Quote Originally Posted by Kabooa View Post
This would be true if the only actions taken in Final Fantasy 14 were ability / action choices, but they are not. Movement, environment interaction, auto-attacks, and other often encounter-unique variables exist, all of which have nothing to do with the GCD timer.

FF14 isn't running a variation of the ATB or Turn Based systems. They are running what most MMOs use as the standard now, and that's a Real Time GCD based combat system.
Movement is the only 'real time' part of combat. All mobs and bosses have their own unique turn length for their mechanical abilities and auto-attacks run on their own timer which is effectively just another ATB gauge, that you don't actually even pay any attention to.

If you took the movement away, you could easily drop the whole FF14 ability system into FF1-9+13, and the only thing different from those other FF games would be that you have an extra turn between the other turns for certain abilities.