what I can recall from the japanese version of the game is that your party members (and sometime the enemies) are pretty darn stupid and are only able to move in the four cardinal directions.
so, if an enemy is north and east of a character and you send them forth to attack, they move up, then over, then up, then over again and again, sometimes getting stuck by obstactles on the map, which leaves them open to attack.
final fantasy xii: revenant wings uses a similiar, but different engine and controls a bit [much] better.