It depends for me.
I used to think that I simply straight out hated it, but it turns out that this was just because of JRPGs.
I could imagine
how it could potentially be interesting, if it had unique situation, if it involved real strategy etc... but... it was never the case in JRPGs. None of the combats were ever strategic or felt unique.
I really dislike how in JRPGs (at least the ones I played), the combat system is almost always the same, with that Final Fantasy / Dragon Quest template. I never understood why they all had to be like this, it's just like when I wonder why all open worlds nowadays have to be in the same ubisoft-ish design.
The lack of strategy and just... involvement in general is really problematic for me in JRPGs. The most strategy you will get is something like use fire on an ice ennemy, which is something I could just as well do in real time, so I never understood the point, it just felt more tedious.
Another thing that drives me mad in these games, is how they actually never allow you to do any kind of strategy, in the few situations where you could.
For example, in Dragon Quest XI (the last turn based JRPG I played I think), there are spells / abilities (such as buffs or debuffs) that you will never use. Why? Because they aren't worth wasting on regular trash mobs, so you would only use it for boss fights, and... the bosses are always immuned to all these kinds of abilities. And even if you use buffs on your own characters, the boss will wipe out all the effect in the arena during the next turn, so you can't actually prepare anything, there's no sense of building something, it's frustrating and you just are forced to use basic attacks...
This is why I always disliked turn based, especially with it being often (at least in the past) being combined with annoying random encounters etc...
NOW, my thoughts completely changed last year, when I played
Baldur's Gate 3. I think that for the first time, I
truly enjoyed turn based combats.
This was everything I always wanted turn based to be, and I guess I just played the wrong games before. Each situation was UNIQUE, each fight was like a new puzzle, with real strategy, unique encounters that were never exactly the sames, being able to use the environment, move your character strategically, improvise any kind of goofy thing with all the systems the game lets you use. This was turn based mixed with the freedom of an immersive sim, and it was fantastic.
The fact that each combat was unique, ennemies didn't respawn etc, made it a lot more interesting.
And then... After enjoying my time with BG3, I thought I'd give another turn based game a chance, and I decided to play
Midnight Suns, and it might have been even better.
It doesn't have the same immersive / unique situations like in BG3, but there's still one thing I did dislike in BG3, the RNG. It could lead to some very frustrating situation, which is why most people play it while saving every 10 seconds in case the RNG goes wrong.
This wasn't a thing in Midnight Suns, and for that, it's actually my favorite turn based system ever so far. The strategies you could do, how the combats felt like some very interesting puzzles, all the great characters and their abilities, so many different synergies possible. I really loved that game.
So... Like I started my post, it really depends. Most of the time I hate it, but I absolutely loved the two last turn based games I played, which weren't JRPGs. I have to look more into western rpgs probably, but I don't think that there's anything truly like Midnight Suns out there.
Anyway, sorry for the super long post
