Konami's Suikoden has always been by favorate RPG series next to Final Fantasy. Though the only reason I put FF above it is because of graphics. Suikoden's battle system is pretty tight. You fight with 6 characters at a time instead of the traditional 3. Once your characters get pretty strong, you'll never have to waste much time on weaker enemies. You can just hit auto, and all 6 charcters will attack at once. Runes suppy a character with magic. Though unlike most RPGs where magic is just a non-physical attack, in Suikoden magic is pretty powerful. Therefore the number of times you use it in battle is limited. Suikoden features up to 200 characters. Some returning from the first, others brand new. Of course, when dealing with that many characters the only true difference between them is their appearance, weapons and background. There battle options would pretty much be the same. Some characters can do speacial tag -team like moves with each other. {Example: Father and son etc}