How to Fix Random Encounters

Random encounters used to be king in JRPGs. For years a player could hardly walk on a world map or in a dungeon before being whisked away to a battle area to fight a horde of monsters. Then the fight would end and the player would find themselves transported back to the world map or the dungeon as if nothing had even happened, and continue on their journey. However, it seems like fewer and fewer JRPGs are using this gameplay conceit anymore, and those that do are making very few improvements on the formula. Encounter rates have certainly dropped and some games even include ways to avoid random encounters all together. However, I think there are a few tweaks to random encounter systems that can and should be made standard in JRPGs. I think these tweaks will reduce the frustration random encounter systems cause and reduce the forced repetition of combat.

1. Allow the player to turn random encounters off- I cannot count how many random encounters I have run into in JRPGs which pose no challenge and offer no real reward. At a certain point in almost every level of almost every JRPG, the player can become overpowered for that level if they explore or back track. This is doubly true if the player actively grinds out some levels. Once the player becomes over-leveled, random encounters become nothing more than an impediment towards story and character progress. Instead of continuing to force players to slog through random battles, games should present the player with the option to turn random battles off at a certain point. I feel this option should be made available on a dungeon to dungeon and region to region basis; thus, when a player reaches a level that is believed by the developer to be adequate to beat the boss of that dungeon, the player can turn off random encounters and either explore freely or go straight to the boss. Now, different games could find other ways to handle this, but to prevent players from unnecessarily burning out on combat JRPGs should allow players some way to turn off random battles. I do not consider repels in Pokemon or the Enc-None ability in Final Fantasy VIII to be satisfactory; avoiding fights should not cost in game currency and it should not be a power that has to be equipped.

2. Always allow players to escape from battle- There is nothing more frustrating than being caught in an un-winnable fight, especially when the fights occur randomly. Do not force the player to make a run attempt that can fail or hold down the run button until he/she escapes to escape from battle. There is nothing worse than when you are trying to run, you know the fight is going to turn bad, and the game either does not let you run or forces you to wait until the enemy attacks to run. The player made the right choice when he/she decided to run, do not create a system where the player can still die despite their correct choice.

3. There should be no random enemies with one-hit-kills that can be used immediately- It is never ever fun to run into a new enemy only to have them immediately wipe your party with a level ? death spell or some other unfair junk like that. It is one thing to make the player play cautiously, but it is another to make players die to learn an enemy has a one-hit-kill move. Games like Dark Souls can get away with this because it saves constantly and the enemies are anything but random, but in games with random encounters these types of enemies are few and far between and chances are you may never encounter a one-hit-kill enemy more than once. If that is the case, then the knowledge gained by being wiped out is essentially useless, rather than being the invaluable resource it is in Dark Souls. I do, however, think enemies that give some indication that they can one hit your party are fair game; for example, tonberries in the Final Fantasy series. Tonberries give ample warning of their chef’s knife attack as they slowly amble towards your party; their one-hit-kill move makes them more interesting and unique enemies rather than feeling like something cheap.

These small changes are all based upon one philosophy: respect the player’s time. If you have a strong story and something to say, (story has long been one of the calling cards of JRPGs) do not force the player to either spend needless time in repetitive fights or force them to replay sections after being wiped. Some people would claim that using a random encounter system breeds repetition and monotony, but I believe strongly that it need not. The benefits of a random encounter system can be maintained without bogging the game down with repetitive combat or cheap enemies.