First opinions on Bravely Default

[Mirage]

Why has nobody ever before let you choose your encounter rate? I loved FF6 and 7 for those abilities, and I kinda like that you had to earn them, but life is going so much faster these days and high encounter rates can quickly turn me off to a great JRPG

FF8 has enc-half and enc-none learnable by Diabolos, FFX has no encounters on randomly dropped armor about halfway in the game, FFX-2 let's you steal charm bangle pretty early in the game (CH2 or 3) and there's also a lure bangle somewhere. FF12 pretty much lets you decide the encounter rate by just not running into monsters, or just running past them, ignoring their aggro.

[Fynn]

Why has nobody ever before let you choose your encounter rate? I loved FF6 and 7 for those abilities, and I kinda like that you had to earn them, but life is going so much faster these days and high encounter rates can quickly turn me off to a great JRPG

FF8 has enc-half and enc-none learnable by Diabolos, FFX has no encounters on randomly dropped armor about halfway in the game, FFX-2 let's you steal charm bangle pretty early in the game (CH2 or 3) and there's also a lure bangle somewhere. FF12 pretty much lets you decide the encounter rate by just not running into monsters, or just running past them, ignoring their aggro.

But it comes with no effort at all in BD, as Vyk mentioned. The point of this counter-argument...?

[Skyblade]

lol at the beginning i was annoyed i couldnt give the characters new names and that you couldnt change their looks, as in clothing
so that was like my first opinion

but later on i started to love this game like hell a lot, gurl
this game is gonna be in my family for GENERATIONS

Later on you also can change names.

[Mirage]

Why has nobody ever before let you choose your encounter rate? I loved FF6 and 7 for those abilities, and I kinda like that you had to earn them, but life is going so much faster these days and high encounter rates can quickly turn me off to a great JRPG

FF8 has enc-half and enc-none learnable by Diabolos, FFX has no encounters on randomly dropped armor about halfway in the game, FFX-2 let's you steal charm bangle pretty early in the game (CH2 or 3) and there's also a lure bangle somewhere. FF12 pretty much lets you decide the encounter rate by just not running into monsters, or just running past them, ignoring their aggro.

But it comes with no effort at all in BD, as Vyk mentioned. The point of this counter-argument...?

He mentioned FF6 and FF7 too, and it does not come with no effort in those games.

[Fynn]

And that is exactly what he stated.

[Skyblade]

And that is exactly what he stated.

He stated that he liked the idea of earning Encounter None, and wondered why more games didn't have features like that. Mirage was just pointing out that almost all of the Final Fantasy games since have had similar features.

Though none have done it as well as Bravely Default.

[Mirage]

I'll agree that I think they should be earnable earlier in the game sometimes. Half encounter rate should be possible to get within the first few hours, I guess.

[Skyblade]

Honestly, I don't think it should be earnable. Having too high of an encounter rate can demolish a game. It's why I stopped playing the DS version of FFIII. It's a convenience and customization feature. Some people like playing to enjoy the story and bosses. Let them do that. Others like playing low level challenge runs. Let them do that. Why is there a need to earn it? Let people play how they want to play.

[Vyk]

Exactly. Flynn got what I was saying. Sorry for being confusing. I know a lot of games had the option, and it comes late in the game. I mentioned that I liked that it was earnable back then, because back then, I had spare time and didn't mind grinding for the sake of accomplishment. It did mean something. But I can't do that anymore. And now that there is a JRPG that lets you manually set what encounter rate you want right out of the gate, I had to wonder why that has never been done before. It's one step away from being a perfect idea. If there was a way to also counter-balance the XP and Gold you'd earn so changing the encounter rate didn't cripple you, and you could play the whole game with whatever rate you want, that would be fantastic

[Mirage]

So you want what in non-RPGs would be a difficulty setting, perhaps?

[Del Murder]

Honestly, I don't think it should be earnable. Having too high of an encounter rate can demolish a game. It's why I stopped playing the DS version of FFIII. It's a convenience and customization feature. Some people like playing to enjoy the story and bosses. Let them do that. Others like playing low level challenge runs. Let them do that. Why is there a need to earn it? Let people play how they want to play.

I agree. Modern RPGs typically show the enemies on screen so that you can avoid the encounter relatively easily (Xenoblade, Last Story, Dragon Quest) so 'traditional' RPGs with truly random encounters should have some kind of comparable mechanism.

[Mirage]

Honestly, I don't think it should be earnable. Having too high of an encounter rate can demolish a game. It's why I stopped playing the DS version of FFIII. It's a convenience and customization feature. Some people like playing to enjoy the story and bosses. Let them do that. Others like playing low level challenge runs. Let them do that. Why is there a need to earn it? Let people play how they want to play.

I agree. Modern RPGs typically show the enemies on screen so that you can avoid the encounter relatively easily (Xenoblade, Last Story, Dragon Quest)

And also every Tales game since at least Symphonia, Star Ocean 3 and 4, FF13-2, Persona 3 and 4, and I'm probably still missing a few

[Vyk]

In Persona, skipping battles didn't hurt too much, because generally having a strategy was way better than having a level. But in every other game, if you get into the habit of skipping too many enemies you become grossly under-leveled. The games are designed to expect you to grind at least a little. Which is understandable, but not always acceptable. If a game has a great story, but the battle mechanics wear on you; it's a pity that the game risks not being enjoyed by half the people who fire it up because they can't take the constant fighting. I've had this happen to many games that people said were excellent and I wouldn't know because I couldn't stomach trudging through all the fighting. Even when you can see enemies on screen. Breaks of the game I guess, but it's just sad..

[Del Murder]

Just got Edea in my party and she has quickly become my favorite character. Mrgrgr!

[Vyk]

Haha, I love her mrgrgr. She does that all the time. And it never occurred to me that someone might actually say something like that. Very good voice acting