Random Encounters in old JRPG's

[KaiserMk7]

One thing about Pokemon that I don't really see people talk about is how it is also smart enough to have both random encounters AND on-field encounters. I can't think of another franchise that has the mix of the two.

Try the Etrian Odyssey series.

 

[Lena CE]

Try the Etrian Odyssey series.

Oh yea! Etrian definitely does this to some degree! I've only played 1 and 3 though, really need to get on the rest of the series. I've replayed 1 so many times I probably could have finished the series by now if I spent that time on something new haha

 

[rinkachi]

it's very usefull for grinding but often a pain if you are underleveled or bad. I think if you could see them beforehand like in legend of zelda 2 its much better

 

[Mechmainiac]

Oh man, I actually love them. I kinda annoys me that I get to choose the encounter in some RPGs the battles in the wild from Random Encounters is way more immersive to me.

 

[Deleted member 560402]

finding a shiny in the wild by random encounter is the best kind of surprise.

 

[KaiserMk7]

Oh man, I actually love them. I kinda annoys me that I get to choose the encounter in some RPGs the battles in the wild from Random Encounters is way more immersive to me.

Do you feel as if you would appreciate the option to avoid certain encounters if they're roaming minibosses that can curbstomp you when you first enter a region and are meant to be fought slightly before the area boss when your party is more developed?

 

[Mechmainiac]

Do you feel as if you would appreciate the option to avoid certain encounters if they're roaming minibosses that can curbstomp you when you first enter a region and are meant to be fought slightly before the area boss when your party is more developed?

Not really I mean I played FF2 and there's this infamous fork where you run into an Ogre or Witch lol and when I get strong enough to beat them I get maximum satisfaction, or it can be an interesting early challenge but either way it's a satisfying checkmark of strength.

 

[elwynd16x]

I feel like there's a ton of innovation to be had with random encounters, otherwise I don't really have the patience for it nowadays. It's really funny that we have 3D Bethesda RPG's with a barely functioning economy, resource management, potion-crafting, faction battles, weather systems, etc. but nobody has really taken the time to translate that into a 2D turn-based RPG that operates on the scale that Bethesda advertises.

 

[lonelyrollingstars]

I think my favorite way of handling random encounters that I've seen personally was in the ROM hack Final Fantasy IV Ultima, which just had a toggle switch in the options menu for random encounters. You'd think it would make the game too easy, but you still have to level up so turning encounters off was something I only did if it was going to be a huge pain in the ass to run back and do something simple, like if I forgot to grab something in town (which happens all the time thanks to my godforsaken ADHD).

 

[Dyne]

I'd say they don't really bother me (although its not my favorite).
But thats probably because I grew up with that being the norm.

There's a good way and a bad way to do them though. Every 3 steps is bad.
But if done right they can make resource management actually matter in dungeons; thats not bad.

 

[rattabletapping]

Tales of games kind of spam that whole random encounter thing, but I don't really mind it sometimes. (It gets to a point, Luckily there's holy bottles)

 

[Turbo Kid]

If you don't like random encounters, then you don't like Japanese rpgs as it's one of the foundations the genre was built on. Some games work better without them though, typically games that have some kind of pre-emptive strike gameplay mechanic like Grandia, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, or some of the Legend of Heroes games. You need to be able to see your enemies on the map so that you can ambush them.

 

[Vexicrypt]

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?

 

[Elwiwi]

Random encounters are relics from the past that they should stay there

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I used to think I liked the idea...

... Then I played Magic School Lunar! on Saturn and I wanted to kill myself and many others afterwards XD

 

[Zeo]

I liked those JRPGs that had some kind of signal that a random battle was about to happen. Like in The Legend of the Dragoon where there is an "arrow" that changes color and once is in red then you know its coming

Other than that i dont mind, unless the devs decided it was fun for you to have an encounter every single step for no reason

 

[Deleted member 660650]

That's why hacks that reduces encounter rates and cheats that allows you to enable and disable them are very important to me. My preference is JRPGs is to eliminate that BS completely and instead replace it with making combat tied to enemies that actually exist in the map so you can have a choice to avoid it or attack. I never liked random encounters and never will.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

Yeah it can get quite ridiculous at times

 

[Deleted member 660650]

Yeah it can get quite ridiculous at times

View attachment 112440

I'm usually ok with it but I cross the line when the game throws an environmental puzzle on you to solve that indicates figuring out what to do, how to push objects, finding an object, even chasing a NPC around but *boom* random encounter in 3 seconds... usual Breath of Fire 4 moment lolol. However some games have easy and fast combat so it's ok in BoF 4 and Black Sigil (I'm almost ok for it though) but in some other games it's hardly ok for me lol.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight Cardboardtubeknight]

I'm usually ok with it but I cross the line when the game throws an environmental puzzle on you to solve that indicates figuring out what to do, how to push objects, finding an object, even chasing a NPC around but *boom* random encounter in 3 seconds... usual Breath of Fire 4 moment lolol. However some games have easy and fast combat so it's ok in BoF 4 and Black Sigil (I'm almost ok for it though) but in some other games it's hardly ok for me lol.

The worse one to do it is Mother on NES

 

[freebie#47]

Nothing wrong with the random encounter system...for 16 bit or older. I know the psx games had huge arse long loading times and a couple games took minutes just for the battle to start. Earthbound is the first rpg I know that let you skip random battles(yes I know 7th saga did it first, but not so good imo)

 

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

I like random encounters. It weeds out the weak.

 

[LastValsion]

I don't mind so much as long as it isn't overbearing to deal with and that there is some warning beforehand. Some games both older and newer just have way too high encounter rates and it feels like you're walking through a minefield.

 

[bjork]

I don't mind it since I kinda grew up with that being the way that it was. I'm glad when a game doesn't have it, but I won't put it down if they do. An encounter-based thing I do hate, but have only encountered in older computer RPGs, is when a random encounter has way more enemies than the members of your party. If I have five members and we have to fight 15 guys, ok. But when it says, "You face Kobold x 36, Mad Alcoholic x 12, and Wraith x 3!" that's when I get annoyed. Not even because of the challenge, but because of how long each battle takes. Though, if you could see 36 Kobolds, at least you could avoid them, maybe.

 

[Eridler]

I like it. It can be annoying sometimes. (I'm currently playing Cyber Knight on SNES, and it's annoying there)
But that's part of the genre's rules. You either accept the rules of the game, or you go play something else. It's like Soulslike. After you die, all enemies will resurrect. You may not like it, you may get angry, but enemies won't stop resurrecting; those are just the rules of the game, and they won't change.