Random encounters in JRPGs
 

For some reason random encounters are all too frequently found in JRPGs. Does anyone know why? And is there anyone in this world who can actually enjoy such gameplay? (I'm not bashing JRPGs, but this is an aspect of them I do not enjoy)

If random encounter is unique one time thing, I love it.
If random encounter is repeating endlessly, it's boring and I can't enjoy such game.

That's what I was talking about…

Me, neither.

But why do they design games like this? Surely the developers should know what is enjoyable and what is not to play. I can't wrap my mind around it.

It's an archaic game mechanic left over from the 80's and early 90's. Western developers moved on from it a long time ago, but it's still popular in Japan for whatever reason.

I don't mind it in small doses, but I find it tiresome if it's frequently used in a long game.

I've played JRPGs that let you turn off random encounters. Though in reality it's a false choice, because if you do that you won't be high enough level to beat the non random encounters. But it is nice to be able to explore some areas without being interrupted every 10 steps.

I don't necesarily mind random encounters if they serve as some of challenge. For example, I've played games where the tricky part of defeating the boss wasn't just the boss fight itself, but in having enough resources left to take him on after fighting your way to him. But if random encounters are just time wasters that slow you down and use no resources, then they get boring fast.

I like the way they are done in the Trails in the Sky games, you can see the 'random' encounters ahead of you and avoid them if you want to, but if you find yourself too low a level for the non random encounters it doesn't take too much grinding of mobs to get to the required level as the game gives you higher xp rewards if you are below where it expects you to be at that point.

It was almost necessary in some games from a few years ago, some of the Final Fantasy ones come to mind, where you usually had to level up several classes/jobs per character to be able to finish the game. You needed those random encounters, although I'd never be against a switch that would let you disable them if desired.

Its a reminant from Pen and Paper games, and is a staple of most Dungeon Crawlers, Rogue Likes, and JRPGs, personally I don't mind random encounters if there is enough variety, and enough other gameplay to give the game variety enough to keep the game fresh. One of my favorite game of all times (Wizardry 8) uses random encounters, and is in my opinion a fantastic game, nevertheless. Trails in the Sky, is also a super game in my opinion, because there is enough variety in gameplay to make the game interesting. Unfortunately there are large number of examples which fail in implementing the random encounter mechanic well, because the game lacks variety in opponents, or other gameplay elements, or combat simply isn't enjoyable enough to do so much fighting.

The worst for me was one of the Sacreds. You would walk across a single screen, turn around, and everything would have respawned already. It didn't take long for me to uninstall it. The game has never respawned on any of my other computers :D

That was Sacred 2, which had very interesting characters, cool character building, and interesting intro quests, but a horrible respawn mechanic, and long and boring boss battles. Too bad, there was a lot of wasted potential in that game.

I wish someone will mod that out by not but no luck it seems. I really liked Sacred 1 but never finished 2.

Most modern JRPGs don't have them anymore. They now show the enemies on the map or screen and you're mostly free to move around them. I think they're balanced nowadays so that you're supposed to fight the enemies you see on your way to your objectives, which is fine by me.

I'm now playing Xenogears for the first time, and its camera isn't great, so I'm often confused where to go. Random encounters don't help that at all. In my opinion they kill exploration. All I think of is how to get away from parts of the game with random encounters as soon as possible, and I couldn't care less for exploration under these circumstances. This is very sad, as exploration is one my favorite activities in games, I typically look under every nook and cranny, but random encounters are just too punishing to explore.

And yeah I agree with people above who said that encounters in Trails in the Sky were done right. I don't mind such encounters at all, they scale XP to your needs. In Trails in the Sky: SC one of my characters gained an ability to make the party invisible to enemies, and as a result in the latter part of the game I almost didn't play any encounters at all. Still, I finished the game on a level that was the same as those people who played all encounters, thanks to XP scaling. I wish all games did that, instead of punishing you severely for avoiding encounters. There were a couple of games I couldn't finish because I was grossly underleveled to fight the last boss.

I played Xenogears a long time ago. I remember it having some interesting locations and combat, but mostly that the story was convoluted, and the game was too long for its own good. You'll probably need to look at a guide sometimes just to know what's going on.

Are you playing it on a PS1 or emulator? I remember the graphics being pretty rough even for back then.

PS1. Yeah graphics are rough but I don't mind. It gives the game a retro feel. I hope the story isn't too convoluted, I read that this game employs topics of psychoanalysis and religion and got interested.

The only issue for me now is how to execute deathblows that my character learnt. I just don't get it. I press the required buttons but no deathblow. Unless I figure it out, I doubt I can finish the game, there will most likely be situations in which you absolutely have to use deathblows.

I like they way it is in latest final fantasy games and some other JRPGs. You can see the enemy at it's up to you to decide whether encounter him or not. But when they are random… I think I'm not the only one, who died because of random encounters after a serious boss fight.

It was even so long that the developers did not have time to finish it. The first disc is fine, but on the second disc, things changes completely (and for the worse). Now you just jump from location to location and it just feels disjointed.


As for random encounters, yeah, the way they're implemented in most JRPGs detracts a lot from the experience for me as well. There are some that tries to do something about it. Some more modern games lets you see the enemies on the map, which means that you can avoid some encounters, and at least know when one will appear. Though often the games are balanced in such a way that you need to seek out encounters or be underleveled. One method that I quite liked, that was used in Cthulhu saves the world (not a stellar game, but it was cute and short) was that each area had a limited number of random encounters, and the difficulty was scaled accordingly. While the encounters were still random, you at least did not have to deal with an overabundance of them, and it was easy to tell roughly how strong you should be at any given point.

I heard the random encounters, actually started because there was not enough resources on the NES to have a large amount of predefined encounters, and show every enemy. Then lived on in different forms until this very day.

If the encounters are random to give a fresh experience each time and interesting enemy encounters, it could be a good idea. But if you just get spammed by random encounters every 5 steps, with something like the same enemies, it is just horrible. It has something to do with Japanese culture, and that if something is not a chore to complete it is not as fulfilling, I believe.

Ooops, are you sure that is a game for you? I remember how sensitive you are about nudity in games….

So that's how it is! Lack of resources on the NES makes sense. The Japanese culture is very strange, though, I play games to entertain myself, not to do a hard chore :) Challenge is welcome, but not when it can be overcome by a method like grinding. Grinding is no challenge, just waste of time.

I don't mind nudity if it exists for a reason. But so far only in one single game I've seen an underdressed character who wasn't objectified by that. An exception that proves the rule.

So far I haven't seen any partial (except garb for women in Block D) or let alone full nudity. I'm in the Babel Tower now, so maybe there's something more to come.

Yeah, I personally haven't run into random encounters in a JRPG in a long time.