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Before the server crash, I had one battle which let me get familliar with battle interface, and I must say PL compared to shoddy is a huge step forwards. A lot of things using tabs will take a while to get used to, but overall it does seem like a good solution.
I played this yesterday for a little bit and it was awesome. I think it's a huge step up from shoddy battle. I wish the server wasn't down right now though.