Chris, I remember Skies for the Dreamcast: that sick little monkey's random encounter rate made old-school fogies like FF 4 blush like a nun in a porn-movie set. But Skies for the 'Cube made some welcome adjustments to the game--namely toning down the battle frequency--although, for my money, the best thing the 'Cube version does is pump up the volume to those nifty tunes: for a game made for a console with such loud-ass sound like the Dreamcast, Skies' music sounded like it was coming from the bottom of Grandma's pool, j0.

But, anyhoo.... I think the only way to make random battles suck less is to MAKE BATTLES FUN. I can think of at least three games where I would actually run around in situ, looking for monster ass to thrash, and not just to level up, but because BATTLES WERE AWESOME. Those three games would be:

1.) Xenogears - Because its ****ing cool "When Mazinger Met Jet Li" combat system was bliss. The extra 5 to 10 hours of fighting in the final dungeon just to buy the heinously overpriced mech upgrades was bogus, but still, in all fairness, 95% of that game's overall total ass-kicking was great.

2.) Tales of Destiny II - Because the Linear Motion battle system might just be the best battle system in any RPG. Period. Feel free to include its predecessor (ToD I) if you will, even though ToD II's refinements to the LM battle system make it better.

3.) Grandia II - Its own battle system is almost as good as ToD's. By now, most everybody's played it, so I don't need to explain this game's greatness to anyone.

So there. Less mindless button-krunching (confirm, confirm, confirm), less menu-driven combat, more hands-on grooviness with actual tactical depth.

Of course, there's always the option that my RPG-loving soul might never come to fully embrace... but which it has been known to cry out for... of getting rid of random battles altogether... making your enemies visible onscreen... but, hey, as long as I'm wishing here, I might as well ask Santa to bring me an oiled nude Beyoncé for Christmas.

-The Absu-

P.S. If the "u" is silent in Suikoden because there is no hiragana for "si", only "shi", why didn't Konami name it Shikoden? Near as I can tell, the vocals are silent when they're at the end of the word (again, because of some inheent written vocabulary malfunctions), which is clearly not the case here. Color me confused.

Blam! The screen fades, and monsters jump out from nowhere. I think a lot of people are going to say they prefer the Chrono Trigger/Cross system of seeing the enemy before the battle begins, but some RPGs are better off with random battles. I know FFX's random-battle-every-5-steps gets annoying, but if you're TRYING to level up, it's actually useful. Some games make you walk for like 30 seconds before the next battle. I think one of the best random battle systems is found in the Pokemon games: if you want to battle, walk in the tall grass. If you don't, walk in the short grass.

Then again, the CT/CC system could use some improvements. Sure, it allows you to evade monsters, but if I sneak up behind a monster, shouldn't I get a preemptive strike or something? Honorable mention goes to Xenosaga, which lets you blow up stuff on the screen to cause status changes to nearby enemies before you fight them.

-omnispace

Random battles... bah... so freakin' outdated it's not even funny. I don't know how many times I've put a game away just because I didn't want to go through a dungeon because the next two hours would be nothing but repetitive fights (early FF games, Skies of Arcadia on the world map). It drains all the fun out of the game faster then a liposuction machine hooked up to a turbine.

However, I don't mind random battles so much when you can actually move around a bit w/o getting in before getting in yet another battle. Suikoden 3 wasn't too bad on this, when going across a map for the 2nd, 3rd, 900th time you could actually make it across 2 fields w/o getting in more then 2 fights, which was nice. However I still think Chrono Trigger still did things perfectly, though. There was just something so right about getting in a fight with no transition, and you could take your time before worrying about heading off into the next battle. Although I gotta give props to Breath of Fire 3 for not having any transition from wandering around and going into battle.

And on a sidenote, that Tonny dude from Electric Playground and Judegment Day (on G4TechTV) should not be allowed to review games at all. He has no idea how to review a game. I mean hell, he gave MGS: Twin Snakes a low review for bad voice acting and the Mario and Yoshi doll cameos. Bad voice acting? Wtf? That is by far some of the best voice acting ever on any medium. That and he seems to hate games that are actually innovative and orginal, and praise those that appeal the mainstream audience (9.5 for the Suffering? 8.something for Roadkill?).

- xddga

Dear Mr. Gesualdi (how's that for official!) –

I was reading through your column, as I usually do while I'm at lunch, and I came across the topic of RANDOM BATTLES. I felt the need to reply, because I DO remember Skies of Arcadia for the DC!

Random battles serve the purpose of leveling up your characters. By having random battles, you are sort of "forced" into doing this leveling without realizing it most of the time. I am a very very lazy gamer. I play the games for the STORIES, so naturally I dislike random battles, as I'm sure many people do. However, I'd rather have them be random as I walk around, than have me go and search them out (i.e. - Lunar Series).

In series such as Lunar, you see the enemies walking around the screen as little icons of themselves, or whatnot. This gives you the choice of "running away" from these little icons that give chase to you when you get near. By having this choice...what are you more apt to do? Run. This causes you to lack in levels once you get to the end of the dungeon, despite all the work you may have done to get through the dungeon. And then the boss wipes your sorry face all over the floor.

To keep from rambling anymore - I'd rather have the battles be random and forced on me, than have little icons walking around that I can flee from cause I'm lazy.

The exception to this rule is when the number of random battles is exceedingly high. Like in Skies of Arcadia for the DC (step-step-randombattle-step-step-randombattle). Thankfully they sort of fixed this in the Gamecube version (of which I have played both, and finished - and I have to say they were great despite the battle thing).

Sincerely,

Karmada,
who's one of the few Gilder fans out there

random battles are stupid and evil. blah blah blah.

-Zeth

Chris,

There’s an optional boss in FFX that randomly drops an item with the ‘no encounters’ ability. By randomly, I of course mean ‘almost never’. I must have fought that stupid thing a good 40 times.

So, in order to avoid repetitive battles, I took part in a series of repetitive battles. I ****ing hate irony.

Conor Edmiston

If you're REALLY TRULY sorry, you'll go out to buy sigarettes, light one and put it out on your left forearm! No I didn't mean that... As long as you keep doing the column and maybe pass your tests everyone'll be happy..

Anyway. You can just get a piece of equipment with No Encounters on it... You can even make it yourselve... However FFX isn't reallyvery fun to finish, so why
bother...

Why do we put up with random encounters, you ask? Because they have been there since back in the day and we never bitched about them before, that's why!

El Quinto - I've read that second HarryPotter book yesterday... and I didn't even find it terible...THE SHAME!!!!

I guess the question of whether a random battle is necessary or not depends on what your status is in the game. I think the random battles are necessary only at the beginning of RPGs, when you need to level up and whatnot. After you get to a certain level of skill in the game, they just get annoying and pointless.

Speaking of unecessary random battles, I've played Pokémon several times and damnit, and while the collecting of really cool new Pokémon is great, it still dosen't always make up for the fact that you have to run into a million of the same lame-o-lightning common pokémon that no one in their right mind would ever use. Example, In Pokemon Ruby, there's a cool fish that is so rare that it is only found in 6 squares out of 400 squares on an ocean map. So if you want to get it, you'll end up having to go throguh an endless stream of unnecessary battles that no one with even a moiety of their marbles would ever EVER want to go through. There's my battle sob story.

-The Happy Clown (THERE! is THIS on-topic enough for you?)

Chris,

first off--Suikoden. The 'sui' is in fact pronounced just like it looks-- soo-eee. However, when said fast, it's run together and is comes out sorta like 'swee.' The name Sui-ko-den is made up of three kanji, and the first means 'water.' Not sure what the second one even looks like, but the third, 'den,' means 'legend' or 'story' or some such. It's the same 'den' as in 'gaiden' or "Zelda no densetsu." Not to sound like a pompous ass about my Japanese like that guy whom you posted the link to a couple of weeks ago, but I just thought I'd clear the air. Now, I've never played a Suikoden... what do they have to do with water, I wonder?

“Hand over Metal Gear Solid 3 or die” would be something like "Metal Gear Solid 3 kure! Saa mo nai to kono katana de korosuzo!!!" I added "or I'll kill you with this katana" just to fit the recent column motif. Good luck intimidating Kojima, though... you might want to reconsider your assault on Shadow Moses Konami Headquarters before it's too late. Though as long as you stay out of his 'cone,' you might do alright.

Funny you mention Skies of Arcadia. My friend is playing that right now and he says it's the r0x0rs except for all the damn random battles. Honestly, after gaming FFXI for hundreds of hours now, I don't think I could ever go back to random battles again. I really hope against hope that Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga don't have them. Those games look rad.

Random battles were fine for back in the day, but you'd think that by now they could come up with something better. The system used in the Chrono games and Xenosaga is ok, but sometimes it's so tough to avoid the enemies that it ends up feeling like random battles all over again. This is why I'm excited for FFXII. The way Vagrant Story had it (and the way FFXI has it now, though they aren't the same), I really like. I want a sequel to Vagrant Story, that was a wicked game.

In conclusion,

What a horrible night
for a curse.

-The Ramblin' Gamblin' Man