R P G A M E R . C O M   -   E D I T O R I A L S

Plan it Out!

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Mike "JuMeSyn" Moehnke
FAN EDITORIALIST

It's time to phase random battles out. They served a valuable purpose in prior years of freeing up memory to be used in other ways, but nowadays they simply allow developers to be lazy. Final Fantasy I-X, Dragon Quest, Skies of Arcadia, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Phantasy Stars I-IV, and less consistently praised titles such as Tales of Phantasia, Shining the Holy Ark, Albert Odyssey, Golden Sun 1 & 2, etc. have all used the random battle - but wouldn't they have been even better with some other system of fight instigation? Let's move on to something, anything, else!

Too brusque, was that declaration? After all, random battles are a part of RPG history that serve to intimidate newbies and forever differentiate the genre from anything else. But many other parts of RPG history have been excised over the years without undue distress. Opaque statistics and item menus come to mind here, with numerous other examples varying according to individual taste.

So random battles allow for rare enemies to oh-so-seldom show up and fill out a bestiary? Have certain enemies be located in difficult-to-access places that require extra effort to reach. Random battles allow super-hard enemies to pop up occasionally, playing havoc with the player's confidence? These enemies can be disguised as something else in groups of other onscreen enemies to pose hidden threats. Random battles allow for potentially infinite fodder to become stronger? I have yet to encounter a game with set encounters that did NOT regenerate enemies when the player left the area, and even if enemies did not regenerate extra areas with super-strong and valuable opponents can be constructed.

I cannot think of an instance in which random battles would be preferable to some other encounter system. Having a set number of enemies in an area allows for a great deal more satisfaction in navigating the environment by avoiding or confronting enemies, rather than simply being attacked regardless of actions taken. Sure, surviving a series of random encounters can be challenging, but there are other, better ways of ensuring a challenge from an RPG. Stop the insanity! Start investing that extra programming time into something that is NOT random!