Angel of Darkness was the last one before Crystal Dynamix took over. They kept the QTE's, though. Legend burned me hard with one that was right after a long vehicle sequence that I had to do an extra time because a QTE popped up while I was sitting back and enjoying the show.
There's some kinda-QTE's that I like. They don't play in proper cut-scenes, they play in animations. For instance, in The Last Remnant you tell all your squad what to do at the start of the turn, then they go and do it in a long animation scene. By the end of the game, that means watching 18 characters all go through their attacks plus whatever the enemies do. That's a LOT to watch, so the game will sometimes pop a QTE thing up. If you get the timing right, you'll get a little extra damage. If you get a few in a row right, you get a bonus attack. That worked well for me. (There's also the option to turn them off and just have the animations play in fast motion.)
Another good one was on console: the Shadow Hearts series. Each time one of your characters attacked, a ring would pop up and a gauge would spin around it. On the ring are different colored areas. The better you are at hitting those areas, the better the character attacks go. Over time, you learn where a character's colored areas will be so you get better at hitting them. The game messes with the ring a lot, too. For instance, you might get a weapon that does more damage but the gauge spins twice as fast, or enemies will cast a spell on you that makes the ring spin backwards - throwing off your timing. It was a fun addition!
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