Random Encounters

C i d

C i d

Dark Knight
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I don't know whether there is such a thread. I am sorry of there is.

So, straight to the point...

I love final fantasy games, but I LOATHE random encounters. I am currently playing FFI and FFVI (alternating between the two). Almost everytime, random encounters are the turn-offs that make me refuse to continue.

I was trying to find my way in the floating continent in FFVI but its next to impossible because literally every step (I have to exaggerate this), there is random encounter.

It's the same for FFI. Cavern of Earth is extremely tedious and annoying. It's already patient testing in finding my way (and I am using a guide) into the bottom level, only to find out that you have to go all the way up again, and every step you take there's random encounter.

This make me wish sometimes, for every final fantasy game to have FFXII's or FFXIII's battle system. They are far less annoying and less time stalling as you can usually choose whether to fight or not.

So what do you all feel about random encounters found throughout the series (and other RPGs)?
 
on those old games it was ridiculous, every couple of steps youd get into a battle and it drove me up the wall.

didnt bother me in the 3d final fantasies but fuck me those 2d games it was a pain.
 
it's when im lost that it really begins to grate on me, I cant be doing with trying to figure out where im going and having battles every few steps, it winds me the fuck up
 
I don't really mind the amount of random encounters in the early games (FF1 to FFVI) because I grew up with that. I do prefer that you see your opponent like in FFXII or FFXIII. Random encounters are more annoying when you do a low level game because you have to escape everyone of them.

I'm currently playing The after years on the Wii and I must say that this game has the highest average of random encounter per step of all the final fantasy. It sort of break the momentum when you have to do 3 battles for 12 steps.
 
One of the primary reasons why I couldn't keep playing games like Lost Odyssey was because of the random encounters. THere's absolutely no excuse not to put the enmies on the field. I don't even know why they couldn't do that since IX? Chrono Cross came out the same year and it didn't have bullshit time wasting random encounters. Pokemon is sort of alright since the pokemon are in specific areas. 4 Heroes of LIght, I can take only because the battle system is fast paced enough.
 
It seemed like random battle occurrences would become less annoying as I progress through each game . Like around the legacy games, they would be absolutely ridiculous having to fight - that and it would take nearly forever to escape if I wanted them to flee. But as the games got more recent, I felt that they were more tolerable. Plus, I hardly run away from battles unless the monsters are WAY above my level (unless I want to level up my characters very quickly), since I take every battle as a chance to level my parties .
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Kelly said:
it's when im lost that it really begins to grate on me, I cant be doing with trying to figure out where im going and having battles every few steps, it winds me the fuck up
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This. Especially since a lot of the old games had a habit of not telling you where to go next and the maps were rather hard to navigate. :hmph:

It also seemed that you'd get into a fight at the worst possible moment. One of your characters is dead, one is low on HP, one is silenced and you're out of items. :rage:
 
Random battle encounter rates are appalling in the earlier games. I just remember wandering around Mt. Gulg in the first game wondering where the bloody heck I was going while encountering random battle encounters every 3-4 seconds. In 3D games, it's more tolerable particularly because the dungeons there are less of a labyrinth compared to the 2D games. While FFXII finally did away with this feature, the Gambit system still forced my allies to fight some on-screen monsters, so there wasn't that much of a difference in FFXII either, arguably. xD

Of course I sometimes use the high rate of random battles for my benefit, when I'm perhaps levelling up my characters or collecting money and items, but I actually hate grinding, so I don't commonly do that.
 
I don't mind random encounters too much...usually. I'm the sort of person who grinds to hell and back for a few hours in between segments of the story, and I find a lot of encounters speeds the process up tremendously, oddly enough.

If I'm trying to get somewhere in a hurry though, I do get very annoyed if I'm stopped every three seconds or so. Its extremely annoying sometimes when I'm grinding - I'm afraid to go too far from towns because, yet I wander around in a circle (or square, depending on the game) and I find NOTHING. When I don't want to grind, I'm pestered. When I DO want to grind, its like everything on the entire continent moved to another one.

Overall, random encounters are horrendously unbalanced, even now...I don't even think putting enemies on the map is that much better though, because in almost every game I've played that puts enemies on the map, the stronger ones chase you, and they're always faster than you are. That really gets on my nerves.
 
Random encounters don't bother me too much as long as the encounter rate is not too high. I've played a lot of different RPGs and most of them do have random encounters so they've never really bothered me much. However from what I've seen of the older FF games, the encounter rate tends to be a higher than the newer games which is one of the few flaws I would say about most of the earlier FF games I've played. .
 
I used to get more annoyed by the random encounters than I do now :hmmm: When I first played FFIV and FFVI as a kid, I would always run away from random encounters, and then find myself stuck leveling up for anywhere between 6-10 hours in one block because I couldn't defeat a particular boss and continue with the game. However, now that I'm older (more patient I guess? XD or something), whenever I play those games, I don't ever run from the battles, and I've found that I have absolutely no trouble whatsoever defeating any of the bosses; I'm either perfectly leveled up or about 2 levels higher than I've seen a lot of the FAQs recommend. So I think in those games, the rate of random battles is absolutely perfectly paced, and even though it seems annoying at the time, it definitely pays off in the long run.

However, I will agree that it's disgustingly bad when you're lost and trying to find your way, and by the time you finish the battle you've forgotten which direction you were heading in or how many hallways you've passed :rage: I had a HUGE problem with that not so much in FF games, but in Breath of Fire 1 and 2 (both have IMO THE highest random encounter rate of any game I've ever played :mokken:), and now I'm playing Tales of Phantasia for GBA and I'm having the same problem, I've been having to use items to decrease the random encounter rate because the battles take so f*cking long that I forget what I was doing beforehand :ffs: They're all great games, but DAMN :ffs:
 
A few years ago it annoyed the hell out of me, but now I don't really care as much about the random encounters. To be honest, I think it's 10 times easer to grind w/random encounters in games than games that don't have random encounters. The only games I hate that have random encounters are FF2 & FF4.
 
♥Love Freak Flonne♥;835089 said:
I don't mind random encounters too much...usually. I'm the sort of person who grinds to hell and back for a few hours in between segments of the story, and I find a lot of encounters speeds the process up tremendously, oddly enough.

If I'm trying to get somewhere in a hurry though, I do get very annoyed if I'm stopped every three seconds or so. Its extremely annoying sometimes when I'm grinding - I'm afraid to go too far from towns because, yet I wander around in a circle (or square, depending on the game) and I find NOTHING. When I don't want to grind, I'm pestered. When I DO want to grind, its like everything on the entire continent moved to another one.

Overall, random encounters are horrendously unbalanced, even now...I don't even think putting enemies on the map is that much better though, because in almost every game I've played that puts enemies on the map, the stronger ones chase you, and they're always faster than you are. That really gets on my nerves.
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Like FFXII. Nothing more annoying than groups of OP enemies after you while you're on low HP.

As for the question in hand, i love Random encounters. How else are you suppose to level up? and besides, it gives me a chance to find weaknesses and lean more abilites before hammering in a boss. (not to mention the gil).
 
I really don't mind random encounters. Even when I first experienced them (FF7) I actually thought it was a neat idea. Because let's face it - if there are visible monsters on the map, you wouldn't walk into them. That's why it's best if the game decides when it's time to fight.

I do have to agree with 2 things people here said about when they tend to annoy you - 1) when they are too frequent (like in FFIV), 2) when you're lost and try to explore the area so that you know where you're supposed to go.

But other than that, I really like the random battle system and it saddens me that it was scrapped in latter games. In fact I started playing FFXII for the first time today and the battle system is already putting me off. I want my random battles back!!!
 
well first of all I would like to say that I enjoyed being able to see my enemys before me just like in 12. But as for the rates of encounters I would like to think they they have these rates for a reason..perhaps to prepare you for boss fights or to keep you updated with you guys so that you dont find yourself doing a lot of grinding later on. maybe thats why the rate is higher in some places and lower in others...because the game gets harder. But yeah its frusterating when you get lost. flee flee flee
 
Yes they were quite annoying indeed. I died alot from the in Final Fantasy IV in the beggining. But hey I was small so it is normal I guess xD. They can be annoying when you dont get the premeptive strike. Instead you get ambushed and die fast. But later on random encounters are nothing to worry about. The thing that really pissed me off is when I want to advance further I am right next to the door and I get a random encounter at the door -__- They are just the worst when the enemies are really tough. I still play Final Fantasy IV The After Years from time to time and I hate the random encounters :hmph: But Lost Odyssey had the most annoying random encounters ever :hmph: FF isnt that bad compared to other titles. Such as tales -__-
 
Buddy, you're playing a fucking FF game. Knowing about the encounters, I don't understand how anyone can get truly bothered by that shit. Personally, I've found them to be fucken time vampires when all I wanna do is peace the fuck out, but they never actually get in the way of anything cause I'm fucken fantastic at being powerful and whipping ass.
 
Pretty much what Kelly said. I hate when I'm fucking lost, and then there's a random battle every two seconds. I start getting worried about running out of supplies eventually, and then I fear the whole party will die. And we'll never have made it to wherever the fuck we were going. It's extremely annoying. It makes me appreciate these newer games even more.
 
It's all part of the challenge in my opinion. The Tales Series system works alright, but I think it encourages you to avoid the random encounters for me.

When they get really really frequent when you're lost, as others have said, that can be pretty annoying. But again, it's what makes it Final Fantasy in my opinion.
 
I actually love the random encounters. Yes, it can be annoying when you're lost and they get in the way, but otherwise I somehow find them fun. So long as the encounter rate isn't too high at least.
 
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