Quote Originally Posted by VeloZer0 View Post
Re: Random Encounters & Dungeon Design

---

I found one LARGE and crippling design constraint is that all dungeons in FFXII and other non-random encounter type RPGs is that all locations must be made open and suitable for encounters on the dungeon map. Though I don't despise large wide open areas on principle, it feels like all the areas are the same re-skinned version of each other. It makes virtually every RPG game I play nowadays feel very uninspired. Just think of how many areas of your favorite pre-PS2 RPGs would be impossible to recreate in the new paradigm.
This is an interesting point, I never thought of it that way before. There is definitely a much larger amount of variety in dungeon design in games where random encounters are used.