[Verious]

One of the things I really liked about "The Amazing Adventures of Kassandra" was the combat system. It seems like it could work well for "casual" games because it is straight forward and easy to understand. Aside from direct combat (like the original Zelda), what other combat systems have people seen that might work well in "casual" RPG games?

[Nodtveidt]

I found the combat system in Dark Savior to be quite cool. It was extremely simple...one-on-one "best two out of three" fighting with a very limited moveset. You had two main attacks (a close attack that did little damage and a sweep's-distance attack that could knock your opponent to the ground), a back attack, a jumping attack, and a special move which you could use only after charging up a power meter under your health bar. The game also allowed you to "capture" some of your opponents to use in future battles. Each new character you got had different moves and specials. I've never seen another game like it, but I think the combat alone could be a game in and of itself.

Another example I think would be Parasite Eve. When combat begins, the map doesn't go away or anything, you fight in the same area you run around in normally, and you get realtime movement (but sort-of "turn-based" attacking/restoration/etc) so you can dodge enemy attacks, get in position for a great hit, etc. Again, another system I've never seen since but works great on its own.

Is that the kind of thing you're referring to?
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace

[RampantCoyote]

Aveyond pretty much lifted its combat system straight out of 16-bit Final Fantasy style games, and it did pretty well among casual gamers.
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Tales of the Rampant Coyote - Old-School Game Developer talks Indie Games, RPGs, and the Games Biz

[cowgod]

You might want to look up Septerra Core.

The system is like Final Fantasy 3 (or 6 in Japan), but with an interesting twist. You know how in FF3 your turn meter fills up over time and then you act when it's full? In Septerra Core, your turn meter has 3 different limits it can reach. At the first limit, you can only use level 1 attacks. At the second, you can use level 2 attacks, and at the third, you can use level 3 attacks.

Higher level attacks do more damage, but you have to wait longer for the meter to fill up. Whenever you want to your character to act, you click on his portrait.

I was thinking about using this system myself, but I want to make an rpg where you have a 6 character party. With a party of more than 3 (or maybe 4), it's kind of unwieldy having to click on all those portraits.