@Tanist
The Golden Era of RPG's for me was when the Infinity engine games came out and inspired many developers to create similar RPG's. I much prefer the dice-roll statistic based combat of Baldur's Gate/NWN over turn-based combat.
I have no problems with action-RPG's providing statistics actually matter within them. Dark Souls is a good example of such an action-RPG where your statistics and player skills are both equally as important. I liked the gameplay of Divine Divinity too. Although called an action-RPG it didn't feature any button mashing (or key mashing in this case) and statistics, potion preparation and tactical use of spells/abilities are what won the day.
I will admit that I am hesitant of the turn-based combat of Original Sin as I don't enjoy this type of combat system but the way you can use the environment to your advantage surely will add some of that control of the battlefield that I desire. Baldur's Gate was dice-roll based but at least I could cast a fireball within a few seconds wherever I wanted or send my warrior anywhere and to anyone while in combat.
However at least Original Sin seems to have a solid combat system. Divinity 2's combat system didn't seem to know what it was. If Larian are going to create an action-RPG in that vein again then they need to implement proper use of rolling and add in the ability to block as well as attack with more than one type of attack (i.e regular and strong attacks that you can combine).
Turned Based Combat Summary:
"You killed my father and raped my mother! You are also the incarnate of the devil! However I will not fly towards you in a fury swinging my weapon with all the anger that I can muster like a normal person would. I will attack you each time with one strike before returning to my prior positioning to wait for several seconds before I strike again. During these periods I will give you several chances to hit me in which I will just stand there and do nothing. Occasionally I may block or dodge you but this is very unlikely. I love the pain."
I guess you could apply the last part to dice-roll combat but at least my character is constantly attacking and I have the option to retreat to a more strategic position whenever I want.
While better than action based (if you are looking for tactical chess like control), I never really cared for the phased based system that the infinity engine brought about. I am more of the true turn based systems type of player (Wizardry, Realms of Arkania, Fallout, etc...) as they give a much more granular control over the combat.
With the phase based, you can miss key timing events at the round level which are important if you are trying to pull off some intricate combat timing approaches.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy games in general, but to be honest, we have had nothing by action RPG's for years and I would like to see more detailed control systems again.
What you describe with your quote reminds me more of the console RPG's which were heavily influenced by the Japanese RPG combat systems. Their concept of combat was more of a sequential trade off system that lacked any real control.
The systems I am talking about treat turns based on skill and ability modifiers to which are effected by various means in combat (ie your actions and timing can change throughout the encounter). There is always room to improve and expand into more complex turn based systems, but without developers making them, that will never happen.
In the end though, true turn based combat is about "chess" style of play. I mean, when you think about it, D&D was born from a tactical board game (Chain mail) to which was entirely centered around turn based strategy.
