Poll: Do you mind random encounters?

[Party^2]

Recently a friend and I were discussing game mechanics and she said that random encounters are annoying and ruin her game flow. I've never really minded them, but I saw where she was coming from on the issue. Bringing this topic up with her made me wonder how many people are turned off by the idea. So what about you Escapists, how do you feel about random encounters in a video game?

Edit: To address the question of what "what type are you referring to?", I'm not thinking of a specific kind. Whatever the term "random encounter" makes you think of, be it random due to AI or the invisible kind, is a valid answer.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I'd prefer it if they just got rid of random encounters (though they aren't that popular anymore to being with, at least on console game, can't speak much for handheld), as there are more negatives to having them than there are to not having them. However, for the most part, I'm indifferent. The only time that I really hate them is when I start backtracking and facing the same low-level enemies that I faced five hours ago or when I'm trying to do something quickly and all that keeps coming up is the random encounter. I also can't find a single positive about them that can't be accomplished without them.

 

[Miss G.]

As long as a game has some means to lower the rate or get rid of the low level encounters, like the Repels in Pokemon or the Peace Bell in Okami, I'm fine with them.

 

[Zeh Don]

I find that they never really do much besides annoy me because there is no indication of a battle until it begins. I much prefer having the enemies visible, so I can elect to fight them or not. There really isn't any downside, apart from having to leave an area and return to re-spawn enemies.

 

[Joffas16]

I hate them, they completely killed Final Fantasy 6 for me. By the time I was up to the second half of the game I had just had enough of those god damn random encounters, when exploring dungeon areas they happen way too frequently. I don't mind Final Fantasy 6's combat system but I probably spent three quarters of my time in that game fighting, I just got so sick of it.

It's the worst if you get stuck trying to find your way around in a new area and you are wandering around looking for the way forward and a fight starts every ten seconds, they make it impossible for me to keep my bearing when exploring.

I definitely prefer games without random encounters.

 

[piinyouri]

Once upon a long time ago, they were the norm and did not bother me.

Nowadays though things have changed. It just seems a very clunky(and almost lazy) way to handle combat.

 

[krazykidd]

I'd prefer it if they just got rid of random encounters (though they aren't that popular anymore to being with, at least on console game, can't speak much for handheld), as there are more negatives to having them than there are to not having them. However, for the most part, I'm indifferent. The only time that I really hate them is when I start backtracking and facing the same low-level enemies that I faced five hours ago or when I'm trying to do something quickly and all that keeps coming up is the random encounter. I also can't find a single positive about them that can't be accomplished without them.

How about if enemies scaled to your level like in FF8? I actually hated that soley because enemies can scale down if you were too low level , which made the game too easy .

OT: i really liek random encounters, keeps tension if the game isn't REALLY easy . In SMT nocturne ( especially hard mode )and strange journey , a random encounter could kill you of you are unlucky . I loved that , made the dungeon crawling more strategic . Will it make it to the save point? IS there a save point? Is it on the left path or right? Do i have enough resources to make it ? Should i turn back .

Love it . Then again this only applies if the game is challenging in some way . Also fuck auto/quick saves . Give me some challenge!

So yes i like random encounters .

 

[porous_shield]

I hate them.

I love the Pokemon games and I was indifferent to the random encounters in the grass but those caves bring back bad memories.

I prefer if the monsters were visible and avoidable so I don't run into 50 million zubats and I don't have to fight enemies way below my level when I return to an area. Like Persona 4 did, you don't know what you'll be fighting if you attack the shadows but you could avoid them completely if you wanted to and they were big or small according to how difficult they were. I remember playing one game that had monsters visible that ran away from you if you were a much higher level in them and I really liked that. I think it might have been DQM: Joker but I could be mistaken.

 

[Party^2]

Glad to be getting these varying answers. I've noticed some of you saying things about changing with the times/systems and it makes me curious. Are there genres and/or platforms you're more/less tolerant of them being in?

 

[MysticSlayer]

I'd prefer it if they just got rid of random encounters (though they aren't that popular anymore to being with, at least on console game, can't speak much for handheld), as there are more negatives to having them than there are to not having them. However, for the most part, I'm indifferent. The only time that I really hate them is when I start backtracking and facing the same low-level enemies that I faced five hours ago or when I'm trying to do something quickly and all that keeps coming up is the random encounter. I also can't find a single positive about them that can't be accomplished without them.

How about if enemies scaled to your level like in FF8? I actually hated that soley because enemies can scale down if you were too low level , which made the game too easy .

Might fix the problem of facing too many lower-level enemies. Still, I'm not a big fan of level scaling, as it normally just botches the way challenge is balanced and/or takes away from the feeling of progression. There's almost always that point where a game becomes snooze-fest easy because you inevitably gain power faster than the enemies, or it becomes impossibly difficult due to a balancing issue that results. If the game manages to pull it off correctly, giving a constant sense of challenge while making sure no enemy becomes too overpowered (just very difficult), then I'd be more open to random encounters.

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

I used to love random encounters and didn't really appreciate when an RPG had visible enemies. Maybe because the first JRPG I played without random encounters was Radiata Stories and I didn't find the combat system in general too appealing. But for some reason my mind changed some time ago and I'm not attached to them anymore. Though I still enjoy or at least don't mind random encounters in the slightest (unless I'm wandering around a lot trying to get to/find a specific location and they keep getting in the way...FF6's Tower of Fanatics comes to mind. Mother of god. But then I found a Moogle Charm and all was well ).

Every game with random encounters should have an item to prevent them from occurring though. And preferably you'd be able to attain it before you're already over three-quarters through, which tends to happen in the Final Fantasy series.

Might fix the problem of facing too many lower-level enemies. Still, I'm not a big fan of level scaling, as it normally just botches the way challenge is balanced and/or takes away from the feeling of progression. There's almost always that point where a game becomes snooze-fest easy because you inevitably gain power faster than the enemies, or it becomes impossibly difficult due to a balancing issue that results. If the game manages to pull it off correctly, giving a constant sense of challenge while making sure no enemy becomes too overpowered (just very difficult), then I'd be more open to random encounters.

I agree about the level-scaling. I want to feel like I'm getting increasingly more powerful throughout my adventure and I want to be able to utterly annihilate enemies that might've given me trouble at earlier levels. It's just so empowering.

Now I love the game to death, but I've never seen a bigger offender of bad level-scaling than Oblivion.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Not really, but it feels like a very outdated mechanic. Some games also make the cardinal mistake of putting them in puzzle rooms. Either then or during maze sections it completely throws your concentration off. Some portable games like Pokemon still place the encounter rate way too high to be tolerable, and the transition between screens is just a waste.

Recently did a low-level run of Wild Arms 5 and while it used random encounters (though not in puzzle rooms thankfully), it did have a special boss enemy in each dungeon/field area where, if you were able to beat it, you could turn off all the encounters in that area. Basically once you beat an opponent who is usually much stronger than the average encounter in that area, you can skip all future encounters in there, and really most of them aren't any stronger than the area boss anyway. Still prefer the Migrant System from the third game, but it's a nice feature anyway.

I feel that a version of the Migrant System based on average party Level instead of the number of Seals found could work pretty well- you would never have to fight an enemy weaker than you unless you wanted to, and can skip a fair number of normal/tough encounters before being forced to fight.

Captcha: create new things. Okily-dokily.

 

[MammothBlade]

SMT Nocturne kind of put me off random encounters altogether, but that's probably because I was playing Hard Mode anyway. They're just so tedious and unrewarding most of the time.

The system in Persona 3 onwards lets you initiate and avoid enemies so you can manage if you're on low HP or just don't want to engage weaker enemies. It's easy, just don't force it upon the player, let them avoid encounters without using up rare items.

Not really, but it feels like a very outdated mechanic. Some games also make the cardinal mistake of putting them in puzzle rooms. Either then or during maze sections it completely throws your concentration off. Some portable games like Pokemon still place the encounter rate way too high to be tolerable, and the transition between screens is just a waste.

I agree completely about puzzle sections. Seriously, this is also what really pissed me off about SMT Nocturne at times, and I single it out because it has some of the most brutal random encounters in any game. I don't like having to fight every few metres when I just want to find out where I'm going. Nocturne's Labyrinth of Amala is the absolute worst for this, since it has large areas with infrequent save and health, and true to its name, it's a dungeon with chaotic layouts, traps, and points where the random encounters spike in difficulty. It can be frustrating to say the least.

 

[tilmoph]

For clarification, are we talking about all random encounters or just the Final Fantasy style ones where you warp to a special combat dimension 6 million times for every step you take?

I general, I don't mind random encounters of either sort, especially in Fallout or Elder Scroll type games, since it makes it helps add to the feeling that the world exists outside of your character. It would be nice if, after a while, the raiders/bandits started to thin out to reflect how many you've killed, but I honestly don't mind them.

The FF style ones (and it's not just FF, I know) are a matter of how frequently and can I change the odds of one happening. It is a bit weird to teleport to a battle zone instead of just fighting where you are, but whatever, it never bothered me when I was playing. What would annoy me is when I just want to get out of a damn cave or get to the next town, and every few steps, more wolves or whatever. A few is good, occasional is fine, but sometimes they get too be a bit much in the repetition.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I prefer random encounters, because you don't know what you will be fighting, or when.

But when it stops being random, and you KNOW that you will be attacked every 6 steps on average like in Black Sigil, then it just ruins the game. Skies of Arcadia has a ridiculous encounter rate too, and I played the GC version. I pity those who played the version where the rate wasn't toned down. I imagine some are still playing it to this day...

The best system I think is the one in Etrian Odyssey 4. As you move around the blue meter slowly turns red letting you know something is gonna get ya, and boom encounter. But the stuff that can really mess you up you see on screen moving about.

Sometimes the other way works. In Paper Mario and Earthbound I didn't mind seeing enemies on screen. And you can instantly kill weak mobs in Earthbound by touching them. They even run away from you.

But in a game like Chrono Cross I hated how often mobs were placed directly in your way with no option but to fight them. It is then a FORCED encounter and when its overused can be just as annoying as constant random ones.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I've been playing FF9. It sort of works in that game since the map is often too small to put enemy sprites.
It's still annoying in some parts where I just wanna walk around searching for secrets and having to fight every five steps.

I'm glad they changed this mechanic in later JRPGs.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I hate them, they completely killed Final Fantasy 6 for me. By the time I was up to the second half of the game I had just had enough of those god damn random encounters, when exploring dungeon areas they happen way too frequently. I don't mind Final Fantasy 6's combat system but I probably spent three quarters of my time in that game fighting, I just got so sick of it.

It's the worst if you get stuck trying to find your way around in a new area and you are wandering around looking for the way forward and a fight starts every ten seconds, they make it impossible for me to keep my bearing when exploring.

I definitely prefer games without random encounters.

Wow, not only do I hate random battles but I also hate them because of FFVI. I tried (I really tried) to play through FFVI, I got past the halfway point where the world changes and I just couldn't keep playing because of a random battles every 3 steps. I still remember that fucking burning house and there being a battle every couple steps as I'm trying to rescue someone stuck in the house.

---

Random battles are just an archaic and obsolete mechanic that was only even used at the beginning due to hardware limitations. The reasoning to stay with random battles so long I think is exactly why JRPGs have almost died, not just due to random battles themselves but due to JRPGs just not wanting to evolve. I gave up on JRPGs because of FFVI, then I go and try FFX and it's the same fucking mechanics as FFVI, the series actually devolved over 2 console generations as FFX was horribly linear to boot.

The 2 reasons why random battles suck:

1) Random battles actually deter you from exploring. If you're on the world map, and want to explore some random corner, not only do you have to kill enemies on the way to that corner (which is fine), but you will most likely find nothing over there (which, again, is fine) and then you have to kill enemies as you return back to your original position (which is not fine and it's just stupid because you cleared a path).

2) Having random battles and obviously no enemies on the screen makes the world feel completely lifeless. I remember getting to the Calm Lands in FFX and it's supposed to be teeming with monsters and such but it's just one big plane of grass with nothing on it, my backyard is more interesting to look at. Then when I go to play FFXII and one of the first things I see when I step out of the city is a T-rex walking about, that's just awesome and totally brings you into the world.

 

[TehCookie]

I don't mind it since I grew up with it and have immunity to the annoyance, but I do prefer the Tales of/Chrono series way where you see monsters.

 

[cojo965]

I don't mind them,up to a point. It is worth remembering that typically games with it have leveling systems so there is my problem with them. At a certain point, you are so powerful compared to what you're fighting that the encounters are a chore. For an example familiar to me: the dragon fights in Skyrim. The only ones that pose a threat in combat anymore are the Elders and Ancients, anything else is met with a sigh of irritation like I'm sweeping ants off the porch rather than fighting a giant fire-blasting reptile. That is my problem with them.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Really depends on the game and how they are handled. For example the random encounters in Lost Odyssey are annoying as fuck because they go for way too damn long however the encounters in Digital Devil Saga (or most SMT games) are great because they are fast and tactical.