I'm speaking about those games where you are wandering through the landscape of a fictional universe,(such as Final Fantasy VII) with nothing to be seen, then all of a sudden the screen warps and you are in a battle. I personally like them myself, whether that's noglastia or whatever, but I think that there will be many more people out there that hate them, because of the lack of realism involved.
Poll: Random Battles in JRPG's?
- Thread starter Omega NZ
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I don't mind them just as long as they don't happen every 10 bloody seconds!
Looking at you here, Final Fantasy X.
Looking at you here, Final Fantasy X.
It's handy when grinding, though when trying to just get to the next objective, it is annoying. The worst ones were in Pokémon when looking for a rare one (such as Pikachu in Viridian Forest) and constantly getting Caterpies and Metapods, or trying to get Clefairy in that cave (forget the name) and all the Geodudes and Zubats and Paras's kept appearing.
I don't mind them all that much, it only gets annoying if they are far too frequent. Thankfully The JRPG's of this game have mostly gotten rid of random battles and opt for more sensible approaches. It's great when you are grinding, but it can be rather taxing when you simply want to move on with the story. It was a necessary evil back in the day, but these days they aren't needed as much so it's good to see the sub genre slowly move away from random battles.
I don't mind them at all, but I haven't played a game with them in years. They've been pretty much dropped in recent years, in favor of being able to see the enemies on the map before you fight them.
Does this mean you might re-evaluate your opinion after playing Eternal Sonata, Baten Kaitos, or any of the Tales series?Fanusc101 said:
As long as they're used intelligently, as in not too few or too many, I don't mind them. I actually kind of prefer the Star Ocean: Till the End of Time system of battles, where you run into monsters you wanted to fight, and ran from those you didn't.
Just a side note, but I didn't like Star Ocean: TTEOT as a whole, but that particular feature I did like. I do believe that FF XIII will have something similar to that, but I'm not positive.
Just a side note, but I didn't like Star Ocean: TTEOT as a whole, but that particular feature I did like. I do believe that FF XIII will have something similar to that, but I'm not positive.
I find them irritating, because it usually results in scenarios where my party and I are on the verge of death and in no condition to battle and just hoping to get to the next town and rest at the inn, and there'll be enemies popping up every two steps. BUT if by some miracle I actually make it to said town and manage to rest up and then I decide I want to do some level grinding, suddenly all the enemies are suspiciously absent. Plus it gets really annoying when I'm trying to solve the puzzle of a given dungeon, but I keep getting interrupted by enemies every 2 seconds or so.
I don't really mind if they're not horribly frequent, but I prefer to be able to see enemies on the map (i.e Chrono Trigger, Tales games).
It depends on the game.
I refuse to play Pokemon without a form of Action Replay with a code to disable the battles.(or emulator with at least 600% speed) This is partially because encounters are too damn common, partially because 95% of all encounters will be with a zubat or similar fast pokemon that prevents my escape for a few turns(well, until I get a Jolteon) but mainly because a single fight takes a minute or longer if I'm unlucky enough to not 1-hit the enemy.
The only jRPGs games I play are FF7 and FF9, they both get an early encounter prevention(chocobos) and not too long after that abilities to reduce or increase encounters are found. In both games it's also very easy to get powerful characters, like FF7 where Barret's materia experience weapon will break 9999 damage(with enough materia and some buffs it will even break a million) and Cid's MP based spear that's guaranteed to do 9999 damage(few mastered HP PLUS and a HP <-> MP materia)or FF9's abilities that do double damage to specific enemy types(an additional increase from the ability that uses MP to increase damage gets added)... I almost lost the entire point of this, but it's that in both games fights rarely last long enough to be annoying especially because every time you fight it's because you want to.
I refuse to play Pokemon without a form of Action Replay with a code to disable the battles.(or emulator with at least 600% speed) This is partially because encounters are too damn common, partially because 95% of all encounters will be with a zubat or similar fast pokemon that prevents my escape for a few turns(well, until I get a Jolteon) but mainly because a single fight takes a minute or longer if I'm unlucky enough to not 1-hit the enemy.
The only jRPGs games I play are FF7 and FF9, they both get an early encounter prevention(chocobos) and not too long after that abilities to reduce or increase encounters are found. In both games it's also very easy to get powerful characters, like FF7 where Barret's materia experience weapon will break 9999 damage(with enough materia and some buffs it will even break a million) and Cid's MP based spear that's guaranteed to do 9999 damage(few mastered HP PLUS and a HP <-> MP materia)or FF9's abilities that do double damage to specific enemy types(an additional increase from the ability that uses MP to increase damage gets added)... I almost lost the entire point of this, but it's that in both games fights rarely last long enough to be annoying especially because every time you fight it's because you want to.
Dude, if you think every 10 seconds is repetetive just play Pokemon, every FUCKING TWO SECONDS!!!sasquatch99 said:
God yes I fucking hate random battles, in Pokemon they infuriated me to no end, I mean I don't mind the actual battles themselves, but when I just wanna get through an area quickly being stopped every 1-5 seconds is just fucking annoying.
This is my bane. My pettest of peeves. My Moriarty, if you will. I'm going to rant for a few paragraphs here, so feel free to skip it.
I'm sure the Fellowship of the Ring went into full-on red alert every time a snake crawled out onto the plain, and I just KNOW Aragorn cleaned his sword and danced a happy jig after each kill.
I recently picked up Nostalgia for the DS, and was saddened to see it had random battles. So far, the encounter rate seems really low, which has been nice, but... There's a lot of time I spend watching boring things happening on the screen. Here's what happens in a typical battle near the end of the dungeon.
1. Wait for the battle to load,
2. Wait for the cinematic camera angles to show me all my enemies,
3. Wait for my enemies to attack (or my turn to come up)
4. Punch a rat for 900 damage,
5. Wait for the rat's death animation,
6. Wait for my party to finish dancing while
7. Waiting for the victory music to finish and
8. Waiting for the results page to appear and disappear
9. Waiting for the dungeon floor to load again.
10. Try to remember where I was going before I was interrupted.
For every second I spend thinking about the fight and pressing the command buttons, there's three seconds of downtime. I wouldn't (in fact, don't) mind waiting if the battle is difficult or the combat is at least mildly interesting (see Persona 3 or 4), but so often, developers replace challenge with repetition. So much of the average random battle are taken up with non-interactive, scripted events that it drives me insane when I don't want to fight. It's even worse when I grinding, because it's just taking an arbitrarily longer time. God help me if I use any magic, and have to watch the fist of an angry god come down and smite my foes every time I meet a goblin. Have you ever played a Square(Enix?) game and refused to use an awesome spell or attack because the animation took too long? *cough*Summons*cough* This is pretty much how every final fantasy for the playstation went. Long battle animations, frequent waiting for ATB gauges to fill, and mind-numbingly dull and easy fights.
Every now and then, I get the urge to pick up an old SNES or playstation RPG, and rage-quit somewhere in the first dungeon, when an invisible baker's dozen of sewer rats stands between me and the other end of every room. My favorite RPGs of all time (Earthbound and Persona 4) share a common feature: No random battles. You can see every enemy coming from a screen away, and make preparations accordingly. If you just feel like running, you can do it before the battle even starts or you can try to weave through enemies while you're walking. EB and P4 give you visual clues about enemy strength before you fight, and weaker enemies will run from you BEFORE you engage them. Strong enemies will hunt you down, and add some depth to the overworld experience. EB goes a step further and skips the battle screen if your party could one-turn-kill it, skipping all the above steps except number 8. It puts up the results screen, without any time wasted. In P4, if there are two encounters in the same room, you'll fight one immediately after the other, with the second group walking onto the battle screen after you kill the first, skipping steps 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 for the second battle. Monsters in both games have the decency to quickly explode, and the developers thoughtfully provided an auto-attack button when you get stuck in a boring fight. When the battle's boring, you can get up and walk away until it's done. It's brilliant.
YES. 100% concurrence. If I'm not looking for a fight (because maybe I have a life to get back to) why should I have to run through twelve or fifteen random battles just to get to the save point? If I've returned to low level areas to pick up something I miss, my dragon-slaying super-party shouldn't have to fight an army of animated sponges on the way to my house. It always (ALWAYS) irks me when my party has the gall to do a victory celebration (complete with victory fanfare and dancing) every time they punch a level 1 sewer rat. Why are you dancing? There's a whole trail of rat corpses behind you, you shouldn't be this elated.Flour said:
I'm sure the Fellowship of the Ring went into full-on red alert every time a snake crawled out onto the plain, and I just KNOW Aragorn cleaned his sword and danced a happy jig after each kill.
I recently picked up Nostalgia for the DS, and was saddened to see it had random battles. So far, the encounter rate seems really low, which has been nice, but... There's a lot of time I spend watching boring things happening on the screen. Here's what happens in a typical battle near the end of the dungeon.
1. Wait for the battle to load,
2. Wait for the cinematic camera angles to show me all my enemies,
3. Wait for my enemies to attack (or my turn to come up)
4. Punch a rat for 900 damage,
5. Wait for the rat's death animation,
6. Wait for my party to finish dancing while
7. Waiting for the victory music to finish and
8. Waiting for the results page to appear and disappear
9. Waiting for the dungeon floor to load again.
10. Try to remember where I was going before I was interrupted.
For every second I spend thinking about the fight and pressing the command buttons, there's three seconds of downtime. I wouldn't (in fact, don't) mind waiting if the battle is difficult or the combat is at least mildly interesting (see Persona 3 or 4), but so often, developers replace challenge with repetition. So much of the average random battle are taken up with non-interactive, scripted events that it drives me insane when I don't want to fight. It's even worse when I grinding, because it's just taking an arbitrarily longer time. God help me if I use any magic, and have to watch the fist of an angry god come down and smite my foes every time I meet a goblin. Have you ever played a Square(Enix?) game and refused to use an awesome spell or attack because the animation took too long? *cough*Summons*cough* This is pretty much how every final fantasy for the playstation went. Long battle animations, frequent waiting for ATB gauges to fill, and mind-numbingly dull and easy fights.
Every now and then, I get the urge to pick up an old SNES or playstation RPG, and rage-quit somewhere in the first dungeon, when an invisible baker's dozen of sewer rats stands between me and the other end of every room. My favorite RPGs of all time (Earthbound and Persona 4) share a common feature: No random battles. You can see every enemy coming from a screen away, and make preparations accordingly. If you just feel like running, you can do it before the battle even starts or you can try to weave through enemies while you're walking. EB and P4 give you visual clues about enemy strength before you fight, and weaker enemies will run from you BEFORE you engage them. Strong enemies will hunt you down, and add some depth to the overworld experience. EB goes a step further and skips the battle screen if your party could one-turn-kill it, skipping all the above steps except number 8. It puts up the results screen, without any time wasted. In P4, if there are two encounters in the same room, you'll fight one immediately after the other, with the second group walking onto the battle screen after you kill the first, skipping steps 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 for the second battle. Monsters in both games have the decency to quickly explode, and the developers thoughtfully provided an auto-attack button when you get stuck in a boring fight. When the battle's boring, you can get up and walk away until it's done. It's brilliant.
Here's the thing about random encounters, aside from all the funny jokes.
You need them.
Let's compare Final Fantasy 7, say, to Persona 3. (I know, that's a hard sell, but the point is that their battle encounter systems are different.) FF7 is a random encounter system entirely, whereas Persona 3 has encounters you can see and evade if you like. In any RPG which involves leveling up characters to be stronger and be able to kick boss' asses, you need to kill lots of baddies. It's a grind, but who isn't use to them by now? I actually enjoy making my little soldiers of death stronger and stronger, developing their killer attacks.
In FF7, you just wander around anywhere that's monster-filled and POP! You're there. No matter how long you buzz around the same place, they are there for your EXP/AP needs, which are quite needy.
In Persona 3, if you run out of Shadows to clobber on a floor, they'll either be few and far between or nonexistent, and then the Reaper comes by. Actually, Persona 4 improves this a bit, but it's definitely slower on the whole than a random encounter dealy.
So, on the grounds that characters need their munchies to grow strong and kick ass, random encounters are actually more helpful. I don't mind doing it either way, as the other system is still GOOD, but that is the reality regardless. I suppose the only real way to improve that would be if there were items that made enemies show up faster so you wouldn't have to wait or anything. Actually, there was such an item in Persona 2, not that that game needed much help as it WAS on the random encounter system. And SMT III could do that too.
But all in all, random encounters aren't Satan's bollocks. They just have bad timing sometimes. Alternate encounter systems exist because some people don't like randomosity at all. It gives them variety, probably. Truth is, it's neither good OR bad.
You need them.
Let's compare Final Fantasy 7, say, to Persona 3. (I know, that's a hard sell, but the point is that their battle encounter systems are different.) FF7 is a random encounter system entirely, whereas Persona 3 has encounters you can see and evade if you like. In any RPG which involves leveling up characters to be stronger and be able to kick boss' asses, you need to kill lots of baddies. It's a grind, but who isn't use to them by now? I actually enjoy making my little soldiers of death stronger and stronger, developing their killer attacks.
In FF7, you just wander around anywhere that's monster-filled and POP! You're there. No matter how long you buzz around the same place, they are there for your EXP/AP needs, which are quite needy.
In Persona 3, if you run out of Shadows to clobber on a floor, they'll either be few and far between or nonexistent, and then the Reaper comes by. Actually, Persona 4 improves this a bit, but it's definitely slower on the whole than a random encounter dealy.
So, on the grounds that characters need their munchies to grow strong and kick ass, random encounters are actually more helpful. I don't mind doing it either way, as the other system is still GOOD, but that is the reality regardless. I suppose the only real way to improve that would be if there were items that made enemies show up faster so you wouldn't have to wait or anything. Actually, there was such an item in Persona 2, not that that game needed much help as it WAS on the random encounter system. And SMT III could do that too.
But all in all, random encounters aren't Satan's bollocks. They just have bad timing sometimes. Alternate encounter systems exist because some people don't like randomosity at all. It gives them variety, probably. Truth is, it's neither good OR bad.
*PCHUUUUUUUuu*
DUN-DUN-DUNDUN.
Eh, I don't mind them, sometimes I'm just going for that certain item, and then POW. That's when it pisses me off.
DUN-DUN-DUNDUN.
Eh, I don't mind them, sometimes I'm just going for that certain item, and then POW. That's when it pisses me off.