>>84125
>I mean sure man. to each their own. I noticed that lots of Final Fantasy tried making a spin on combat to make it more engaging starting at X.
You really haven't played the older Final Fantasy games if that is your take. The ATB system has been a staple of the series since FF4. And FFX actually "regressed" in some respects as it's combat is much more primitive compared to series like Grandia.
And if you "loved" the combat for FFX, then you would adored the first Hyperdimension Neptunia. If you want to talk about "engagement" from the perspective "player involvement", there's still lots of other games. Time & Eternity has a rather active combat system, similar to the Mario RPGs. Then you have Bamco's Tales series where the combat has essentially been a beat 'em up since the original Phantasia on the SNES. And even Square's own Parasite Eve, where the combat mixes in the ATB system with some shmup elements, far predating one of the "advancements" I often hear people give Undertale praise for.
Not accusing you of anything, but majority of the complaints I've seen people making about turn-based combat often stem from the fact that their experience with JRPGs almost exclusively stems from their "primary" source of reference being Pokemon, Western-made clones, and/or RPG Maker games (And possibly three others games, at least one of which is a Final Fantasy game). And so they project that experience across the entire genre when the reality is that Enchanted Arms plays wildly different from Skies of Arcadia. Perhaps the genre really isn't "for you", but actually give games like Resonance Of Fate and series like Wild Arms an honest chance. If anything, at least look into the SRPGs like Growlanser.