To me it sounds like it makes battles a waste of time.
Actually it came up because I find battles in general to be a waste of time. They're often a bunch of flashy graphics (or just plain animations) but in the end it's you win or die. With my system, there would still be a battle but without all the loading, effects and then returning back to the map. - If I'm going to win, just do it already and let me get on with my quest.
If I'm understanding what you are saying correctly, Backstage was an RM2k game with a battle system like that. It got pretty annoying because it really didn't tell you how much damage you had and then shit would walk up to you and you'd get killed without being able to do anything about it. So basically I hacked the shit out of it and put in way more healing stations.
I hadn't thought of that. I was thinking that you would simply keep track on how much of your life bar went down, and gauge the monsters in the area like that. A thought came up once of giving the monsters a kind of difficulty meter above their heads that changed based on the current state of the player. I will look for that game and see what's up.
Mike, one question- if you do it the way you suggest, how is the hero going to get stronger? If it's not by battling there will have to be some other way, or the hero will never be stronger than the monster.
He get's stronger by, well... having more characters in his team actually, like cannon fodder :P. Each member contributes an amount of health and attack strength, along with spells. If that character leaves the party then they take their stats and abilities with them. Because there is no battle scene, I wouldn't have to worry about having more than 4 party members. And you could also buy weapons and armor, with varying types depending on your team makeup.
But all that is still being worked on. I am here to develop the basic idea of running around.