The Way ATB works is that if you've chosen "Wait" mode, the ATB of you and your enemies still ticks on until you go into a sub-menu like the "Tech" or "Item" menus. it's basically a pause so you can look at what commands do or give yourself a breather once you get into the item menu to dig through your bag for the consumable you need.
speaking of the battle system though... if you set aside the likes of I am Setsuna and such, FF11 actually has a VERY Chrono Triger-Esque combat system with it's Skill Chain and Magic Burst system. the idea was that the melee fighters would have this meter that filled up with their auto-attacks, and when it was full, you could do a special attack called a Weapon Skill. these were based on a few things (what weapon type you were using, the Skill cap for the weapon, etc), and all weapon skills had an elemental affinity. if multiple party members in a short period of time did their weapon skills in the correct order, it'd cause extra damage through an effect called a skill chain! in addition, skill chains gave enemies a debuff that made it so the next spell cast on them, if it were the appropriate element matching the elements of the Skill Chain effect, would do massive damage. of course, if you had the right weapon skills, you could actually keep the skill chain going through your party, and the Magic Burst was meant to be the ender.
This... of course, required a LOT of coordination between your fellow players, but it was SUPER satisfying.
Also, my usual Chrono Trigger party will be Robo, Ayla, and Chrono, although sometimes I like using the DarkEternal party with Magus, Lucca, and Marle because HOLY WOW Dark Eternal does NUTS damage.