So lately I've been playing Persona 2: Innocent Sin and it got me thinking about my weird relationships with JRPGs again. I consider myself a fan even though I struggle to finish 90% of them. Even when I get pretty deep into the story very rarely I stuck till the end credits. And playing Persona 2 helped me realize why. Random encounters. Usually older JRPGs don't have enemies visible on the map so you can't really avoid combat and for a long time I thought this was my problem. But thinking about it again I realized that its actualy not the randomness of it -- its encounter rate. Sometimes you can't even take 2 steps without getting teleported into a battle arena, which causes frustration while exploring confusingly designed dungeons. The worst thing about it is that I forget where I was going before the encounter, so when it ends, I'm being left confused and annoyed. Some games try to help you a bit with items or spells that reduce encounter rate or scare off low level enemies, but I don't like that approach because it feels lazy, as if it was made just to mess with you. I also kinda hate using consumables in general, which is a problem for another time. One of my favorite games Parasite Eve, for example, balanced random encounters very well: their frequency lets you explore for longer periods of time between them and their rates go down a significant % after each battle on every particular spot. I know that JRPGs are known for their grind, which is a genre staple at this point, but wouldn't it be better if they had lower encounter rates and balanced character progression based on that? It would give players more time to explore without being gragged into combat every 2 seconds and still be engaging enough to keep them hooked on power leveling and such. I would surely finish more JRPGs if they were desined that way. You'd probably suggest playing something more modern, and sometimes I do, but I really like the vibes of older JRPGs and when I play them I encounter this very same problem every time. I don't really mind not finishing games since I get my enjoyment out of them, it just sucks because sometimes I really like the story and characters but the gameplay itself forces me to quit.
Anyway, how about you? Do you have this problem or you accepted it and do the grind with some video/stream/podcast on the background?
Anyway, how about you? Do you have this problem or you accepted it and do the grind with some video/stream/podcast on the background?
