Random Encounters in old JRPG's

[dr grim]

All in the title, how do you feel about those random encouters ?

I personnaly don't like them very much, i can stand a game that allows you to at least walk a little before entering combat but not the kind where a fight appears every 5 steps.

 

[NotGodlike]

Literally any old Breath of Fire game

 

[jon2]

That's why I like the original Lufia II

Granted that it still has random encounters on the overworld map (which is acceptable) but inside dungeons is another story. You use brains to "stack the deck" before you engage in a fight (or not engage at all)

 

[Tonberry]

I don't mind them at all, never really have (aside from me fleeing every fight when I was little), and I even kind of like them because I like the common abstractions found in roleplaying games, it adds to the immersion and the "videogamey-ness" at the same time for me.
That said, I do prefer it when I can see the enemies on the map, even if touching them leads into a separate battle scene.

I think Earthbound does it the worst, where you can see the enemies on the field but they're almost impossible to avoid or manipulate, so it just feels annoying to have to maneuver with them unless you're like super high level.

 

[bjork]

If I'm in the mood for some of that, I don't mind it. If I'm not, I'm probably playing something completely different. You know?

 

[Deleted member 420614]

Pain in the ass because allot of games where so broken you took half a step and random battle again it was pure hell.

Honestly Star ocean and YS made it best show enemies where they are let me run past them if I don´t wanna deal with the shit.

 

[Turd Curator]

Im currently working my way through the original Lunar Silver Star on the Mega CD and the random battles are very poor. Can go a minute or so without one and then immediately get hit with another after taking a single step.
I tolerate random battles to an extent but this is really pushing it. Thankfully the ability to fast forward on the emulator eases the pain a bit

 

[solidbatman]

It really just comes down to encounter rates and battle speed. I struggle with a lot of psx random encounter games due to long load times but the final fantasy pixel remasters are totally fine with me since they are snappy.

I really like the way Lord of the Rings: The Third Age did random encounters. Once you defeated enough enemies in a screen/area, there would be no more encounters since the area was now "pacified." Once you left that screen though, the random encounters could return (if memory serves). Made exploring for items and stuff nice, granted its a pretty linear game.

 

[Leo-Dash]

I absolutely HATE IT! ​

Pretty much the reason I have slowed down playing old JRPGs at this point

This is why I appreciate Tales of Series (Symphonia, Abyss, Vesperia) having the enemies on the screen instead of an RNG for each tile walk!

 

[AkiraSO4]

I never liked it, it's why I stopped playing them lol

 

[RageBurner]

I'd say no one likes them; it has more to do with levels of tolerance.
I will absolutely not play a traditional RPG these days without some encounter reduction patch.

Games like Parasite Eve did it best for having fixed encounter points in each area.

 

[YoshifreakZX]

I definitely prefer visible enemies on the field but I usually try tolerating them. Unless you are Mega Man Battle Network 1 and have to rely on something like a chip in order to escape from battles.
Also some old school JRPGs get REALLY obnoxious with encounter rates.

 

[Inkingsama]

Depends on the game. If the battles are engaging i have no problem with them, or if there's something that keeps me entertained, like the music or the animations.

I haven't played that much rpgs and such but when i played SMT1 i just didn't care about the random encounters because they would be over so quickly by spamming gun+mazio that the only time that i chickened out was when there was like +6 demons with zio or bufu skills. The only exception to this in the game was when i would go through a doorway: i don't know if it was just me or what but it swear that everytime i went through a door, a battle would start and if i dared to escape for any reason, the game makes you walk back one tile, so i had to step through the door again just to be met with another random battle.

Anyway, Shin Megami Tensei 1 is good up to the final dungeon. Recommended.

 

[Samatonic Samatonic]

There could have been a cooldown systems for random encounters, however they were backed by the technology of the time, Pokémon, Breath of Fire, Final Fantasy etc. did add too much of the random encounters in it.

Just a question, which had the best type of Random Encounters in the game, I like Skyrim for a few random encounter when travelling the roads, Assassin Creed ( The Old ones) added a decent amount.

Post automatically merged: Apr 20, 2025

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I definitely prefer visible enemies on the field but I usually try tolerating them. Unless you are Mega Man Battle Network 1 and have to rely on something like a chip in order to escape from battles.
Also some old school JRPGs get REALLY obnoxious with encounter rates.

you could say this for the new Pokémon addition to the franchise, plus Dragon Age: Inquisition, though not much of a random encounter

 

[dr grim]

I'd say no one likes them; it has more to do with levels of tolerance.
I will absolutely not play a traditional RPG these days without some encounter reduction patch.

Games like Parasite Eve did it best for having fixed encounter points in each area.

G.O.D. on the Snes is a fine exemple, the game was great to play with the encounter reduction.

 

[Lokgamer]

I don't like it at all. Thats it.

 

[MegaHiro91]

In Pokémon I liked it. It was exciting to see what mon was gonna show up.

 

[Raziya The Seeker]

I don't really mind them, but being able to mitigate or stop random encounters (Repels in Pokemon, Holy Water in Dragon Quest) is always a boon. Like @Tonberry mentioned, having on-screen enemies that you literally cannot evade is annoying. I ran into similar with the dungeon corridors in Dragon Quest 9.

I also didn't know that LotR Third Age game had a finite number of random encounters per area too, that's a cool touch! Thanks for bringing that up, @solidbatman!

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

I love them if they have good music and if the battles aren’t too complicated.

Just don’t be Mother 1

 

[CG4R12I4N]

Try playing any old RPGs when you literally encounter random enemies every 10 steps or less in this day and age, it would sour your experience as a whole even with all the positive aspect for the rest of the games.

 

[Boog111]

My first RPG was Final Fantasy I on NES. Since that's what I started with it doesn't bother me too much.

 

[King_Fisher]

I find them aggravating in long play sessions particularly old games that hadn't balanced the timing yet but accept they are necessary to keep characters reasonably leveled. Items that at least lessen encounters are appreciated.

 

[pasvy]

i will say nostalgia if i just read the title and not the context, then reading the comments, i just hate random encounters, yeah it makes long gameplay

 

[NotGodlike]

Gonna add, if it wasn't for the fast-forward feature, I might have been even more harsher to jrpg genre

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

I never minded them too much to be honest. I will say some games do go a bit too far with them, Mother 1 coming to mind (Although that might be due to the fact that as weirdly charming and interesting I think that game is, it really is a poorly designed and balanced game for the most part).