Why are random battles compulsory?

[Neosage]

Does pokemon count as a JRPG?

 

[Aardvark]

There's always the flee option, too.

 

[Neosage]

Does pokemon count as a JRPG?

Yes, Mother Fucking Zubats.

Don't get me started on the confuse raying, leech lifeing bastards!

 

[Doctor Panda]

You know, previously I used to say "i hate it but i really don't know what else to do" but you know, i totally do now. You can:

a) do like some western RPGs where you have a sandboxy world that you can find *something* appropriate to your experience level with only a small number of areas with random encounters (eg, fallout)
b) set the encounter rate at low, make the enemies hard and allow quests to provide most of the experience
c) have a wandering monster thing like in FFXII, only you could expect to only *just* be able to kill monsters in areas which you've gotten up to, and set experience gains to high so you quickly change in ability in a new area. This opens up much more opportunity for tactical and challenging game play, and wandering around areas that you've completed doesn't become a chore because you can ignore/massacre the monsters.

at the very, very least if you're going to have random battles, have the enemies 'run away' if you're too high a level for them to provide a meaningful challenge, with the option of 'giving chase' - with MINIMAL interruption of exploring.

nothing annoys me more than going into a random battle and spending more time in the loading and winning screen than the battle itself - which happens a LOT in certain RPGs.

 

[Sewblon]

The started out as a means to lengthen gameplay and became outdated by the 21st century.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.

 

[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.