What's your favorite battle system in an RPG?

Mine would either be Tales of Vesperia or The World Ends With You. I'm more of an ARPG kinda guy.

Honorable Mention: Baten Kaitos/Baten Kaitos Origins. An often overlooked gem

This is a thread I can get into.:D

Thus far, I think the best system I've seen has been the Growlanser system. It's more of an SRPG than anything, and the different objectives you have throughout the game reflect that quite well(some missions have you run from a level 40 enemy when you're probably level 15 or so). The only time I felt it got annoying, admittedly, was when you tried to attack a soldier who was attacking someone else who was trying to run away(ex: A --> B --> C -->). So many things I think they did right in that...I'd love to see it implemented more often, honestly.

Record of Agarest War seems to be another interesting gem...but I have to give it more playtime to confirm that.

Well I've certainly seen a lot of good battle systems, but I think I tend to prefer ones that are more original than others but are still fun and work well. Valkyria Chronicles did this beautifully, and the MegaTen games tend to feature interesting combat systems as well, and there are quite a few that actually put priority in preparing for battle rather than the actual battles themselves.

For Solo battles... Diablo hands down...
For Party... FFXII...

They are the first ones that came to my mind. xD

I've always wanted to try Valkyria Chronicles but haven't gotten a chance to yet. I've heard the new one for PSP is good.

ff12 for sure
but i'm lazy

i also liked zone of the enders: fist of mars. it's turn based strategy with something of a 'locator' system in battles to get good hits.

Growlanser 2 (also very conducive to lazy one handed playing ^___^)
Sakura Wars - So long my love (ps2) (I freakin' love this system)
Shadow Hearts
Luminous Arc 1 + 2

Grandia 3's.

The story... isn't all that good but the battle system kept me playing. That combo system and everything? Man, that was fun.

Maybe not the best or my favourite, but I really enjoyed the tapping of Magical Starsign.
I like SRPGs, but there aren't really any in particular that stand out for combat system... Anyone know of a good one that isn't too same-ish?
I'm playing through DQIX right now and I think the coup de graces and the coop de graces are really cool. I think that that kind of addition really makes it stand out among turn-based rpgs.

I'd prefer the battle systems of Tales of Symphonia,
Star Ocean- The Second Story, Grandia, Evolution Worlds and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom.

I'm personally fond of Grandia's time gauge-based system, especially since one of the core tenets is using it to interrupt and cancel attacks; beyond that, Rogue Galaxy, Resonance of Fate, and Shadow Hearts are on my short-list of CRPG Combat Systems.

That's neat.

Final Fantasy VIII anyone?.......

Seriously though, the Tales series have awesome battle systems. Eternal Sonata is neat too for something different. Then there are the Final Fantasy series of which X is the standout for me. Liked that you could switch party members in and out during the battle. The Sphere Grid probably made it better too as you were constantly unlocking new options to use in battles.

I only just recently played a demo of the PC game, but I really like the Ys series battle system.

Some battle systems that really stood out for me were Legend Of Dragoon, Ys , and Final Fantasy X. I loved the extra hits you could connect in Legend of Dragoon. I loved the action rpg style of Ys but not the bumper battle system of I or II. I loved that you could switch out characters mid-battle in FFX.

Persona/MegaTen series.

Getting monsters/demons to JOIN YOU?

Fuck-Yeah!

Chrono Trigger
1. No random encounter, you can see the enemy and battle takes place IN the field. Some enemy can be avoided, but some can't - it's really a balanced encounter, I guess :P
2. Single, Double & Triple tech!
3. Also use ATB (Active Time Battle system) - You can even choose active or wait battle system :D