has got a lot of good things going for it. Not just its battle system. But the battle system is wonderful. It keeps track of a lot of things and one of the more interesting parts is the fact that there are now percentage-to-hit chances around and you never really know how/if you will hit or not. This is a feature that is occasionally frustrating but also very interesting and adds to the realism of the whole thing.
I've always played it with the realistic setting on so I don't know if it's different in the normal mode. But I know that my guys always bleed to death...

1. Silent Storm
Silent Storm has most of the things JA2 has but adds to it destructible terrain. Destructible terrain is the best thing ever in tactical games because it adds so many elements. Of course things break a bit easy sometimes but still if it was too realistic it mightn't be as fun. (Though I think it very well might be. It wouldn't be as much of a gimmick and instead you'd really have to think about using explosives to blow things up)

10-6. FF'S 1, 2, 7, 4, 6 in that order. They make for great ATB battling. (FF3 DS is suppossed to let you battle a friend in real time, I don't know.

5. Alter AILA - Goes to show that you only ever need one ability, since Neok's extensive list of items more than make up for it.

4. FFX2 - Would have been higher if it had less horrible jpop cutscenes and more fast-paced battles. And I mean more battles, not faster pace (that'd be hard to imagine.)

3. Diablo II - If you don't know why, gtfo and take your fail with you.

2. FFX - Polar opposite of its sequel (Good story instead of shitty, CTB instead of ATB, etc.) I actually liked the deliberate, strategic atmosphere of battles. Or maybe just having 99,999 HP and no MP costs, automatic Phoenix down usage (expensive!) and a 1,899,981 damage attack (Blitz Ace for the win.)

1. PERSONA 3: FES on Supreme difficulty - This is just punishing. Just grueling. Enemies start of with attacks that reduce your defense to zero, or nullify your elemental resistances, or even disable your current Persona for the rest of the battle. And if it's your healer, you lose -no way around it. Some try it, and then tell me it's not hard.