Final Fantasy VIII is by far the most innovative RPG I have played in a long while. So many new idea, where to start...<P... The battle system is Active Time: each character has a meter in battle; the meter fills up faster or slower, depending on the character's speed; when it reaches the top, the character can select his action. But here's the catch: enemies also attack according to their speed, and the meters do not stop while you're selecting what to do - you WILL get attacked while digging around in the menus. AS you can imagine, this adds a certain element of excitement to battles.