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Random Battles
What are your guys opinions on random battles?
I honestly think that random battles are the most archaic video game mechanic. The only purpose they serve is to disrupt the flow of the game and make the player extremely aggravated. The only reason that random battles were created was because the systems couldn't handle multiple enemies. I am glad that newer RPGs such as Oblivion, Final Fantasy XII, and Blue Dragon are moving away from that era of RPGs.
I have been playing Final Fantasy VI: Advance recently. I arrived at the Phoenix Cave and I just had to give up on the game because doing stupid puzzles + random battles = extreme aggravation.
I honestly think that random battles are the most archaic video game mechanic. The only purpose they serve is to disrupt the flow of the game and make the player extremely aggravated. The only reason that random battles were created was because the systems couldn't handle multiple enemies. I am glad that newer RPGs such as Oblivion, Final Fantasy XII, and Blue Dragon are moving away from that era of RPGs.
I have been playing Final Fantasy VI: Advance recently. I arrived at the Phoenix Cave and I just had to give up on the game because doing stupid puzzles + random battles = extreme aggravation.
Comments
Earthbound/Mother is one. In Earthbound, you automatically win combat if you are significantly more powerful than the monster. Also, the combat is actually entertaining rather than painful. More RPGs need to take a few hints from Earthbound.
Chrono Trigger is another one. In Chrono Trigger the combat is pretty interesting because of combo attacks and such. Also, it's nice that it takes place on the same screen as the rest of the game. You don't go to the special combat screen or anything. The menus appear the combat begins on the same screen where you walk around. This makes the encounters feel less like an obstacle. The best thing about Chrono Trigger is that the encounters are not really random. You see the guys on the screen, and you can usually avoid them. This is great because the encounters rarely become annoying pointless obstacles on the way to your real goal.
I want to say Golden Sun is a game that gets it right, but it's not. The random combat in Golden sun is pretty much just like every other RPG. However, the percentage of the game taken up by random encounters is lower than most. Golden Sun is good because most of the game is puzzle solving. The reason the random encounters are tolerable is because there aren't so many of them, they don't happen on screens with puzzles, and they are usually easy and quick. Golden Sun has bad random encounters, but they are toned down so much that you hardly notice them.
Of course, the last one is Pokemon. Pokemon does so many things right with random encounters that it makes them a pleasure. First off, you can completely avoid random encounters when you don't want them. If you don't want to fight, just stay on the road. Don't walk in the tall grass where the wild Pokemon are living, and you won't fight them (Zelda 2). Also, don't walk in front of any trainers you haven't already beaten. Sometimes you have to walk through tall grass or past trainers to reach a new area. These encounters are not actually random because you know they are coming, and you prepare for them. You can also choose to do them at your leisure as opposed to all the time. Also, because most of the time you have random encounters you are actively trying to catch or train Pokemon, the random encounter usually feels like opening a fortune cookie. What Pokemon will come out this time? In Pokemon, when random encounters happen, they themselves are your goal, rather than pointless obstacles on the way to something you actually care about. Another thing, Pokemon doesn't punish you for running. No need to waste resources or time on Pokemon you don't care about. Just ignore them and move on. Lastly, in Pokemon, you eventually gain the ability to fly. At this point in the game you can go almost everywhere without having to deal with a single encounter you didn't ask for.
Random encounters are a game mechanic that is mostly used to increase time, difficulty, and frustration factors in Japanese style RPGs. When the mechanic is used in this way, it serves only to suck the fun out of the game for a certain group of people, myself included. That doesn't mean that the mechanic itself is inherently un-fun. It is just rare that you see it implemented properly.
There's an art and science to making a game fun; if it was as simple as "(noun) should be (adjective), (noun) shouldn't exist, (noun) should exist" then I'm sure every game would be awesome. I hypothesize that there is a fairly simple, if subjective criterion for engaging gameplay: any battles in an RPG ought to have a purpose.
Of course, the point of battles is to level and gain XP. In any Final Fantasy game since 2, you're essentially playing the game to watch the plot. This tendency has increased over time; FF1 was brand new and quite interesting. I was still interested in the gameplay until about FFX. Eventually it gets old. I mean, I doubt Mario 12 would be awesome. New SMB is cool because it's been so long since that kind of gameplay was in a new game. FF hasn't taken a break...ever. And ever since FF7's "cinematic" glory, they've stuck to the formula of ultra-plot-heavy anime with a tired gameplay filler.
And FFXII is no exception; I've played every single FF game (including 11), and I've been working on 12 since I bought it last October. I can't do it. It's like playing an MMO, but one that has an end, and you're the only player in the game world. The plot started out very, very cool, and then it degenerates into the same DBZ-style crap-anime cutscenes they've been regurgitating since the FMV era began. It may well be the first FF game ever that I did not finish. (3 doesnt' count; my ROM was irreparably broken and not in English).
As for Oblivion, well; if I had an *additional* GeForce 7900, and had never played Morrowind, I would think it was an awesome game. As it is, it's a sad rip-off of Morrowind without even a shadow of the plot or depth. They sacrificed everything to the graphics gods, and in the end, they got one of the poorest-performing graphics engines in modern PC gaming. They should have just licensed the Source engine; it looks and performs much better. I've never beaten it, but of those who have, the mantra is the same: don't level up. If you do, the 33rd-level bandits wearing enchanted glass armor will fucking kill you. Beat the game by taking it one crappy low-level imp at a time. I guess random battles really are pointless. Too bad there's so many of them in Oblivion.
But random battles aren't all bad. There just needs to be a point. World of Warcraft is full of tens of thousands of "random" battles, whose entire raison d'etre is to give you levels. However, leveling up is much more meaningful. Instead of just progressing a plot that ought to just have been a separate anime, you're building a permanent character in a permanent world who is unique to you. If you have not seriously played a game like this, you can't say it's meaningless leveling, because you have no idea what you're talking about. Having 8 million other players adds legitimacy to the game that single-player games just don't have. This is for the same reason that playing a shooter online with 31 real people is better than playing with 31 really good bots.
MMO's are all about purpose. You feel like your accomplishing something. It's an idealized form of work, wherein you set your hours, you always receive due reward for your efforts, and advancement is both assured and permanent. Why do you think MMO's are so popular in America and east Asia? We like work. We're an industrious people. Humans in general have the capacity to take pride in what they do, even if they know it doesn't matter. Millions of people have jobs that don't matter, so why not have one that doesn't matter AND is fun?
All that purpose vests the random fights with far more meaning, and makes them more fun. And if they aren't, no big deal. It's the ultimate non-linear world. You could explore the world for days on end without seeing it all. If you're bored of killing monsters, you can do some crafting, or trading, or maybe just chat with guildmates. And of course, there's PvP, for a completely different and equally rewarding experience. Now that's true randomness. Nothing randomizes a fight like having 79 other people calling the shots.
I've been playing FF games since 1 came out. It resonated with my love of fantasy and strategic gaming. Then, I discovered D&D, and later, World of Warcraft. I just can't sit through the random fights anymore, only to be rewarded with cutscenes which, when stitched together, would make the kind of lame-ass anime only Anime Pulse would like (and then only if it had more fan service, though I'm sure FFX-2 would count).
I really don't want to see WoW kill the RPG genre. I loved Morrowind, Baldur's Gate II (complete with random battles!), all the Chrono games, and the Mana games that weren't on crack (aka Legend of Mana). Despite the total failure of all other MMO's, I think those, too, have their place, and are only just discovering what the genre can do. WoW will die when it is overcome by fuckwads, like every other MMO. The lessons learned by its competition will eventually bear fruit, and a worthy successor may be found. Or, it'll just be Galaxy of Starcraft. Either way, a change would be nice.
I've quit multiple times, but apart from pen-and-paper D&D, there hasn't been an RPG since WoW came out that could hold my attention for more than a week. They're too focused on graphics, half-baked plots, and a 3d adventure model that hasn't been as fun as classic 2d RPG's since it was invented.
Maybe the real lesson to be learned from Blizzard is this: graphics should be good enough to get the message across. Spend more money on art direction than on graphics. Spend much more money on fleshing out the world, and creating engaging gameplay that can last for years. Stick to your principles; don't kowtow to the whining 1% of your fans, they don't know what they're talking about. If you're going to build on your reputation, then build on it...don't just rest on it like a bed of laurels. Polish each part of the game before moving onto the next; that way you can't finish it before it's really, really done. Online games prevent piracy. Recurring income wins over one-time income. Oh yeah, and PC's are better than consoles. =Þ
Morrowind was built for the PC, then ported to Xbox. (No complaints from the Xbox people!)
Oblivion was built for the Xbox, then ported to PC.
You can see it in the interface. It's appallingly awful in Oblivion, where it was excellent in Morrowind. Moving the ass-slow cursor (with no option to change sensitivity) around is just painful. There are, what...20 tabs in the menu? How many were there in Morrowind? Oh, none, because everything fit on one page.
The graphics are so-so. The wavy grass, ignorant of prevailing winds and the passage of my feet, may yet be impressive...if it didn't terminate like 50 feet away from me. There's nothing impressive about seeing an invisible wall of grass-invisibility, outside of which the ground is a crappy, low-resolution texture reminiscent of 90's flight simulators.
The lighting is abysmal. Not all engines can be Doom 3 or Source, but wouldn't it be nice if the dungeons had lighting levels other than "dark blue-black"? Some dynamic lighting would have made the game amazing.
The "revolutionary AI" is laughable. People have daily schedules? How convenient. So you're saying shopkeepers might actually have a 20-minute window somewhere in the day where they aren't at home? Sure, if you can get past their ultra-high-tech lock (or just pick the key from their pocket), you can rob them blind. Oh, wait...the things they sell aren't IN their house. They only have generic, shitty treasure generated from a random list based on your level. That 40,000 gp sword they sell? It's stored in the ether. But then again, the idea of having everything for sale in a shop actually BE in the shop somewhere? That's ridiculous. There's only one game that did that...oh wait...it was Morrowind.
Not to mention that, should you actually get caught stealing something, any passersby will immediately contact the local law enforcement telepathically, who will then teleport to just outside the building.
Final Fantasy "II" (aka 4) was dumbed-down for the U.S. They took out some items and a couple special abilities, made some things easier to kill, etc. That's dumbing down.
Morrowind was taken outside and beaten, then repeatedly raped. They chained it in a basement and forced it to watch 50's public service films 24/7 for a year, all while raping it anally and regularly applying beatings and chinese water torture. In the end, the result was Oblivion. A fitting title.
This thread needed a short post.
They tend to annoy me less when the battles at least do something to make them interesting. In the Final Fantasy games, it's just point, click, and watch the animations, but some games have more depth than that. One example that I liked was The Legend of Dragoon back in the PSX days. When you attack, a target-like object appears on screen that tells you to press the button at the right time, and with correct timing, you do more damage and continue attacking. You can continuously get longer/better attacks and there is always room to improve your timing. The encounter rate vs. the growth rate in the game bugged me as usual, but the battles at least felt like you needed to give more effort than just selecting commands until the enemies go away.