Lack of random battles

Ok, now that a bunch of people have played the demo, what are your thoughts on the lack of random battles? I know that a lot of people had beef about this before they knew how it would exactly play out, but from playing the demo, the number of battles I ran into were just about the same (if not more) as the number of battles I would run into in the other FF games.

I really enjoyed the mix of suddenly being attacked by a monster and me running up to an unsuspecting creature and just start beating it up. Plus, I really liked the fact that unlike in FFXI, even when you get attacked by aggressive monsters, it didn't mean instant death for your party.

I don't think it's something that will take a lot of getting used to by people who are used to the traditional random battles, or who have never played FFXI before.

Overall, I really liked it.

I haven't played the demo..but I do heard about the lack of random battles thingie. I don't really understand how it works. Is it that you can avoid fighting monsters you don't want to in the world map? How?

I won't be liking the system. I loved random battles, it's a part of FF which means a lot to me - why wait until now to put in this "new" battle system?

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Originally Posted by Raphael Sorel

I won't be liking the system. I loved random battles, it's a part of FF which means a lot to me - why wait until now to put in this "new" battle system?

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Have you even played the demo? Don't knock it til you've tried it.

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Originally Posted by Raphael Sorel

I won't be liking the system. I loved random battles, it's a part of FF which means a lot to me - why wait until now to put in this "new" battle system?

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I agree with this. I havent played the demo yet, so I wont say whether I like or dislike the new system yet, but I dislike the concept of it and I personally believe it has no place in an FF game. Random battles are as much a part of FF as summons, cheesy love stories, and characters called Cid (some of these are more recent concepts, but the point still stands). I'll miss the randomness of the battles and pray that XIII has the return of randomness.

As for whether I like the system, I'll say when I get the game when its released here...

the new system is something like...

stage 1 find/be attacked by monster
stage 2 auto target
stage 3 decide to fight or RUN FOR IT
stage 4 the fight is dont with an atb bar and the char either auto attack at full or you tell em to do something
stage 5 victory dance or not and recive exp from dead monster.


i think this is it ive seen loads of screen shots and brif explanations online and in offical playstation 2 magasine for october last year i think.

Hmm maybe it's just that part of the game.

See, the thing I was trying to point out about the lack of random battles, is that it's not THAT different from the previous FF games. If you play the demo, you'll see that it really works well for the game.

Every time the specifics of a new FF game is announced, people complain that certain changes ruin the staples of FF. 9 times out of 10, it's these same people that praise these changes when the game comes out. It's nothing new.

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Originally Posted by Miriel

Have you even played the demo? Don't knock it til you've tried it.

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you cant even knock it if youve played the demo, its a demo.

judge it once you have played through the full thing peoples.

Tsukasa, I really doubt that at this point they're going to so drastically change the system used in the demo that we won't be able to use the demo as a basis for opinion.

I liked the new system. Random battles ticked me off if only because they took so freakin' long. Staying on the same screen without initiating the battle and then wading through exp., gil, and items gained (even if the process wasn't that long) is a big relief to me. I disliked the first part of the demo where the game paused whenever you selected an option on the menu. It made the system feel disjointed and choppy. The second part where everything kept going was lots better. I had a lot of fun playing the demo. That's all that really matters to me.

Either way, it's going to be a very good game.:D

I'll just say this about random battles; I've put up with them for about 13 years now in games and I'm sick of it. This system is much more enjoyable since you avoid that transition between a field map and battle screen, and I can choose to avoid fighting at all, which from what I played in the demo is a lot easier than trying to run has traditionally been. And if you're near death with no MP trying desperately to get to a save point or out of the dungeon to restock, it'll be really nice to not have to pray to whatever god you believe in you escape the battle without being wiped out.

Sorry if I sound a bit bitter, but it's about time we had a little change in this area. Now in Squares defence, they wanted to put in enemies you could see and avoid in FFX, and when I found that out I was very dissapointed it didn't make it into the game. I still enjoy random battles sometimes (or more accurately, don't mind them), as proven by the fact that I'm greatly enjoying playing through DQVIII at the moment, but it's about time we had a little change.

this will be a bit more sophisticated and although i enjoy the turn based ATB systems i welcome this new one and want to try it A.S.A.P.

I've played the Demo and i enjoyed the new battle system. The way it is set up Random battles would be totally out of place.

You could be thrust into battle in the middle of a town! It makes the whole thing exciting. Not like other RPGS where you see the monsters on the field, run into them *whooshy sound and visual effects* battle starts. Instead: Your walking along, theres and enemy, you can avoid it, or run right up and kill 'em before they know what hit 'em! The only whooshy-ness in the Demo was when the boss battle start, and only to show where the boss monster is. You can still run from it too! (If its giving you an incredibly hard time.)

Pretty much if you want a battle, you can get into one.

if you dont' want a battle, you can run as fast as you can and hope they get bored and even run through the middle ofa bunch of them if you need to.

From my experience in FFXI, if a mob wants to kill you, you'd better run freakin' fast to try and avoid it. Else, it'll follow you across an entire zone, snapping at your heels.

Cathyrine Tyrn, I somehow really doubt that you'd be able to run from a boss fight.

You might be able to run from it, but I doubt you could go very far.

I agree with Vivi22. This game is coming after I've already denounced random encounters in many a thread before. Its the only thing that's even got me interested in trying this FF as for the most part I've fallen away from them. I can only hope that it's not done like the visible enemy encounters in Chrono Trigger. I hate random encounters, so I'm not gonna buy DQVIII (a game that relies heavily on them) to check out the demo. I'll just wait and rent the game. I'm in no hurry.

i already have played ff12, the new battle system is nice 'cause you dont need to wait for battles, so u dont lost many time in battles i like it. is jusr my opinion... but i want the game full version to play to use the summons 'cause ff12 demo dont let u use the summons (better let u use but dont let u control).

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Originally Posted by Vyk

I can only hope that it's not done like the visible enemy encounters in Chrono Trigger.

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What would be wrong with that? That worked fine. You can still avoid most of the enemies if you don't feel like fighting.

As for the lack of random battles, it doesn't matter that much to me. I don't prefer one battle system over another, so long as they're easy to work with.

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Originally Posted by Miriel

Have you even played the demo? Don't knock it til you've tried it.

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It's not available in my country, but I am a very stubborn person, so it'll take a good going for me to get used to this system. On a stubborness level out of 10, I'll go for 11.

Why couldn't they have made this change a lot time ago? Make things more different then?

Surely the creators must have realised some people's agony when they had to go through countless random battles.

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Originally Posted by ?????

What would be wrong with that? That worked fine. You can still avoid most of the enemies if you don't feel like fighting.

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Fine for you maybe, but I didn't enjoy it. I'm not a big fan of CT at all. But their battle system wasn't any less annoying than any other cookie-cutter RPG. You didn't get enough experience to matter. So again, yes, you can avoid enemies. But you suffer for it. Not to mention how annoying it is to leave a room after clearing it out, and then realize you forgot something and go back and all the enemies are back. There should be only a handfull of enemies per area, they should give marginally more experience, and not respawn for a good long while. Otherwise they're just a nuissance. An RPG should be about the plot, the characters, the exploration, a good emphasis on boss battles, but random encounters shouldn't be in the spot-light that much.

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Originally Posted by Raphael Sorel

Why couldn't they have made this change a lot time ago? Make things more different then?

Surely the creators must have realised some people's agony when they had to go through countless random battles.

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They should have made the change a long time ago because your stubborness was less back then? It doesn't matter when they decided to implement the change, what matters is that it's a change and people get all sorts of freaked out by changes.

If you didnt realize, this system is very much a 1-player FFXI feel. Instead of getting a few random guys together you've never met or played with before to group with, the computer takes that role for you (and you can alternate who you are controlling atm).

Why didn't they impliment this change earlier? Maybe cuz back in FFVII days they hadn't thought of making a 1-player games battle system based off an MMORPGs. This game is FFTA + FFXI in 1-player fashion.

I'm sure you freaked out when FFVII came and only let you have 3 characters in your group at a time, didn't you? :rolleyes2

I love the fact that everyone is trippin' and knockin' on the demo. xD it's a truly beautiful thing. I love this new battle system, I've come to enjoy it, and at points I've hated it so much... *stupid aggros*

I hated random battles at the end of a game or near an extremely hard boss battle. They got so anoying. Plus you might have to waist precious items on a horrible worhtless non boss battle and then you'd lose it forever.

the main reason they didn't implement this battle system long before is because the scale of final fantasy games could not handle the addition of such open-ended fighting. They would have had to scale back the graphics and the size of the worlds, and nobody would want that. I think this battle system is the culmination of final fantasy evolution, or at least the home stretch. The battle system can obviously be improved in many subtle ways, but once they're finished with it, I think it will be great. Random battles make absolutely no sense anyways.
The monster stands and watches as you smack it senseless.
Then you stand and watch as it smacks you senseless.
It's just silly. An active battle system requires your attention and thus pulls you deeper into the game. Makes so much sense to have a Tank, Melee, Mages, and Ranged fighters all moving around exploiting the differences in Defense and Strength and Magic ability. Wait til you play it people, you'll love it.
And might I suggest playing FFXI, the BEST GAME OF ALL TIME(ignoring of course the UBER BEST GAME OF ALL TIME FFVI)