How do you guys feel about Random Encounter in old jrpgs.

pretty neutral. can be omega tedious or not but that's really kind of independent of the way the game throws battles at you. game could be throwing lots of static encounters at you or overworld enemies and it would be just as annoying. the true enemy is thoughtless enemy design that serves to do nothing but waste the player's time. Will say that there seems to be something about overworld enemies that tends to lead designers towards being less heavy-handed with the encounters. For the dev, I think having a visual representation of enemies on the screen goes a long way towards avoiding dropping so many that the amount of trash battles resembles the 'breath of fire 2' experience.

probably the best thing random encounters have going for them is the surprise factor. like stumbling on that weird cerberus thing in the first ffv desert or a 1/10000 chance of some super weird enemy appearing. worst thing is that it makes it more of a pain to do low level runs. think wild arms 3's system where you had random encounters but could pay gems (that you could refill by exploring the dungeon) to avoid them was pretty enjoyable.
 
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I'm playing Digimon Story: Lost Evolution and the random encounters are horrible. Every time I unlock a new area, I frantically search for a shop to buy a repel or holy bottle type item. I think Pokemon did random encounters best, where most areas have dedicated encounter zones (grass, water, cave) and they had repels available quite early.

The worst part is there is no map, so you're just going on vibes. Easy to get stuck going back and forth fighting and fleeing the same damn jobbers.

The worst WORST part is that halfway through there are still no repel items.
 
What annoys me the most is when its Pokemon, and youre fighting something you know you can one shot, but it does confuse ray, and you spend the next 4 turns hitting yourself in the face.
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At first I didn't mind it but over the years the flaws have been exposed. When you want to grind out some exp they don't happen fast enough and when you just want to explore or escape the dungeon ASAP they get in the way of the experience. Nowadays I prefer RPGs with encounters that are visible on the map, like Chrono Trigger.
 
FF8 did it best it tackled this issue , in FF5 you could finish a fight move 1 step and OH MY GOD ANOTHER FIGHT!!!!!

in Final Fantasy 8 you could halve encounter rate or even do no encounters at all.... Wanna explore quickly? No encounter! Want to explore and fight? Half encounter! Want a lot of fighting? Don't use half or none encounter.

Games like FF2 and FF3 have a pre set fixed amount of steps the player takes before a guaranteed encounter occurs talk about annoying..... So yup it's shame FF9 didn't bring the encounter modifiers from 8 that's one aspect i disliked about it.

I don't hate them just make them not happen much or use emulator save to not get into one walk few steps then save if encounter happens then load till you reach the designated location.
 
I think the best implementation of random encounters come from the Ar Tonelico games. You have a limit of random encounters per dungeon or hostile area, for example 12 in Dungeon b + 5, after that you're free to move with no encounters, besides mandatory ones, if you want to grind you need to exit and reenter said dungeon.
For mere grinding they're quite useful, but a real pain in more puzzle, maze like dungeons.
 
i'm not a huge fan, but it doesn't bother me unless, like, you have to fight something every 2 or 3 steps... that's super obnoxious.

It's way better if the enemies can be seen when you are walking around and (sometimes) avoided.
 
The thing is that sometimes high encounters are absolutely necessary to fight on because those kinda games are usually based their difficulties by grinding mobs to certain levels. But what they don't realize that repeating them ad nauseam for quite a long time would just make most gamers shy from completing them entirely.
That's why most good RPGs always had items that reduce or even let you have no encounters at all even if they had high random encounters by default.
Something like Fantasian is really innovative for making sure that your supposed random encounters are saved in entirely different realm if you just want to enjoy the story ASAP.
 
Anyway, Shin Megami Tensei 1 is good up to the final dungeon. Recommended.
By that point, you should have a demon with Estoma or simply have the Estoma item, which removes all random encounters until you enter a new area. Not floor; area. This is a small problem with the Law climb (you need to go outside about 3/4 of the way up for like, a few steps), but not at all with the Chaos descent. If you don't have one, a fusion you can make gives a demon with one. Also recommend SMT1.

Depending on my level of tolerance, either I just barely tolerate random encounters, or I despise them enough to just not play. Often, I land in the realm of tolerate. But I can't play too many random encounter JRPGs back to back without that tolerance snapping for serval months.
 
They're tolerable if done right, if not they're an obnoxious waste of time. Over abundance with low exp rates are by far the most aggravating.
Though my vote for best in class goes to the Wild ARMS series. Right before an encounter, an exclamation pops up over your head. You can press a button to skip the fight. First time visiting a dungeon, each skip uses a charge, taken out of a max count of I think ten or so. Revisiting old dungeons takes no charge, provided you've leveled up a reasonable amount.
 
HOO-HOOH! Now it's probably quite DAFT of me to even put myself in here consindering I am one, BUT I for one- decree that all random encounter enemies form the most backbone of a JRPG.... specially if it's one where you can recurit said fiends! So, this is to say... I'll take a influx of encounters over none in my RPGS!

(OOC: I like. ADOOOORREEE rpg enemy designs, so like. I'll purposely drown myself in RNG fight after fight JUST so I can glance at some cool sprites!
 
Hands down the worst random encounter rate I've ever experienced is the time I tried to play the first Megaman Battle Network game. I found the combat fun but I legit couldn't get 5 steps sometimes without getting a random encounter. I really wanna go back and finish it so I can play the rest of them, maybe there's a emulator cheat that reduces the encounter rate...
 
Some were good some were worst!
Seriously encounter with enemies which where a lot and when you thing you beat them they call for help! Still hurt final fantasy 1 hand who summon grand titan for help! He sum a mini boss!
 
As long as the rate is low or you have ways to reduce the rate that is, then it's really no big deal. In fact, I can prefer this over having them on the map if they're done right.

I'm making a RPG myself, and I intentionally decided on random encounters because the problem is that avoiding encounters so easily drops any of the tension in this game where supposedly every character's life is on the line. And anyway, nothing beats the quick dopamine rush of encountering a rare strong enemy you could recruit and hearing that epic voidform theme.

It also means that for bosses, you can just ignore all encounters and get to the fight at full health. Not only is the boss easier, but you also make less strategic decisions on what to do in the dungeons, since you can just get everything free of charge without random encounters.
 
I don't like them. All my favorite RPGs are games that don't have them such as Chrono Trigger, Earthbound (Mother 2), Mother 3 and all the Mario RPGs.

I will put up with them though if I think the game is interesting otherwise.
 
I generally don't mind them. For me it's about frequency and the length of the battles. If every five steps results in a battle I'm probably not going to reach the end. Otherwise they don't bother me.

But I do think pretty much every game in the JRPG genre would benefit from having an "Enemy Encounters Off" option. Exploring dungeons for treasure chests is such a pain when encounters keep breaking my train of thought.

God bless fast forwarding in emulation. It makes JRPGs really relaxing to play when hours of grinding can be done in a fraction of that time.
 
Random encounters are a tricky subject because most people dismiss them immediately as tedious and game ruining mechanics, but I think we all suffered too many games that just did them wrong. I personally think they're perfectly fine and can be pretty fun, BUT only when they're done right.

Tales of Phantasia (PS1) is a prime example of what I mean in how not to do random encounters.

It doesn't start bad, but then the quality of the level design takes a nosedive. You reach about a third of the way and every other dungeon is a maze made out of a repeating series of rooms and hallways over and over. You're constantly running back and forth through the same looking rooms and hitting deadends and loops back to other rooms that look the same. While you're doing that you are also stopping every minute to do a battle. Dungeons that would have taken minutes feel like eternity. The level design suddenly turns a thing you shouldn't even be thinking about into a thing you actively wish only on the worst of your enemies.

Then it's the worst thing ever. Then you're going "OH GOD AGAIN?" when you start another fight. The game actually has an item, the holy bottle item, that is supposed to temporarily protect you from random encounters BUT IT DOESN'T WORK???

Also spells and stuff stop the battle to show you their animations. You start to skip fighting all together and choose to run all the time. Then you start asking yourself "if I don't even bother fighting, why am I even playing?". The game nearly collapses on itself.

But then you play another Tales game where holy bottles work, battles are fast and flashy, the level design isn't dogshit and suddenly you don't even think about the random encounters anymore.

Also I don't actually dislike Tales of Phantasia actually, I actually adored it, but MAN someone needs to make a "Hold B to disable encounters" mod for it like they did with Skies of Arcadia.
 
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The random encounters are really that egregious in PSX Tales games yes. Both Phantasia and Destiny suffered from that and absolutely horrid level and sidequest design to the point Destiny even need a Director's Cut remake on PS2 and Eternia being ported to PSP for people to actually appreciate their greatness.
 
What annoys me the most is when its Pokemon, and youre fighting something you know you can one shot, but it does confuse ray, and you spend the next 4 turns hitting yourself in the face.
Then
DROWZEE USED HEADBUTT
But then you play another Tales game where holy bottles work, battles are fast and flashy, the level design isn't dogshit and suddenly you don't even think about the random encounters anymore.
Most of the Tales games I play have me looking forward to battles. Makes grinding out those new artes really enjoyable. The reward of using your new move on some unfortunate wolf is immensely gratifying.
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I love when the game has Indicator when random encounter likely will happen. It'll make you prepare for it. Gust (Atelier Iris, Ar Tonelico) and Atlus (SMT, Etrian Odyssey) did it.
Don't forget Legend of Dragoon!
 
Wel wrost random encounters are in final fantasy tactics lion wars.
I was so aggresive in other games but in this one I rather to just make a orator to turn them friend and then stab them in back. Monsters freak me out and they make archers skill so suck.
 
it's annoying when you just wanna do objectives, but i would also add that it's what makes games more difficult because you couldn't control whether you wanted to fight or not, although you could flee, but it also is a risk since it won't work 100% of the time

the only time it's truly ass is when the loading times are fucking atrocious (ff5 and 6 on ps1), especially playing on actual hardware (thankfully i don't anymore) and you had no choice but to deal with pre-battle intros like ff9 💀

nowadays i do prefer being able to see them and avoid them like in dragon quest xi for example, because it adds a thrill of chasing and being chased 😂
the downside of this is when you wanna grind a specific monster that gives shitload of rewards like that desert lobster in grandia 3, you had no choice but to run aaaaall the way from the entrance to the end of the desert and do the same thing just for it to reappear (literally spent hours doing this)
 
They have never bothered me too much; they are an integral part of the logic of these kinds of games.
 

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