It's turned based.

So it is not.

Battle system wise no one beats Grandia in my humble opinion, in terms of FF I like it better than FF-X (which was my favorite till now). I would have liked it more if it was turn based :D

Good Battle systems:

- Last Remnant
- Star Ocean
- Tales series

But FFXIII Battle System is a evolution of FFX-2 is it not but FFX-2 battle system was epic and both have Awesome job systems. 

1) Most (definitely not all) JRPG's require as much strategy as you want them to. If you grind, the game will be easy, but if you go into battles at lower levels, strategy becomes very important.

It depends, some JRPG's don't allow you to grind to a point where you become too overlevelled to take on any enemy.

That's why I consider Parasite Eve one of the best battle systems ever. It had set pieces which you couldn't replay nor couldn't grind. So you were always on pair with enemy levels. It all boiled down on how you customized your weapons and armour, your dodging skills and your strategic use of P.E powers,

@lestatdark

I actually thought the whadya call em....level limits or something in FF13 would make sure enemies are challenging

but that isn't the case if you grind (in chapter 11 anyway).

But if you don't pay attention....even easy enemies can kill you (in FF13).

In my experience FFX has the best TBA Battle System in a FF game and FFX-2 and FFXIII have the best ATB Battle System in a FF game.  

That's true though, but in every chapter you can grind into the limit of the Crystarium level available up there. 

While very limited, it still allows you to be a bit overpowered in relationship to the enemies.

But you're right, especially in later chapters, normal enemies can obliterate you if you're not careful and aren't overlevelled.  

It sounds a little like FFX, I enjoyed FFX but I tend to lean more towards the FF7 play style.
I'm still waiting on how versus comes along.

Actually, it's the complete oposite from FFX, unless you were thinking of FFX-2 :P