Quote Originally Posted by feioncastor View Post
Sure, it's difficult in many of the games, and still annoying to have the screen go "swoooooooosh" while you're making a mad dash to the save point, but the option exists and the system adds challenge to the game.
That trademark "swoosh" is one of the worst sounds in the history of gaming.

Anyway, the first FF draws a lot from Dungeons and Dragons, which is basically a random-encounter overworld (generally at the DM's discretion) with a turn-based battle system. In fact since DnD laid the framework for early RPGs, you see that system employed in a lot of games and game series that date back to the early days of programming and game design. Since the system was "part of the series" it stuck even when we now have the technology to employ more complex encounters and battles.

Basically, in the beginning of computer gaming, when maps were thematic representations of where your characters were traveling, random encounters made a degree of sense. You weren't seeing the environment intimately, just being given a framework for guiding your party. Nowadays, when you're moving your party through a 3D environement that is essentially trying to provide a true (if artistic) representation of the world you're traveling through, an enemy should not appear out of thin air and attack you.

So I for one, hope it goes away. The "off-screen spawning" system is significantly better IMO...as long as you can make the monsters undertake sensible actions besides walking around in circles or back and forth endlessly down a cooridor when you're not battling them.