Why are random battles compulsory?

[GloatingSwine]

They're speed bumps.

Essentially, the only function of non-boss encounters in RPGs is to drain the party's resources, forcing some kind of balance between resource consumption in the form of items, magic points, potions, or whatever and saving those resources for the next boss fight.

Waaaaay back on the NES, there wasn't really enough memory to represent encounters on the overworld or dungeon maps, so a simpler method of determining when they were fought was used (usually randomly generating a number and decrementing it with each step the player takes, with an encounter when it reaches 0), and it's stayed as a legacy gameplay tumour ever since.

 

[anangelssos]

yeah, the going back to old places and being accosted by something that has no worth for you killing was very irritating. I always thought if you were going to have a random battle system then the enemies could level up along with you. that way it would get rid of the annoyance of pointless easy interruptions, and it could make re-visiting old areas more worth while.
But and in answer to the question, me thinks they are mainly compulsory as to make sure you level up your characters and have access to money/items/whatever it is you need to progress through the game.

 

[Nutcase]

The started out as a means to lengthen gameplay and became outdated by the 21st century. Xenosaga has no random encounters, you start fighting when you touch an enemy on the map.

I don't play JRPG, but there's nothing intrinsically wrong or outdated with the mechanic. Random battles done well are a legit design element to e.g. have an element of risk to exploration.

From OP it sounds like JRPG's are doing it really wrong though.

 

[Axolotl]

By Western RPGs I meant Western RPG video games.

They're still there, they're in Baldur's Gate, all the Fallout games, Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, Diablo is nothing but random encounters and bosses.

 

[Helmet]

For a while it was the best way to level up, learn new skills, get new items, so on and so forth. However, I think that this idea can rot in hell now.

Edit: right beside a MOTHER FUCKING ZUBAT, RATTATA, AND PIDGEY!!!!

 

[Brutulf]

For a modern, refreshingly random-encounter free JRPG, try The World Ends With You.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

By Western RPGs I meant Western RPG video games.

They're still there, they're in Baldur's Gate, all the Fallout games, Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights, Diablo is nothing but random encounters and bosses.

Not really, they are just random monsters.

You can avoid the encounters by moving around them, you can run straight past them without fighting.
If those were random encounters like you see in JRPGs, then you would be stuck in place, unable to progress further on the map/world for the duration of the battle.
And it's not like in Diablo, if you're walking along, with no enemies in sight, you will suddenly teleport into a battle with 20 little demon things or anything.
The (randomised) monsters have a (randomised) place on the map to be, but the encounter itself isn't brought on by you just walking around, you would have to find them.

 

[Axolotl]

You can avoid the encounters by moving around them, you can run straight past them without fighting.

You can't with the random encounters in Baldur's Gate or Fallout.
And their random encounters appear out of nowhere.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

You can avoid the encounters by moving around them, you can run straight past them without fighting.

You can't with the random encounters in Baldur's Gate or Fallout.
And their random encounters appear out of nowhere.

I haven't played those so I'll have to take your word for it.

I stand by my original statement that if the OP didn't want random encounters, he could go for Western RPG video games, as a good proportion of them don't have said random encounters.

 

[Axolotl]

They're certainly not.

Ever played Pokemon? Well that's a game with random encounters. You walk in the grass the screen goes black and presto! A pidgey!

Oblivion is certainly not a game with random encounters, you can see the enemies and you can avoid them.

And to be honest all of the FF's from VII to X had some sort of trinket or option that disabled random encounters.

When I made that post I was working under the assumption that a random encounter is an encounter that is random. Once again both Baldur's Gate and Fallout have your definition of random encounters and at least once when playing Oblivion I remember a bandit appering in front of me and threatening me.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

You can sneak up behind that bandit, he's just hiding.

 

[Mizaki]

There should be a game where sometimes maybe monsters aren't all interested in ganging up on you and only you. FFXII was a step in the right direction, but sometimes it felt ridiculous that when I was walking around every monster had an obsessive habit of wanting to kill Vaan. Maybe some monsters should be more interested in killing eachother? Or just sitting around? There should definately be a hostile bunch. The ones that attack on sight. But not every monster should be that way. Sure, it's hard when you're running around and suddenly 6 monsters jump on you, but it'd be cool if there was a good amount of rather docile monsters that destroy when attacked.

 

[Cheesebob]

Random encounters which you can't see piss me off...

"Oh look there is a stretch of empty ground!"

*Player skips over it*

*10 monsters spawn*

"CURSE YOU INVISIBLE MONSTERS"

*Player turns off JRPG*

 

[Arachon]

Ever played Pokemon? Well that's a game with random encounters. You walk in the grass the screen goes black and presto! A pidgey!

And as mentioned, Fallout 1 & 2 (and most likely would 3 too, if it weren't for Bethesda), had random encouters, you'd travel on the overworld map, only to get your red dotted line interrupted, and stumbling on say a band of raiders, a crashed UFO or just a dead body...

 

[Laughing Man]

They aren't compulsory. your just not playing enough variety.

The .Hack// Series
Kingdom Hearts
FFXII

All of these had open world combat.

and all the Final Fantasy games (from 7 onwards at least) that did have random encounters also included special items that when attached either reduced or removed the random encounters.

 

[Doctor Panda]

Random encounters are the spice of life. If games didn't sue them JRPGS wouldn't be as challenging.

I think biggest problem with them is that in many games - the final fantasy games are a particularly good example but there are many others (atelier iris, enchanted arms off the top of my head) - in many games they *aren't* a challenge. Monsters are very unlikely to cause your death, but may slowly cause attrition of HP if you're too cheap to use potions. In most, you hold down the 'attack' button or occasionally the 'magic' button until they're gone. Then you continue. If you start getting too hurt, you walk back a bit, rest up, and walk forward again. There isn't actually any mental input required by the player - i'm fine with turn based if you actually need to be *paying attention* but when i'm very tired I've litterally played with my eyes closed many times and there is *no problem*.

They are, as suggested above, silly speed bumps which simply act as markers where players get a predictable amount of XP and gold. If players roll a slightly lower amount of encounters and don't get enough of these, they walk around in circles for a while.

The battle system should *add* to the game, it should be fun, challenging or interesting - not be a mindless chore used to lengthen the time taken to turn the pages in an interactive story. I know that JRPGs concentrate on story and character development first, and as a fan of them i *get* that. But there's no reason we can't have *both* and I love it when we do.

 

[Rankao]

The problem with JRPGs is they haven't really introduced anything into the formula thats ground breaking. That is why I don't play JRPG over Western RPGs. There are several different very unique play styles. For example KoToR and Witcher feel very different even though they are the same type of W-RPG. KoToR and Fallout are even more different.

Sure they might not always have turn battles anymore but I feel they haven't really tried to push the envelope. Then again JRPG are meant for the Japanese and they really don't want their developers to push the envelope like us jaded westerns.

 

[ffxfriek]

Most of the random encounters for an area have very little variation, so you're usually able to beat them quickly with the same sequence of selections. If you're taking notice of them instead of powering through and forgetting, you're doing something wrong.

One thing I never got with JRPGs in general was the status ailment thing. Specifically, player use of them. Random encounters are usually over faster if you just cause damage and bosses are immune to the things. Even when an enemy uses one, they rarely turn the tide or even slow the slaughter.

I think the only game that I ever used them in was Penny Arcade: Otrspod episode 1, against the final boss, so I could get the killed boss without healing items and beat game without dying achievements in one hit.

FF3, and pokemon...

 

[Rankao]

The problem with JRPGs is they haven't really introduced anything into the formula thats ground breaking. That is why I don't play JRPG over Western RPGs. There are several different very unique play styles. For example KoToR and Witcher feel very different even though they are the same type of W-RPG. KoToR and Fallout are even more different.

Sure they might not always have turn battles anymore but I feel they haven't really tried to push the envelope. Then again JRPG are meant for the Japanese and they really don't want their developers to push the envelope like us jaded westerns.

.hack//G.U wants to talk to you, when peoples experiance with JRPG's extends PAST one or two companies we can start talking.

Also Tales Of called. cause it's been pushing it's combat system to new levels for YEARS since it's introduction on the SNES.

I'll take a look into the .hack//G.U but Tales Of doesn't really feel evolutionly for me sorry

 

[Signa]

yeah, the going back to old places and being accosted by something that has no worth for you killing was very irritating. I always thought if you were going to have a random battle system then the enemies could level up along with you. that way it would get rid of the annoyance of pointless easy interruptions, and it could make re-visiting old areas more worth while.
But and in answer to the question, me thinks they are mainly compulsory as to make sure you level up your characters and have access to money/items/whatever it is you need to progress through the game.

The only thing worse than random encounters is auto-leveling monsters. Oblivion and Too Human effortlessly proved this.

No seriously, if they auto-level with you, then you NEVER really get stronger for leveling up. It just kills the point of RPGs.