Is random encounter the worst design ever exists in video games?
No.
>>329981891
Yes
It can be.
Best way to do it is "semi-random" encounters, like SMT and Etrian do.
i.e. you know when a battle is coming before it actually happens and can prep for it while exploring.
>>329981891
No, it has its merits.
>>329981891
No, but games with a high encounter rate are *cough* SKIES OF ARCADIA *cough*
>>329982009
this, you can even alter the rate of random-encounters in your favor.
>>329981891
nah
it's not great design either, but it's far, far, far from the worst
>>329982009
I always loved that shit, wished more games did that.
It's fucking annoying when you're working on puzzles.
>"Okay, let me go try this to see if it will solve the puz-PSHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
>"RANDOM FAGGOTS YOU'VE FOUGHT A MILLION TIMES APPEAR"
Grinding is the worst thing.
Random encounter is fine. If you fight them all you will be strong enough for the bosses. So long as it is minimized, it's game balance done easy/lazy.
Grinding is the result when random encounters are done poorly. It is the result when the developers have done nothing to balance the game as they've just set some arbitrary level of power, which is too high, so the player must do things they've grown bored of to advance. They've also done nothing to design the gameplay progression around receiving appropriate treasure at appropriate times - nope you have to grind for it if you want to get it.
If you fight every trainer you encounter in Pokemon you can often beat the Elite 4. If you fight every random battle you encounter in most RPGs you will defeat the boss. Sure, grinding may come into play but it is brief.
What isn't okay is when you have to fucking grind for end-game shit so you can PvP with other people.
>>329981891
it's pretty bad. visible overworld enemies are better, especially if they never respawn
No
Its a clever design to make sure your characters are up to the level
Though it depends on game and how frequent it is. Having encounter every 5 steps are fucking retarded desu
>>329982009
Wait, how? I've only played SMT1 a little bit but it seemed full random. Unless you're talking about later SMT.
Not even close.
>>329982471
I don't know about SMT I but in Nocturne and Strange Journey you have a bar that goes from calm blue to yellow to red. Encounters only happen when it's red so you always know if it's coming.
>>329982471
Riberama and Estoma, nigga
>>329982295
It's not clever, it' lazy. Chrono trigger doesn't have any random battles and you'll always be up to level if you fight every battle.
>multiple collectibles expelled from a chest or a dead enemy. Gold, coins, XP orbs, whatever.
>have to precisely physically touch each one, with no magnetism/vacuum.
Such an unsatisfying waste of time. LEGO games are the worst when sometimes studs nicely go straight to your total, and others times they fly everywhere as a big fuck you.
>>329981891
>Using a hipster team of the optional charactersBest taste.
>>329981891
>random encounters too hard!
>I don't know what I'm getting!
>I might get ambushed! I might get owned!
Never thought shit like this would become a casual filter.
>>329982972
Random encounter with ambush is the worst thing ever
>malboro ambush
>game over
An old game, Guardian's Crusade, had an interesting mechanic. Encounters were visible on the overworld. If you were below their level, then they would aggressively follow you to initiate a battle. If you were above their level, they would flee, so you'd have to follow them to initiate an encounter. IIRC, if you were at their level they were neutral.
>>329982009
I like when the enemies exist in the dungeon and you can hit them in the world for a small damage bonus. It feels like a smoother transition, attacking an enemy or being ambushed by an enemy on the screen than just randomly going to a battle screen out of nowhere.
>>329981891
No, that'd be trap options. Protip you fucking retard designers, yes you CAN make good options in a game without having shitty options to contrast it with.
>>329982972
I would love if an RPG could ravage me. Most RPGs just let me win, so it's a welcome surprise if I get wiped in a single turn.
>>329982972
Not fun does not imply not easy. Games like FFVII and Pokemon practically play themselves.
>>329983158
Play any SMT game.
>>329983259
I am
>>329982945
to be fair Jersey Devil is awful in many, many ways, not just that way
>>329983086
Earthbound works exactly like that except for the neutral part.
Also if you're really above the enemy's level it just gives you an auto-victory.
>>329983251
>Games like FFVII and Pokemon practically play themselves.
And both of those games are fucking *miserable* to play outside of the minigames/optional bosses and in Pokemon's case, the multiplayer, which actually requires you to put some thought into it unlike the entire rest of the game.
A ton of JRPGs going "Difficulty? What's that?" after FFVI is the reason why I stopped caring about most of them.
>>329983251
I actually found FFVII hard because it wasn't until disc 2 that I learned how to actually use materia correctly. I've beaten Strange Journey with little difficultyExcept Mem Aleph, that shit was absolutely brutal and took me a long time
I was scared of putting any magic on characters outside of my designated healer so that screwed me over until I figured out that was a retarded idea.
>>329982945
Fuck, I played the demo disc for this game for hours and hours.
Too bad the full version wasn't that good.
>item that avoid random encounter
>only given to you after you have completed the bestiary
REEEEEEEEEEE thats one of the few thing I hate about DQ8
>>329983259
SMT games can be hard, but once you get a good grasp on the fusion system you can make the game much easier. Heck, human fusions in SMT2 made the game laughably easy.
Not that I'm complaining, I love when a game makes you work in order to break it. Makes you feel like you earned your godhood.
>>329981891
>those hp totals
comfy
>Game lets you adjust how frequent the random encounters are
>Also lets you adjust the speed of the game
I always felt like I was cheating with Bravely Default, but it sure did make it much more enjoyable. Well, for the first half at least.
>>329981891
>FF7
>have 5000 HP
>normal enemies still hit you for 100 damage
>>329982009
No. .You probably just played some really bad games in the subgenre. It can be very fun and engaging, and can really challenge you to think about your next step, rather than being able to hack your way through or just pick whatever you want in the menu at any time.
Think of it like chess. You make your move and that's it, you fucked it up, then you have to sit there and live with it; not choose the next potion at the very next second if some enemy really hits you hard. You have to sit there and let them wreck your shit because you fucked it all up.
At least, in the good ones. In the bad ones, you can do whatever the fuck you want and whatever the enemy throws at you will merely be chip damage.
>>329983593
The difference between SMT and other games is that you *need* a good grasp on those games' mechanics to be able to progress, as opposed to games like FFVI where you can autopilot through the vast majority of the game.
>>329983776
Sorry, didn't mean to reply to you man.
>>329983754
FFVI was the same way. I honestly don't know what the fuck Square was thinking with VI and VII but it sure wasn't anything intelligent.
>>329983870
Honestly all of the Final Fantasy games can just be won with the basic "Fight" command in almost every single battle.
>>329983473
Yeah, I noticed that FFVII, VIII, and X can be needlessly difficult if you don't use (abuse) the stat modifier mechanics. At least with X, I think they introduced some hardcaps in the form of Lvl spheres and made it -- perhaps unnecessarily -- complex.
>>329983838
Oh fuck, you were talking about random encounter, not turn based. Sorry, I can't read today.
Anyway, random encounter is only bad if it's overdone, like in FF3. When the enemy isn't stopping you ever second of the way it's okay. I still prefer seeing my enemies though.
>>329981891
It was a necessary evil back in the day, but today if you don't at least do what the Ar Tonelico/Nosurge series does with the encounter bar (finite number of encounters per zone that also displays how your chance for one grows per step) you're doing it wrong.
>>329983972
FFI-IV all make it very difficult to do that and V requires very specific character builds to let you do it. VI really did start that trend.
>>329983972
Pretty much Although in FF5 at least, overworld had its share of random over-powerful enemies that I've bumped into.
Even some dungeons. I remember those black and white squirrels that fucked my shit up, and Exdeath clones.
>>329983972
In the ATB system Magic was basically "Oh thank god instead of fighting I can kill this shit faster by killing everything at once thanks".
Something I loved about Final Fantasy Tactics is that there was a real cost to killing everything at once. If your Summoner starts channeling "melt the battlefield" an archer can just go ahead and blow their brains out before it drops.
You want to punch that pussy looking Chocobo? Well it hits you back when you swing at it so it hits you twice per turn while you only get one in.
Calculators changed all that as did Ninjas. But that was fairly late-game.
I am VERY tolerant of random encounters. Unless it's some Beyond the Beyond or Star Force 2 levels in which case fuck that.
>>329983972
Normal encounters, yes. Boss fights, usually no.
>>329983972
>implying its not the best design
random small fries are for you to grind and get level
games with lots of bosses are what matters
though some games are so easy that bosses dies in few hits as well
>>329983075
>ambushed by Marlboro
>Marlboro uses bad breath
>Auron attacks Lulu in confusion
>Lulu dies
>Tidus attacks himself and misses
>Auron attacks Tidus and misses
>Tidus attacks Auron
>Auron tanks the hit
>Auron finishes himself off
>Tidus attacks himself
>Tidus dies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2PWtOZnjpk
I prefer the way chrono cross did their enemies.
>>329983972
I remember a LONG time back an Anon tried this with FF5 by setting all his characters to Berserker, a class that can literally only do basic attacks.
He got stuck.
>>329984341
>In the ATB system Magic was basically "Oh thank god instead of fighting I can kill this shit faster by killing everything at once thanks".
In IV it was at a serious MP expense and not always available because the only effective AOE spells were summons. In V, you've got more of a point, but MP is still a problem in it.
>>329984891
4 berserkers can be done but its all rng
3 berserkers + 1 nanny is great stuff
>>329984891
That's because V is actually hard relative to most games in the FF series and has a LOT of bosses that can't be brute forced without knowing the trick to them, like Atomos being vulnerable to Sleep and the Sleep Blade being a solid weapon at that point, and some that straight up can't be brute forced like the first Exdeath fight.
Persona 3/4 was the perfect subversion to all of the shitty JRPG battle systems.
>no random encounters
>can avoid enemies but it is challenging
>never have to grind as long as you don't run from enemies
>>329984713
It's really suffering to watch your party members either die by poisoning or because they kill each other, it's always seem to be Tidus as well that holds out the longest, probably because of his evasion.
>>329982226
Fucking this
>>329984941
I kinda didn't feel that way about IV but it has been a long time. If MP was an issue I just put my mages on defense duty while Kain, Cecil, Cid, and Yang face fucked everything.
What I enjoyed about IV was that even though you ultimately punched everything to death most dungeons forced you to navigate them with some restrictions that forced you to improvise. The no-metal dungeon, Cecil's Black Knight weapons not doing any damage when climbing the mountain so you had to depend on your mages, the moon just wrecking your shit, and so forth.
>>329985120
>never have to grind
the entire game was a grind apart from the full-moon faggots
>>329982226
>golden sun
>random encounters shut off during long puzzles
It was an amazing game.too bad i lost my save data before being able to finish
>time limit section
>attack animation counts
>mfw
>>329985120
>Chrono Trigger did this shit over 20 years ago.
>It's somehow still not standard across the genre.
>>329985279
A lot of those things you won't have to deal with unless you're playing the hard version. They really butchered the US SNES version.
I was kinda nervous when I played the DS version due to it going more towards the hard JP version. But I was really surprised at how far strategy got me. I didn't have to grind but I always had to make sure I had top-notch strategy.
>>329985120
Persona4 is also easily one of the worst jrpgs I've ever played.
>>329981891
no keeps you on your toes, can't always see the enemy coming.
desu random encounter works in older games because the animations are short and simple
i grew up on that so it's fine
>>329985279
IV has a much tighter difficulty curve than you remember it having. Squishy characters can die in one or two hits even in the back row, splitting your healing or spells for more than two targets neuters them so hard that they're not worth casting, MP isn't exactly abundant and ethers aren't common enough to allow you to spam nonstop, and there are a ton of bosses and even enemies that will slaughter you if you refuse to adapt to their gimmick.
>>329982274
>defeat every trainer and almost every wild encounter i get into
>somehow still manage to be underlevelled in literally every pokemon game i play
i legit don't know how i manage it every time, it just happens
it's like i'm cursed
>>329986017
How is that even possible?
I don't think I've ever had problems with a Pokemon game, and I avoid as many battles as possible because I'm always rushing to get to the postgame, the only thing that matters.
>>329985279
It's disappointing that the series abandoned putting meaningful restrictions on the player like that. The mini cave from III and the magnetic cave are some of the most interesting dungeons in the entire series just for seriously hamstringing your options and telling you to fucking deal with it. Sure, V had Fork Tower and VI had the Fanatics' Tower, but in V the job system ensured you'd be good to go regardless of what you were doing up to that point and limiting you to magic in VI literally doesn't matter because magic is absurdly overpowered in that game.
![[goddammit intensifies].gif](https://i.imgur.com/mlMJ8yU.gif "[goddammit intensifies].gif")
>>329986279
i really wish i knew
recent example: i replayed through emerald and made damn well sure to fight every trainer and most encounters. my highest was fucking 46 by the elite 4
i was able to win with some careful planning but it was rough, especially wallace
>fighting his milotic with that level difference
i've also been playing fire red omega and just hit the final part of postgame before e4, my highest is 60 fucking 5 while all those trainers are like 75-80 and the legends cave just ramps it up even further
at least he was nice enough to add a refightable trainer with 6 blisseys that all hold rare candies and don't attack, only way it'd be better is if they all memento'd right away
>>329983591
That's pretty smart desu, the only problem is that to complete the fucking immense bestiary of dq8 you have to literally beat the game 100% so there's nothing to do with it afterwards.
