Aeana said:
As for an example of a game where random battles are better, I would point at Shin Megami Tensei 3. The atmosphere of the areas in that game would be completely shattered if there were enemies bouncing around all over the place. The crushing feeling of solitude would be completely lost.
deocyplatypus said:
Look at Etrian Odyssey or SMT: Nocturne. They use random encounters to create tension during dungeon exploration, and they force the player to strategize around their generally weaker ability to control the number (and kind) of enemies they'll face.
I haven't played
Nocturne or
Etrian Odyssey, but if they're anything like
Strange Journey (which I have played) - the battles aren't really RANDOM. Sure, the enemies don't appear on the field map, but you do know ahead of time a battle is approaching, and you're not endlessly bombarded with them every time you attempt to walk around the room. That's the important part. Also, movement and environment in
SMT and
EO is very calculated, methodical and abstract, more in keeping with pen-and-paper RPGs, and as such handling encounters in that manner suits them better than in a game with a more conventional (in video game terms) style of visual and spatial representation, e.g. your average
Final Fantasy.
Ra1den said:
I'm especially surprised at your inclusion of FF13, as that flowed just like any ATB game.
I admit, you're right: the battles in
FF13 do flow very well and I was somewhat hesitant to include it. The question, I guess, is this: does the battle system work BETTER than ATB? Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't think I've played enough of
FF13 to give a concrete answer. Similarly, I haven't played a whole lot of
FF12 (and I haven't played it recently), but from what I remember the combat was slow and boring as shit. Running around in a real-time field, waiting for a gauge to fill up so I can press X to swing my sword again, is NOT FUN. That's pretty much the worst way to attempt to merge ATB with a real-time battle system. Though, maybe it really picks up later in the game, I don't know. I only played it for a few hours. I will concede, though, that
Final Fantasy's various attempts at real-time battle systems have, generally, been better than the action-RPG norm.