Random Encounters: Archaic nonsense or scrappy fun-time!

[Shorty]

I find them disruptive, but I think they have their place.

[Skyblade]

I doubt the gaming community makes purchasing decisions off of the presence of random encounters, to be honest.

When I wrote that, I thought black orb was saying that we didn't need old school RPGs anymore. Just the way I read his post.

Stupid pronouns.

[Jessweeee♪]

Sometimes I like them, sometimes I don't. I hate really high encounter rates and I like it when games provide you with a means of avoiding encounters.

[Miss Mae]

That's not random...thief

lol!

Seriously though, I can't remember which game it was but I can remember opening a treasure chest and having to a fight a monster that was inside it. Sneaky game is sneaky.

This happens in Might and Magic X: Legacy (which I'm playing at the moment). There are barrels that sometimes contain liquids to boost your stats (because how could drinking from a random barrel in the middle of a dungeon go wrong?) and sometimes they have spiders living in them instead. It's bundles of fun (not). A bunch of the treasure chests are guarded by a crowd of nasty creatures with a sixth sense so they know precisely when you touched their things and that want you dead too.

[Shauna]

I don't mind them. I find there are better ways to do battles, but random ones on an overworld is fine.

However, when the encounter rate is not just right, it can be the most frustrating thing. Too high? Ugh can't move a step without getting into a battle. Too low? That boss you're struggling to beat? Good luck leveling up to beat him. A nice balance (or like in Bravely Default with the adjustable scale).

[NeoCracker]

It's completely situational. If I'm almost dead and trying to get to town and trouts getting in my way, then yeah random encounters can go suck a knob.

...So basically you like Random Encounters when they make your game easier, but dislike them when they challange and give you a loss when you failed to properly prepare for the challange?

*runs away before the stabbing ensues*

Don't get me wrong, I love a good challenge. If I'm trying to explore and end up tripping over the eldrich abomination of the week every two steps in a cave; that is not a good challenge. And that's just what happens, I enter a new area and go exploring for treasure and I encounter the Super Mega Ultra Death Marlboro Tonberry MkIII and after a tough fight I take two steps and fight the same damn thing again and again. And then I fight a fluffy bunny...that teamed up with the Super Mega Ultra Death Marlboro Tonberry MkIII and they fuse to make the Uber Super Mega Ultra Death Marlboro Tonberry MkIII and after those three fights I'm low on supplies, but luckily I'm only three smurfing feet from the exit. And then I take one step backwards and I'm ambushed by the Uber Super Mega Ultra Death Marlboro Tonberry MkIV Omega Weapon and it opens with the "No smurfing way you're surviving this laser" laser.

I can not think of a single game that get's anywhere remotely near that bad. And if you recall, I've played a lot of RPG's. Like, most of my gaming since I was 5 has been RPG's.

[Spuuky]

I like random encounters, if dungeons are designed correctly for them.

[Del Murder]

I like pseudo-random encounters like in the recent Dragon Quest games where the enemies randomly appear on the screen shortly before running into your party and starting the battle.

[Flaming Ice]

I like pseudo-random encounters like in the recent Dragon Quest games where the enemies randomly appear on the screen shortly before running into your party and starting the battle.

Sometimes they appear way too close


Oh I hate when enemies stalk you >.>

*I'm running away leave me alone !...runs into a corner of the map that should have had a no exit sign......*

[Vermachtnis]

It's completely situational. If I'm almost dead and trying to get to town and trouts getting in my way, then yeah random encounters can go suck a knob.

...So basically you like Random Encounters when they make your game easier, but dislike them when they challange and give you a loss when you failed to properly prepare for the challange?

*runs away before the stabbing ensues*

Don't get me wrong, I love a good challenge. If I'm trying to explore and end up tripping over the eldrich abomination of the week every two steps in a cave; that is not a good challenge. And that's just what happens, I enter a new area and go exploring for treasure and I encounter the Super Mega Ultra Death Marlboro Tonberry MkIII and after a tough fight I take two steps and fight the same damn thing again and again. And then I fight a fluffy bunny...that teamed up with the Super Mega Ultra Death Marlboro Tonberry MkIII and they fuse to make the Uber Super Mega Ultra Death Marlboro Tonberry MkIII and after those three fights I'm low on supplies, but luckily I'm only three smurfing feet from the exit. And then I take one step backwards and I'm ambushed by the Uber Super Mega Ultra Death Marlboro Tonberry MkIV Omega Weapon and it opens with the "No smurfing way you're surviving this laser" laser.

I can not think of a single game that get's anywhere remotely near that bad. And if you recall, I've played a lot of RPG's. Like, most of my gaming since I was 5 has been RPG's.

Maybe it's just my dumb luck then. I have horrible luck with random encounters. Take Final Fantasy X for example, the first seven fights inside sin were Adamantoise. I know because I counted. And still on Final Fantasy, the last time I played I, I encountered a Warmech like two steps into the floor. But that extends into games with preexisting encounters too. In Persona 4, red shadows everywhere and like every other chest I opened was ambush. So that thing ToriJ mentioned totally does happen.

[NeoCracker]

P4 aren't really random encounters,at least not in the vein this thread is talking about.

FF X not a single fight in that game really gave me trouble, except that one airship fight where I was so use to spamming Yuna's summons to breeze through everything that when I suddenly didn't have her I forgot what my other characters could actually do. XD

[Vermachtnis]

That's why I said games with preexisting encounters. Gleesh learn to read!

And it's not that the Adamantoise was hard, just that I had to fight it seven times in a row right out of the gate.

[Bolivar]

I like them!!!

[NeoCracker]

That's why I said games with preexisting encounters. Gleesh learn to read!

And it's not that the Adamantoise was hard, just that I had to fight it seven times in a row right out of the gate.

Pft, reading, like tha'ts a skill that will ever come up.

And if it wasn't hard, then I don't know why you brought it up, as the point I was arguing against was the one about the exaggerated doom fights constantly happening.

Repeat encounters can happen sometimes, but you're always more likely to remember the outliers then the norm. Yeah, it's easy too recall those times where you faced the same encounter seven times in a row, but you remember it because it's sticks out in your mind.

You're not going to be recalling that time things happened perfectly normally, because nothing about that sticks out.