I like this game too, and I can agree with most of your post.

I kind of like the main menu of the game; it kind of feels like the menus from other Final Fantasy games and I think that adds charm to the game. The thing I REALLY hate, however, is the battle UI. I was totally fine with the battle UI of FFXI, but this one is kind of irritating. Especially playing as a conjurer, I don't like AP limitations and action-bar limitations. In the case of having lots of spells (I can't even use them all!?), I think a battle menu is kind of needed, or at least bigger action bars with more buttons to click for mouse users (or both options available at the same time, depending on personal control preference).

As far as claiming monsters, I think that each monster that gets hit by your party should turn red, and not just one at a time, since hitting the second monster that isn't red seems to give you zero SP/EXP. It's kind of bothersome the way it is now, and should definitely be looked into.