Is that really enough to make it mediocre? To call it the Mask of Eternity of the series is like saying the game abandoned everything the four previous games stood for, which I hardly think is the case. It's not like the game just pulled a complete genre-switch and turned into an action game. It managed to maintain the "qfg-feel" pretty well, if nothing else.
But yeah, the combat sucked.
But yeah, the combat sucked.