A Bahamut Lagoon type battle system

So the game I'm working on has a high (40+) number of characters.  And my initial thought was using a great deal of the multiple party systems in order to make use of them all.  However, that would involve a fairly ridiculous number of sidequests to keep them all leveled properly, so then I was perusing through some older RPG's for ideas when I came across BL

Now, I've never beaten this game, so I'd prefer no spoilers from those who have

The way the battle system works(from what I recall), for those unfamiliar, is that it's setup like a SRPG, where you have your units on the map, and control them in a very strategy-type way.  However, when you come into contact with an enemy, it shifts it into a battle system much like the FF series for a few rounds for everyone to trade a few blows before it goes back to the main strategic map.  If you kill all the enemy units, that enemy disappears from the main map, and lets your forces concentrate on the other ones.  Spells used on the strategic map target another enemy unit, and all members within that unit, while when used in battle are used normally.

I'm just curious to see if anyone's tried this in any of the Makers yet, or if it's even appealing to use.  It would require some work, certainly, but I find it to be the only effective way of dealing with so many characters. 

Ideas/Suggestions?

The way the battle system works(from what I recall), for those unfamiliar, is that it's setup like a SRPG, where you have your units on the map, and control them in a very strategy-type way.  However, when you come into contact with an enemy, it shifts it into a battle system much like the FF series for a few rounds for everyone to trade a few blows before it goes back to the main strategic map.  If you kill all the enemy units, that enemy disappears from the main map, and lets your forces concentrate on the other ones.  Spells used on the strategic map target another enemy unit, and all members within that unit, while when used in battle are used normally.

Hey....this sorta sound like Soul Nomad.
However, I doubt this will ever be done. Extremely grueling to script out.

...damn.  I'm not all that skilled with scripting.  Everything else I've got a good handle on, but scripting, like most programming languages, just sorta slips past my understanding.

Well...I guess I'll have to go back to the multiple party system.  *shrug* 

Thanks for the advice, ^^